Food For Thoughts - Part Three
Many restaurants that I have been to in the East Coast, I cannot remember the names of. But that is where the fun is. You have to locate those restaurants yourself. Like treasures, you have to search for them. I will only give you the clues.
I am now going into unfamiliar grounds. Restaurants in KT (a loving name for Kuala Trengganu) and KB (a loving name for Kota Baru) will be described here based mostly on my trips, not long ago, to these places. Again I shall try to concentrate on good, cheap, hygienic and not posh places.
When you enter KT, the first thing you notice is how unkempt the place is. Not dirty but unkempt. You would say to yourself how come nobody bothers or is it that nobody notices. I suppose as then say ‘familiarity breed contempt’ or in Malay "Alah bisa teggal biasa". Anyway we want to talk about eating places and not how unkempt the town is.
The restaurant that give me a lasting impression in KT is small restaurant at a corner shop just across the road from the Payam (spelling?) Market. Its a simple restaurant (I cannot recall the name of) just across the road where they sell all the Muslim religious stuff and the Koraan. Simply decorated with old fashioned tables, furniture crowdedly placed but the place is clean and presentable. What caught my attention was its simple food, a different kind of food from that I am used to, and its simple unassuming atmosphere. People go in and out, order food and these are efficiently provided, packed and sold. One dish was this fried meat in big slices bathed in starchy sort of gravy, and the concoction was very tasty. That is new to me. I have had the Javanaese 'deng-deng' but not this kind of dressing put on it. Of course there are other familiar Malay dishes but this dish was special. Can I call it Trengganu cooking? I don't know.
A favourite restaurant in KT is Restoran Syafinas. Its near the Old Palace in the centre of KT town and close to a Mosque (which is behind the Old Palace). Its a Minang sort of restaurant, which I remember were very popular in KL when I was very young. What they do, when you enter the restaurant, you sit at a table and they will bring all the dishes to your table, many many dishes full to the brim with the cooked food. You eat, but you pay only for the food that you touch. Those dishes on the table that you do not touch you do not pay for. Of course all these dishes (called 'lauk') go with boiled rice. I am told that they still practice this sort of serving in Sumatra. And they do that in this Restoran Syafinas. The risk however is that if you have children with you, they will touch every dish. You can tell the owner that you do not touch the dishes concerned, you only touch those that he sees as being touched, and you pay for those. But you must remember that what your children touch are already contaminated. And the next person having that dish on his/her table will be eating 'contaminated' food. The first time I went there I enjoyed seeing all the dishes full of food on my table. But on thinking of the 'contaminated' dishes, the next time I went there I did not want the 'treatment', I just told the owner I would choose the food myself. And if you want good and cheap food you have it 'campor' or mixed. They will put the food on a plastic covered brown paper, fold it and put all that you ordered inside; the owner then will mix with some other gravy to make the mixture tasty and he folds it with the food inside and squeezed it to make the food really mixed. I enjoy food mixed like that. The food is reasonably priced, service is good, food tasty. On hygiene? Well if you do not choose to have all the dishes on your table, they are quite hygienic, to an acceptable standard. But if you chose to have all the food on your table then I would rate it as unhygienic.
There is another good restaurant on the way to TNB Office from the centre of the town. Cannot remember its name, but I remember that its on the right side of the road (going to the TNB office) and it serves a sort of Malay-Indian food. It is of acceptable hygienic standard, reasonably priced food and good service. But sometimes the service is too good, it becomes an obtrusion. Before you can sit yourself down properly they ask you for you order. Menu? Well you read them on the walls. Or they expect you to already know what you want.
Now you move further up north to KB. I must share a joke about food in KB. Years ago when the Islamic Government (PAS) took over the ruling of the state, it was announced in the local press that people in Kelantan were starving due to the lack of foodstuff. So people visiting Kelantan, KB especially, from out of Kelantan State used to bring their own food - rice, meat, fish and some tinned stuff. The idea was that these food were for their consumption and to be shared with any relative or friend in KB. In the end the food they brought were never consumed as there were more food to be had in KB then than they could ever imagine. They found that all the market places, night stalls and roadside stalls were full with food being sold so cheaply that not many resident of KB need to cook at home. Today the situation is still like that in KB. Food, glorious food everywhere. Cheap. Hygienic? Its a matter of taste.
Just like KT, KB seems so unkempt to an outsider like me. Rubbish everywhere (almost) and trees, shrubs and grass in town not cut. I suppose they are used to that. But one thing I admire about KB, its full of people trading and be about doing business day and night. They even build resting places in the centre of the town where you can sit down or even lie down to chat. But of course the places for the men and the ladies are separated, but not necessarily veiled. In fact both sexes mixed very well without even the tension as described in the local press as being a strongly Islamic state. And ladies smile at you without the slightest reservation.
