Having just got back from the daunting first part of the Peninsula Malaysia Makan Trip, I need to go on another trip to Sitiawan for my aunt's house warming. Its a family thing and I do anticipate a lot of makan as well since my family loves eating.
We decided to use the coastal up north and along the way, we started our first makan stop at Kuala Selangor, as its already 2pm plus, we decided to do the more touristy Pasir Penampang and chosen to dine at Restaurant River View (N3 20.671 E101 15.243). 5 of us ordered claypot cat fish (salt-fresh water river), oyster omellette, fried sotong and some vegetables. Bill came to about RM60.00 which is not too bad. The first are not bad, fresh too but the rest are just normal.
Moving on to Sitiawan is where the real makan begins. After the usual rest and shower, all of us (2 tables, 4 cars) headed to Pantai Remis a well known fishing town for dinner. We went to my uncle's favourite place, Restaurant Ling Cheng Ji Seafood (N4 26.47 E100 37.35), just go to Pantai Remis town, after the police station on your right, look for 7-11 of your left, its the corner shop behind 7-11. Its air conditioned and is famous for good food. It is said that the best fish served here is a fish known as "sum lai" fish in Cantonese, meaning three mud fish. Its a rare fish and is not available all the time. They said this fish needs to be cooked without cleaning any internal parts of scales and steam for 1 hour plus before serving!
Anyway, no chance to try this exotic fish, but we had a list of powderful goodies waiting for us. First up are goose feets braised with a pork leg and to with some vegetables. The goose feets are soft and tender and the taste of the braised sauce is well absorbed in, kudos to the chef, wonder how long it takes to prepare this dish! Next up are stuffed sea cucumber, where the braised sea cucumber is stuffed with a mixture of fish, pork, water chestnuts, etc. The next dish is really something new to me, totally new I mean, flower crabs cooked with cucumbers! Cucumbers, something so tasteless but to my surprise, it is excellent with the crabs! The freshness of the crabs are brought out well in this dish, cucumbers are sliced into big pieces plus some chilies and are to be taken with the sauce. The crabs are just full of sweet freshness and because the flower crabs here are generally bigger in size, makes it very good to eat. A nice sea garoupa is steamed and served, really big in size and fresh too as Pantai Remis is a fishing town itself, most seafood are brought in live from sea in the morning. The rest are normal stuff, not worth mentioning.
We ended the night at Cannon Cafe in Sitiawan town (nice chicken wings and spicy anchovies) just opposite Hotel Flamingo, quite a decent place with big screen plasma showing live football matches and that's where my cousins corrupted me with a new drinking game simply known as up or down. Want to know what is that? Come drinking with me the next round and I will teach you :D.
Next morning, as usual my aunt will buy back the best nasi lemak around. This nasi lemak is brought from the coffee stalls in the market (just behind Manjung Parade N4 12.387 E100 41.899). Its similar to those I had in Pangkor and its wrapped in banana leaves, coconut milk rice with a piece of fish on top with curry gravy. Simply amazing and good at 80 cents per packet. As I had my nasi lemak, my cousin cautioned me to only take 1 as we are going out for breakfast after that! If you are there, try their coffee too, really rich and nice.
So, then we went out to Jing Kee (N4 12.647 E100 41.853) in town for some wantan mee where the stall owner will flip flop the noodles quite high up when cooking. The noodles itself is different and really soft and smooth. Oh ya... the wantan mee here, wantan are optional, they will actually ask if you just want noodles with bbq pork (char siew) or add wantan to it, funny. In the same shop, there is also a stall which sells porridge or rice, where you can choose the dishes or have roast duck, chicken and pork. My cousin ordered some duck, chicken and roast pork to go with the noodles, so much to eat, gosh!
After the 2nd breakfast (growing fat), we head to get some Cheong Cia shop (N4 12.938 E100 41.764) to pack some Gong Pian and some red wine for cooking. How to resist the nice and hot gong pian, so makan again, 1 piece that is. As we returned to my aunt house, my cousin dragged me to finish the balance of the nasi lemak, so another packet and my dad made me ate 1 papaya then my aunt made me try her special red bean soup!
I took a break from all this makan and took all the ladies out to buy sea produced at Ping Gi in Lumut before stopping for more shopping in Sitiawan. As we returned, they are screaming for lunch and out we go again. This time to Kg. Cina where we head to Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood (N4 10.775 E100 40.855). We ordered some sar chiu fish here, its similar to those I had at Matang during my Peninsula Makan Trip with roe in them. Then there is also the hot plate oysters with eggs, which is only good if the oyster are fresh. We also got a lala meehoon, big difference here is that the lala comes with the big thick shells and are twice or trice bigger than normal lala!
Then its back to more chores and chaffeuring for the rest of the day preparing for the house warming. Some of the highlight dishes that night includes my aunt's fish curry, which I had a chance to try sum as it is ready mid afternoon (ya, more food, guilty) with sting rays and other fishes plus vegetables. Fried mee tiau which are teo chew noodles which are great to go with curry. Also, my uncle went back to Ling Cheng Ji in Pantai Remis to get their famous braised (lou) duck, its really different from those in KL, the duck texture are still tender, not too soft and the sauce are thick and well absorbed in. Also good from the same place are their "chee tau pei" which are skins from the pig's head which are braised until its really soft and tasty. Also, we have a whole roast pig which are roasted just in time for the house warming, chopped and served there!
There are a lot more goodies to eat here in Sitiawan and surrounding area, but within the 2 days, I am already overwhelmed by food! So if you do go to Sitiawan or Pantai Remis, make sure you spend some time there to sample the local specialities! Will write more about this place when I go there again ;)
p/s: sorry didn't take much photos this time.
It was a good hash with tonnes of fun and flip flop going downhill at Sg Pening-Pening on a fine Saturday afternoon, but what was better is the good lunch that was waiting for us at Restoran Feng Ling at Taman Semarak Nilai.
The chicken ginseng soup was quite good, just nice for 6 persons with nice big chinese mushrooms on top of the chicken. As for the highly priced fish (RM96 for the fish alone, about 500-600g), we have it steamed, we really couldn't appreciate it, I think its better folks like us stick to normal cheaper fishes, hehehe... waste money only. The sea cucumber pot is really good, sea cucumber are really soft and full of flavour, great to go with rice.
In total, the damage was about RM285.00 inclusive of tea and rice, not too bad for an aircond full service Chinese restaurant, most likely can't eat for the same price in KL, give it a try, but forget about the sing pan fish! Oh ya, this place also serve buddha jump over the wall, but you have to order in advance ;).
