Food For Thoughts - Part One
There are times in our lives when we have to travel outstation. Most of us will know which hotel to stay in. When we were working we would stay at the most expensive hotels, but within our entitlement. But when we retire (or jobless) we will either choose to stay with someone you know (on very rare occasions, - ‘jarang jarang’ as P Ramlee said) or with a relative (sometimes - ‘kadang-kadang’ as P Ramlee said) or in a cheaper hotel within our means -if we are mean that is. Or if we travel with the wife/wives or children then we may chose a reasonably priced hotel where the wife/wives will not complain. Its easy to locate these hotels or even to book them as these hotels are always advertised in the Yellow Pages or even in some rubbishy circulars sent to our homes, or even in the newsprints. Or you can ask a friend, he/she will gladly (and sometimes proudly) tell you which are the reasonably priced hotels and in which town.
However we will always find it a problem to locate which are the reasonably price restaurants and in which town. And which of these restaurants serve the food that we like, tasty and in clean and hygienic surroundings/environment with friendly staff to serve you. If you have a combination or even a permutation of these then I am confident that you will be happy to pay even a higher price. Of course you can eat at the hotel where you are staying, but hotel food price are sometimes most unreasonably priced. And they may not even be to our taste. In some pricy hotels, Muslims are not even sure if the food is Halal or not, for example steam fish are normally cooked using Chinese wine as one of the ingredients. And in most towns, we have the so called Indian Restaurants. Good food but be careful, they could be yesterdays food. And when after having the food, check the price as most of the time they will say them in Urdu or some foreign language and says to you "Dua Puluh Ringgit" (RM 20.00). You are not even sure if that is the real or right price. Try asking them for detail on what you have eaten and a new price will be quoted. Now itemised the food that you have eaten and a new price will then be quoted. And in some places that I have been to, we have nothing else but Tom-Yam restaurants. These are also problematic, the food may not be to our taste, at least not to mine. I had this experience in Dungun about a year ago. And in real so called Thai Restaurants, we do not even know what we have eaten (they write them in Romanised Thai), and when we receive the bills we will have the feeling of 'pedas' (hot under the collar) to pay the bill.
I want to share with you my experience of some good restaurants (some are food stalls really but for the sake of this article I will call them restaurants) that I have been to in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. These restaurants are to my expectations, food, hygiene and service wise. You may have your own experience that you wish to share with us, not necessarily in the East Coast but anywhere else in the country; not outside so that we may restrict ourselves by choice only to Malaysia only.
If you travel from KL to Kuantan, you may stop for a break at the restaurants at the Genting Sempah, after the tunnel. Most of them serve good Malay (halal) food. They are controlled, so the price and hygiene is passable. They are mostly self service. And at the MacDonald you may break for a toilet run. Reasonably clean toilet it has. And of course the standard Malaysian MacDonald food.
You pass on until you reach the Temerloh Bridge. (Note that now that the Karak/Kuantan Highway is opened, most travellers will not pass this way anymore). Before the Temerloh Bridge, you will see on your right a row of stalls. Many people have asked me "How do I get to the stalls?". And if you park by the road side to reach those stalls, its a dangerous practice, you may get run over when you try to cross the road. To reach them, its quite a roundabout way. You turn left before those stalls, curve and turn right, another left and curve right again, under the Temerloh Bridge and right again at the traffic light. Once at the stalls there are plenty of parking space. Which is the best stall? All are identical, most of them serve authentic Pahang food - ikan ‘patin’ in ‘tempoyak’, fried river fish, ulam etc etc. For those who do not take river fish there are chicken, meat and ‘ikan kembong’. Try them and you will surely come again. Price? A bit steep but worth the effort. My favourite restaurant is Restaurant Abang, where Tengku Azlan (a politician of Pahang royal blood) even book a table there sometimes. But another favourite of mine is the stall at the end of Restaurant Abang row, facing the KL/Kuantan road. Good tasty food, hygienically acceptable and friendly service. You may serve yourself or have them serve you. Nice ‘sambal tempoyak’, ‘jeruk maman’, ‘ulam peraga’ they have.
Now don’t forget, Temerloh has a twin town about 10 km away, just off the Temerloh/Mentakab bypass road. Its the Mentakab town. A small not so well kept town. But if you were to explore the town and reach the Malay restaurants behind The Store Supermarket you will find very good Malay restaurants serving very good Malay food and very reasonably priced as well. Its usually packed with the locals during lunch time. Its worth the visit.