There are two kind of strange Kelantan originated food which are quite well known outside Kelantan. One is "Gulai Kawah" and the other is "Gearbox Soup". The former you have to go to Kelantan to enjoy it but the latter is well publicised in the mass media, has got imitation, the well known one being in the Temerloh/Maran border area next to the TNB Kg. Awah Substation. In fact "Gulai Kawah" now has got immitations.
What is "Gulai Kawah"? I cannot really describe it, its a sort curried large cut meat/bone mixture cooked in coconut milk, using spices just like what you get when you go to a Malay wedding feast. Not exactly but nearly. Why "kawah"?. Because its cooked slowly in a "kawah", a sort of cast iron wok the diameter of which may be above 1 meter, slowly over wood fire. "Gulai"? Its a Malay word used quite extensively in the East Coast to describe almost anything spicy food cooked in coconut milk. So the name "Gulai Kawah". The original one, I was told, that went into commercial being was in the padi field just out of Pasir Putih town, on the Pasir Putih/KB road. It is served with white boiled rice, salt fish, some ‘ulam’ and ‘sambal belacan’. Mostly these are served at lunch time. Delicious and cheap. Now many of the "Gulai Kawah" places have mushroomed in Kelantan itself, in Trengganu and even in Pahang.
Now what is "Gearbox Soup"? Its a spicy soup of boiled leg bones of cows/bulls, especially the moving joints part where I suppose how it is associated with gearbox. Of buffaloes? I have not heard of such but I am not really sure. I suppose it can be done. Sheep/Lamb? Never heard of it. Now you see the connection with gearbox. You strip off the skin, cut away the good meat from the bones and make soup out of the rest. You break and cut the bone of course. Your soup is cooked either in "kwali" (a sort of a wok or a small "kawah") or a big "kawah" or in large Aluminium pots, it does not really matter as long as you get a good drinkable/edible soup/bone spicy mixture. How do you eat the soup? In a large bowl of course, liquid soup and the broken legs bones in it. Sounds weird but that is how its done. To enjoy it further, you are provided with a knife and a straw (probably a fork to pick up the cut meat/fat, a spoon to spoon the soup with; but you can always drink the soup using your straw or out of a small bowl like what they do in Japan), to cut away the meat, the fat and the straw to suck the bone marrow after you fill the broken bone hollow with your soup liquid. Strange but its true. Savage? Not when you are used to it. After all I have seen on TV how the Arabs eat a whole sheep by tearing them into pieces with bare hands and just mouthing/biting those pieces. Have I tried this "Gearbox Soup"? Of course I have, but beware. It very high in cholesterol. I tried it not in Kelantan though but at a house of a Kelantanese friend in Pahang. I still have to find out where I can get this "Gearbox Soup" in Kelantan.
In reality food so common in a Kelantanese life that food is found everywhere and easily in KB. One habit I observe about those people in KB, they buy takeaways for dinner. And the food are delicious and sweet. I suppose just like the ladies from Kelantan, they are very sweet looking. They called the ladies over there (and in Trengganu) as "Mek". Lucky those who are married to them. Now back to restaurants. A few I can mention here are the ones that I have really been to, once at least. Four especially are in my mind.
1. Yati Ayam Percik. This place serves very delicious Kelantanese food. Its on the Jalan Pekeliling somewhere near the main KB Bomba (Fire Services) building. You will not miss it if you turn off right at a traffic light just out of town after the New Pacific Hotel on the KB/Pengkalan Chepa Airport road. Its only about 500 meters from that junction. The food is heavenly, the service prompt, hygiene acceptable but price a bit pricey though. When you have come all the way to KB, why worry about the price. Its cheaper than KL anyway. What is their specialty? "Ayam percik", "gulai daging", "ayam kampong panggang" and "daging panggang". One special drink that they serve is "peraga juice". What are these? Find out for yourself when you are there. The owner is a sweet oldish Kelantan lady whose husband I was told has a school for young and upcoming soccer players. What a combination. A bit of extra information, you can also buy packed "ayam percik" from that restaurant.
2. Four Season. Sound Chinese? Yes, its a Chinese halal restaurant in KB. Its very popular in KB, well patronised by many KBrian. The food is cooked in Chinese style, good, comparatively cheap, and no complaint on hygiene. Who serve? Chinese and Malay men and girls. In KB you say, can that happen? The answer is yes, in KB the races mixes so well that its only us from outside KB who do not understand them.
3. The other restaurant which I must mention here is a small Chinese run restaurant which sells Malay food. Its only open at lunch time. Which street in KB? I am not sure but I can still find it when I am there the next time. Its on a small back street in KB town somewhere off tangent between the TNB office and the Diamond Putri Hotel (The Hotel has now changed its name and under a new management team). What made me notice the place was on how the food was served. They are served as "nasi campor" in a plastic covered squared brown paper. No ceramic plate is used. You Q-up, ask for whatever you want from the cooked food choice all placed in containers in front of you, the server will put all these on the plastic covered brown paper, fold it, you pay up and away you go. You can either eat there in that restaurant or take the food as a takeaway and eat somewhere else. If you eat there, there are tables and chairs and long benches. You make your choice. A lady will ask you for your drink, you order, eat your food (and pay for the drink), fold the leftover on your paper "plate" and off you go. Its easy. The food is cheap, not much variety, service prompt and hygiene acceptable. But if you are the fussy type the place is very crowded and the furniture old.
