Wantan mee with a roast platter - Pusat Pengkalan Enam Enam

KL style wantan mee and Ipoh style wantan mee are very closely related .

Whereas Penang wantan mee is completely different from these 2 styles . I prefer the former .

You also should not compare Hong Kong or San Francisco style wantan mee to this . In both megacities , the springy texture of the noodle and taste of the sauces vastly differ from what is found in Ipoh . However , if you love London chinatown style wantan mee , please continue eating it in London and don't try this . I'm serious . 

And it was on a quest for Ipoh roasted meats ( thanks to Hawker Chan hype ) that I found this stall near Station 18 .

We had earlier on purchased a big , beautiful platter in a hawker centre which was so shocking ( for 17 ringgit only , when it looked like it was worth 48 ringgit ! ) I forgot to snap a pic , so what you see here is actually the second plate after we demolished the first plate of wantan mee ( this costs less than 6 ringgit if I am not mistaken ), plus a platter of 4 .... roast pork , roast duck , roast chicken , char siew ( sadly also no picture as proof but it was so well presented , that I almost fainted from shock  ) . 

Kafe Fei Bo Snow Beer - Curry Chicken in Baked Bread

Nope . We're not here for the beer .

The Museum

The Museum has got to be one of the strangest , quirkiest restaurants I have ever been to in my life .

Located in Ipoh , you have got to come see this , when you find a chance to , cos if I use words to describe the place , I might rub some people off the wrong way but I'll try to keep it minimal and not too long winded anyway .

Wingzone - Nuclear Habanero is a c4 bomb !

While Wingzone has outlets from the USA , to Panama , Bahamas , Singapore , Russia , Saudi Arabia and  the Dominican Republic , they have no presence in Penang nor KL , thus if you want to try this , you'll have to either head on down to Kampar , Sri Manjung or Greentown .

Nasi Bamboo Sungai Klah - Elf Chicken , Bamboo Rice

Loyal readers of this blog of mine will know just what a huge fan of Malay cuisine I am .

And it was by chance that we discovered this place so far away from home .

While this is what the Nasi Bamboo or Bamboo Rice served here , looks like , you might think that it may just be hype and nothing much more than that . 

Scroll down and see for yourself .

Maiden quest for Sitiawan Kampung Koh Chilli Sauce

Ngo Kia Jong which stands for NKJ, is today's trademark acronym for the famous bottled sauce recipe which was originally started by Ngo Kie Swee in 1969 .

Sweet , sour , spicy and tangy , it has gotten most of us hooked till no siew mai or loh mai kai is complete without a small saucer of this sauce by the side .

Light House for Whiting at Matang

This fish is called Chia Hu in Penang but in this particular shop , the lady called it Chiam Hui or something to that effect .

Otherwise known as the Whiting , this is a surface fish which takes the bait easily . However , the body is filled with a lot of scales so even if we purchased it at the wetmarket , descaling will take up a backbreaking portion of preparation time before one merely needs to salt and place it in a wok of bubbling oil .

To make life easier , this is why we prefer to eat it outside .

Kum Loong - a very old gem

Never seen anyone order Kaya Kok by the bags full before . Actually , I've seen people buying a lot , in that Raub kopitiam but that Raub cha pou  , cannot even compare nor come close to this outlet .

One lady before me , wanted 40 pieces of this and that , which made me wonder if she was going to eat this by herself or resell them elsewhere . 

And that's how I needed no persuasion to get 2 of each for our table which turned out to be quite scrumptious with surprising underlayers of crust enveloping the thick kaya and so much minced meat encased in the siew pau , it felt like I was dining in a more generous and extravagant miners era , rather the year 2016 .

See the glossy texture and flakes . You tell me if this is going to be keng or not .

Kuala Sepetang Fish Village Restaurant - estuary shrimps and baby crabs

Seeing how the sun was blazing , and this outlet was air conditioned , we asked around if the food in this particular restaurant was good . 

When two eyebrows shoot upwards in unison , with a nod of the head , 

it goes without saying that , what they whip up here must indeed be delicious .

Kuala Sepetang - 5 things you should buy or do in the Chinese fishing village

Half of the hoardes of local tourists that converge on this little village are a slowly dying breed . Ethnic Chinese who speak English every day at home and even dream in English . Such as muah .

But to hear them yelling at top volume to each other from between tables to across roads ( and these are just small roads mind you ) was quite a shock to the system since most of the people I see in Penang every day , converse mostly in Malaysian Mandarin nowadays . 

The other shocking part was discovering that my Cantonese, is practically useless here as the townfolk converse in Hokkien almost exclusively . Either they simply cannot understand Cantonese or have no cable network subscription at home . Beats me but if you insist on trying , you might have to contend with puzzled frowns .