I have rarely stopped anywhere after Temerloh until I reach Kuantan. Reason being that the food served along the way is not to my taste and the hygiene not to my acceptance.
In Kuantan the food can be very varied, from Pahang taste to Kelantan-Trengganu-Pahang mixture. The good restaurants, I will list them out, not necessary in that order of ‘best’ though.
1. Wak Suffian. Its on the Jalan Besar. They serve very tasty Sumatran cuisine. Worthwhile visiting and tasting the very delicious food. Reasonable priced, good hygiene (try entering it from the back and see how clean the kitchen/cooking is). A bit difficult to park if you are new to Kuantan town, but if you are an old Kuantan timer like me, I can easily find good parking space very close to the restaurant. (Now they are constructing a shopping complex at the back of the restaurant, so you cannot park at the back anymore). You may park at a distance and just walk a bit. KLites are used to that sort of distance parking.
2. R & R. This is an authentic Pahang Malay restaurant. Just a few doors away from Wak Suffian. Same standard as Wak Suffian but different style of cooking. By the way, you can buy very good Nasi Lemak, Pulut Kuning, Rendang etc etc and other local breakfast items from both Wak Suffian and R & R.
3. The Taj chain of restaurants. These are the so called Indian Restaurants. There is one at the Jalan Tun Ismail that opens 24 hours a day serving briani, chicken tikka, nan etc etc. A branch that serves very good fish curry and ‘roti canai’ is behind the MAS Office. Its not opened 24 hours a day but at breakfast and lunch time its very crowded.
4. A restaurant that is worthwhile mentioning is a Kelantan-Pahang mixture restaurant, I cannot remember the name: its behind the TNB Office, at the end of the new row of shops houses where Poslaju has its office. Other than the normal Malay food, its specialty is ‘bubur’. It has all sorts of ‘bubur’, you name it they have it but all very sweet. Good food but hygienically questionable. I would rate it as acceptable.
5. Those restaurants by the Kuantan River bank used to be very popular, especially during the ‘udang galah’ (big river prawns) and ‘telur ikan’ (fish roe) seasons. They still serve good food. But I do not like the surroundings, it’s a bit dirty. Hygienically acceptable but can be improved.
6. Now lets go to another kind of restaurants. Those are those serving western food. There are stalls very close to the Main Kuantan Police Station, behind the row of shop houses that serve very good and cheap steak. These are run by very enterprising young boys/men who also serves all kinds of drinks, ‘ice kacang’ to rainbow. But they only open at night.
7. A good western food restaurant that I can recommend is called East Grill. Its off Jalan Beserah, behind some shop houses where the office of Maxis is. You enter after the pedestrian bridge by the left slip road. They serve authentic western food, just like, if not better, than Victoria Station, but the price is only half of Victoria Station. Good service, good hygiene and friendly atmosphere. Its owned by a Chinese lady from KL.
8. Another good Western food restaurant just opened is The Sherwood. Its at Jalan Telok Sisek, attached to the Kampong Selamat Supermarket. It serves very reasonably priced good Western cookings. But I must admit that its good food and pleasant atmosphere is spoilt by its bad service. Their staff is not so well trained and many can hardly speak English. You will fint it difficult to make yourself understood when you speak in English when you order your dishes.
9. Chinese restaurant?. I do not know of many except those in hotels such as in MS Garden and Hyatt. MS Garden has a large Chinese Restaurant that serve very good Steamboat. Cheap, at RM 25.00 per head (then). Some of us have been there. They also have private function rooms if you want privacy.
10. And (I would say that) at the top of the range is at Hyatt Hotel where they have very good
restaurants, international class and probably of higher standard than some of those in KL. A good location, easy parking, a family type of atmosphere. I often go there for meals with my family. Very reasonably priced, good service, friendly staff and of course first class hygiene. One of the most satisfying places that I have been to.
11. Why don't I mention seafood? After all Kuantan is by the coast and should have a lot of sea food. In Kuantan when one talk of sea food one goes to either Tanjung Lumpur (across the Kuantan River Bridge), or to Beserah. I never mention Tanjung Lumpur because I think the hygiene over there is pathetic. The food can/or may be good, reasonably priced but try going there in the day time. And if you go there again at the evening/night time to have your sea food, you may not even be able to swallow what you have ordered, after what you see during the day time. You have to have a very strong stomach to enjoy your food. Of course the locals are used to it, so they don't care. But in Beserah there is one restaurant that I can recommend. Its Pak Su. At the 10th miles stone by the Beserah beach on the way to Kuala Trengganu. Good food, reasonably priced, passable atmosphere, acceptable hygiene. Its owned by a Chinese and they serve Chinese style of sea food. They also sell liquor. One of their famous dish is stuffed crab.
The other places for sea food I have not been.
Note that I have not mentioned anything about the food at the Karak/Kuantan Highway. The R&R buildings are already there during the time of writing this article but the food are not sold yet.
I am choosy, I do not want to be and eat at places where there is too much 'nature'.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
However we will always find it a problem to locate which are the reasonably price restaurants and in which town. And which of these restaurants serve the food that we like, tasty and in clean and hygienic surroundings/environment with friendly staff to serve you. If you have a combination or even a permutation of these then I am confident that you will be happy to pay even a higher price. Of course you can eat at the hotel where you are staying, but hotel food price are sometimes most unreasonably priced. And they may not even be to our taste. In some pricy hotels, Muslims are not even sure if the food is Halal or not, for example steam fish are normally cooked using Chinese wine as one of the ingredients. And in most towns, we have the so called Indian Restaurants. Good food but be careful, they could be yesterdays food. And when after having the food, check the price as most of the time they will say them in Urdu or some foreign language and says to you "Dua Puluh Ringgit" (RM 20.00). You are not even sure if that is the real or right price. Try asking them for detail on what you have eaten and a new price will be quoted. Now itemised the food that you have eaten and a new price will then be quoted. And in some places that I have been to, we have nothing else but Tom-Yam restaurants. These are also problematic, the food may not be to our taste, at least not to mine. I had this experience in Dungun about a year ago. And in real so called Thai Restaurants, we do not even know what we have eaten (they write them in Romanised Thai), and when we receive the bills we will have the feeling of 'pedas' (hot under the collar) to pay the bill.
I want to share with you my experience of some good restaurants (some are food stalls really but for the sake of this article I will call them restaurants) that I have been to in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. These restaurants are to my expectations, food, hygiene and service wise. You may have your own experience that you wish to share with us, not necessarily in the East Coast but anywhere else in the country; not outside so that we may restrict ourselves by choice only to Malaysia only.
If you travel from KL to Kuantan, you may stop for a break at the restaurants at the Genting Sempah, after the tunnel. Most of them serve good Malay (halal) food. They are controlled, so the price and hygiene is passable. They are mostly self service. And at the MacDonald you may break for a toilet run. Reasonably clean toilet it has. And of course the standard Malaysian MacDonald food.
You pass on until you reach the Temerloh Bridge. (Note that now that the Karak/Kuantan Highway is opened, most travellers will not pass this way anymore). Before the Temerloh Bridge, you will see on your right a row of stalls. Many people have asked me "How do I get to the stalls?". And if you park by the road side to reach those stalls, its a dangerous practice, you may get run over when you try to cross the road. To reach them, its quite a roundabout way. You turn left before those stalls, curve and turn right, another left and curve right again, under the Temerloh Bridge and right again at the traffic light. Once at the stalls there are plenty of parking space. Which is the best stall? All are identical, most of them serve authentic Pahang food - ikan ‘patin’ in ‘tempoyak’, fried river fish, ulam etc etc. For those who do not take river fish there are chicken, meat and ‘ikan kembong’. Try them and you will surely come again. Price? A bit steep but worth the effort. My favourite restaurant is Restaurant Abang, where Tengku Azlan (a politician of Pahang royal blood) even book a table there sometimes. But another favourite of mine is the stall at the end of Restaurant Abang row, facing the KL/Kuantan road. Good tasty food, hygienically acceptable and friendly service. You may serve yourself or have them serve you. Nice ‘sambal tempoyak’, ‘jeruk maman’, ‘ulam peraga’ they have.
Now don’t forget, Temerloh has a twin town about 10 km away, just off the Temerloh/Mentakab bypass road. Its the Mentakab town. A small not so well kept town. But if you were to explore the town and reach the Malay restaurants behind The Store Supermarket you will find very good Malay restaurants serving very good Malay food and very reasonably priced as well. Its usually packed with the locals during lunch time. Its worth the visit.
I have rarely stopped anywhere after Temerloh until I reach Kuantan. Reason being that the food served along the way is not to my taste and the hygiene not to my acceptance.
In Kuantan the food can be very varied, from Pahang taste to Kelantan-Trengganu-Pahang mixture. The good restaurants, I will list them out, not necessary in that order of ‘best’ though.