Some people may equate the dialect spoken here to Penang Hokkien , but the true blue Penang kia , begs to differ as the sing song intonation is just not there . Though not as " chor lor " as Klang Hokkien , he insists the Hokkien here is not Penang Hokkien . 

End of discussion .

Anyway , the jetty where the tour boats land , is rather rickety and the town road is not so accommodating , thus I just cannot imagine how this place can possibly take more tourists in , later in the evening when the Firefly spotting tours begin .

Bukit Gantang - braving hauntings for a taste of durian

The trip here wasn't pre planned.

Took the old road through Bukit Gantang . So don't mix that up with the R&R on the North South highway.

The drive itself was very pleasant, very cool, with lovely kampung houses throughout, bringing me back to my early childhood days.Then, the first of the durian stalls started to pop up. As I was already stuffed to the brim, had no intention whatsoever to stop.

After the umpteenth stall , I finally spotted one of my own kind. To tell you the truth, when we see other Chinese people stopping to buy something, we also want to go see what's so good about whatever it was he was buying. 

Read : busybody

Reason :our tastebuds are pretty similar, preferences not far from each other and the general mindset is " it must be good "

So, at the next stall, manned by 2 women , I was determined to take a bite.

Her face fell, when I told her I only wanted one. I mean, people buy by the baskets and here, I'm getting just one.

" Mau yang pahit ke ? " ( you prefer the bitter tasting one ? like she knew our preference. I nodded.

Seriously....haven't had a durian as good as this in ages. These kampung species, it's the first break through the membrane that makes you remember for life.

Our conversation is as follows

(U) Aini Sajian Selera - Sg Perak R&R Northbound

It's not easy trying to find good food at the many R&R's these days . That's why I always make it a point to stop here whenever I'm passing by.

Although lots of customers pick this simple, cheap meal off the shelf .....

Flash flood at Gunung Semanggol R&R

At first, I thought there had been an accident

A police car passes by, while this man is striking a gangnam style pose.

No he didn't, he was just directing traffic.

Water pooling ?

PLUS personnel standing around for some reason or another.
Probably to prevent insistent drivers from bulldozing in.

Looks like the entrance to the r & r is blocked

Confirmed

How to get in ?

Bad luck if you desperately needed to use the toilet...

Hmmm.... wonder where the flood is coming from

With the school holidays round the corner and the rain showing no signs of letting up , hope PLUS solves this problem ASAP.

Stay foodless near Taiping NSE or else ...

I'm not sure if you remember this tragic, real life incident. A family had sent their daughter to the airport in KL, as she was going to study overseas. Their car stalled somewhere along the NSE northbound outside Ipoh.
They stayed put inside their car and were hit by an oncoming vehicle. The whole family perished.

Present day.
It was after midnight. As we were approaching the first entrance to Taiping, our car suddenly made a funny sound and to our utmost horror, gave up speed . Quick thinking hubby was able to avert any untoward accident. He safely steered it towards the side of the highway .
Bearing that tragic incident about the family above, in mind , I ordered everyone out .
As we stood outside waiting for help to arrive, we noticed across the road, another driver had just abandoned his car and was running into a palm oil estate. Not sure if he was a criminal who was pursued by cops or if he had been spooked, but he left his car door open and never returned the whole time we were standing there.
From where we were standing, the kids could hear a sort of light hiss every now and then. I didn't hear a thing neither did hubs. They were creeped out by that.
Help soon arrived in the form of the PLUS peronda who helped tow our vehicle to the toll plaza. Other than being a little shaken up, we soon found out that the timing belt had snapped. Caused considerable damage which luckily we were able to cover ( talk about great timing) with something I had just won .

Anyway, a few months after that , I read a letter to the editor in a local newspaper. The Indian lady related, that in the same area where our timing belt had unfortunately snapped, her small son suddenly became possessed and started talking in another being's voice.

What she related next,gave me the creeps.
She said that both she and her husband had driven into Taiping, in search of a temple to help rid their son of whatever was inside him.
The priest adviced her that the area she had just travelled was 'dirty' and the incident happened because she had carried some food containing meat in her car and 'those beings' had been attracted to it .
If you wanted to avoid trouble and you had no choice but to pass the area after 7pm , the rule was to ensure that you transport no cooked food in your car, he said to her.

Shit. So that's it. On the day our belt snapped, we had packed some food (yong tau foo) back from KL. Damn. That explains a lot of things.

From then onwards, we have never EVER tapaued any food back . Unless it was before 7pm. But I'm not one to take chances.
So no more foo chook, no more beef noodles,no peah,no mee, no porridge, no nothing.
Everything we want to eat, we consume on the spot either in Ipoh or in KL. No tapauing allowed. No tumpaing to buy things like bak kua either. Forget it.
My car stays meatless and foodless as far as possible, whenever we travel up north from KL .