1. Wak Suffian. Its on the Jalan Besar. They serve very tasty Sumatran cuisine. Worthwhile visiting and tasting the very delicious food. Reasonable priced, good hygiene (try entering it from the back and see how clean the kitchen/cooking is). A bit difficult to park if you are new to Kuantan town, but if you are an old Kuantan timer like me, I can easily find good parking space very close to the restaurant. (Now they are constructing a shopping complex at the back of the restaurant, so you cannot park at the back anymore). You may park at a distance and just walk a bit. KLites are used to that sort of distance parking.
2. R & R. This is an authentic Pahang Malay restaurant. Just a few doors away from Wak Suffian. Same standard as Wak Suffian but different style of cooking. By the way, you can buy very good Nasi Lemak, Pulut Kuning, Rendang etc etc and other local breakfast items from both Wak Suffian and R & R.
3. The Taj chain of restaurants. These are the so called Indian Restaurants. There is one at the Jalan Tun Ismail that opens 24 hours a day serving briani, chicken tikka, nan etc etc. A branch that serves very good fish curry and ‘roti canai’ is behind the MAS Office. Its not opened 24 hours a day but at breakfast and lunch time its very crowded.
4. A restaurant that is worthwhile mentioning is a Kelantan-Pahang mixture restaurant, I cannot remember the name: its behind the TNB Office, at the end of the new row of shops houses where Poslaju has its office. Other than the normal Malay food, its specialty is ‘bubur’. It has all sorts of ‘bubur’, you name it they have it but all very sweet. Good food but hygienically questionable. I would rate it as acceptable.
5. Those restaurants by the Kuantan River bank used to be very popular, especially during the ‘udang galah’ (big river prawns) and ‘telur ikan’ (fish roe) seasons. They still serve good food. But I do not like the surroundings, it’s a bit dirty. Hygienically acceptable but can be improved.
6. Now lets go to another kind of restaurants. Those are those serving western food. There are stalls very close to the Main Kuantan Police Station, behind the row of shop houses that serve very good and cheap steak. These are run by very enterprising young boys/men who also serves all kinds of drinks, ‘ice kacang’ to rainbow. But they only open at night.
7. A good western food restaurant that I can recommend is called East Grill. Its off Jalan Beserah, behind some shop houses where the office of Maxis is. You enter after the pedestrian bridge by the left slip road. They serve authentic western food, just like, if not better, than Victoria Station, but the price is only half of Victoria Station. Good service, good hygiene and friendly atmosphere. Its owned by a Chinese lady from KL.
8. Another good Western food restaurant just opened is The Sherwood. Its at Jalan Telok Sisek, attached to the Kampong Selamat Supermarket. It serves very reasonably priced good Western cookings. But I must admit that its good food and pleasant atmosphere is spoilt by its bad service. Their staff is not so well trained and many can hardly speak English. You will fint it difficult to make yourself understood when you speak in English when you order your dishes.
9. Chinese restaurant?. I do not know of many except those in hotels such as in MS Garden and Hyatt. MS Garden has a large Chinese Restaurant that serve very good Steamboat. Cheap, at RM 25.00 per head (then). Some of us have been there. They also have private function rooms if you want privacy.
10. And (I would say that) at the top of the range is at Hyatt Hotel where they have very good
restaurants, international class and probably of higher standard than some of those in KL. A good location, easy parking, a family type of atmosphere. I often go there for meals with my family. Very reasonably priced, good service, friendly staff and of course first class hygiene. One of the most satisfying places that I have been to.
11. Why don't I mention seafood? After all Kuantan is by the coast and should have a lot of sea food. In Kuantan when one talk of sea food one goes to either Tanjung Lumpur (across the Kuantan River Bridge), or to Beserah. I never mention Tanjung Lumpur because I think the hygiene over there is pathetic. The food can/or may be good, reasonably priced but try going there in the day time. And if you go there again at the evening/night time to have your sea food, you may not even be able to swallow what you have ordered, after what you see during the day time. You have to have a very strong stomach to enjoy your food. Of course the locals are used to it, so they don't care. But in Beserah there is one restaurant that I can recommend. Its Pak Su. At the 10th miles stone by the Beserah beach on the way to Kuala Trengganu. Good food, reasonably priced, passable atmosphere, acceptable hygiene. Its owned by a Chinese and they serve Chinese style of sea food. They also sell liquor. One of their famous dish is stuffed crab.
The other places for sea food I have not been.
Note that I have not mentioned anything about the food at the Karak/Kuantan Highway. The R&R buildings are already there during the time of writing this article but the food are not sold yet.
I am choosy, I do not want to be and eat at places where there is too much 'nature'.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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