4. And lastly, you have not been to KB if you have not visited the White House. Its not that White House. This White House is White House Coffee stall, very close to the Sultan Mahmud Mosque Kota Bahru, close to the "gerbang" (the Gate). Its a ‘kopitiam’ shop selling one of the best coffee in KB. It serve "roti bakar" the old style with butter or "kaya", which ever that you prefer. Its a very old fashioned stall, small, quaint and quite clean. Its owned by an old Chinaman but I can assure you that what they serve are all halal. They also sell ‘nasi lemak’, ‘nasi dagang’ and a few local "kuih" (local sweets usually of flour). But the coffee stall does not open all the time, it is only open a short time in the day time and later after the Isya prayer. Even then, there is always a long Q. If you want to have their coffee, you have to be prepared to wait or be in the Q.
Now as I mentioned earlier, food in KB is plentiful. You choose and you get. At night time, at the Padang Garong night market, next to the TNB office, they have night stalls every night selling food such as ‘satay’ and other types of Malaysian food. And if you are a bit westernised you can go to MacD, KFC, Pizza Hut and such places where franchised food are sold.
Well, "food, glorious food" as they say. Who said that? Was it Charles Dickens in David Copperfield? I cannot remember now. Some of you may. If I am wrong correct me. I am still learning.
East Coast is fun to be in, and better still if you know where to find good food. I shall end here, as I have said enough. Probably I will meet some of you in anyone of the restaurants that I have mentioned. Bon appertif.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
I am now going into unfamiliar grounds. Restaurants in KT (a loving name for Kuala Trengganu) and KB (a loving name for Kota Baru) will be described here based mostly on my trips, not long ago, to these places. Again I shall try to concentrate on good, cheap, hygienic and not posh places.
When you enter KT, the first thing you notice is how unkempt the place is. Not dirty but unkempt. You would say to yourself how come nobody bothers or is it that nobody notices. I suppose as then say ‘familiarity breed contempt’ or in Malay "Alah bisa teggal biasa". Anyway we want to talk about eating places and not how unkempt the town is.
The restaurant that give me a lasting impression in KT is small restaurant at a corner shop just across the road from the Payam (spelling?) Market. Its a simple restaurant (I cannot recall the name of) just across the road where they sell all the Muslim religious stuff and the Koraan. Simply decorated with old fashioned tables, furniture crowdedly placed but the place is clean and presentable. What caught my attention was its simple food, a different kind of food from that I am used to, and its simple unassuming atmosphere. People go in and out, order food and these are efficiently provided, packed and sold. One dish was this fried meat in big slices bathed in starchy sort of gravy, and the concoction was very tasty. That is new to me. I have had the Javanaese 'deng-deng' but not this kind of dressing put on it. Of course there are other familiar Malay dishes but this dish was special. Can I call it Trengganu cooking? I don't know.
A favourite restaurant in KT is Restoran Syafinas. Its near the Old Palace in the centre of KT town and close to a Mosque (which is behind the Old Palace). Its a Minang sort of restaurant, which I remember were very popular in KL when I was very young. What they do, when you enter the restaurant, you sit at a table and they will bring all the dishes to your table, many many dishes full to the brim with the cooked food. You eat, but you pay only for the food that you touch. Those dishes on the table that you do not touch you do not pay for. Of course all these dishes (called 'lauk') go with boiled rice. I am told that they still practice this sort of serving in Sumatra. And they do that in this Restoran Syafinas. The risk however is that if you have children with you, they will touch every dish. You can tell the owner that you do not touch the dishes concerned, you only touch those that he sees as being touched, and you pay for those. But you must remember that what your children touch are already contaminated. And the next person having that dish on his/her table will be eating 'contaminated' food. The first time I went there I enjoyed seeing all the dishes full of food on my table. But on thinking of the 'contaminated' dishes, the next time I went there I did not want the 'treatment', I just told the owner I would choose the food myself. And if you want good and cheap food you have it 'campor' or mixed. They will put the food on a plastic covered brown paper, fold it and put all that you ordered inside; the owner then will mix with some other gravy to make the mixture tasty and he folds it with the food inside and squeezed it to make the food really mixed. I enjoy food mixed like that. The food is reasonably priced, service is good, food tasty. On hygiene? Well if you do not choose to have all the dishes on your table, they are quite hygienic, to an acceptable standard. But if you chose to have all the food on your table then I would rate it as unhygienic.
There is another good restaurant on the way to TNB Office from the centre of the town. Cannot remember its name, but I remember that its on the right side of the road (going to the TNB office) and it serves a sort of Malay-Indian food. It is of acceptable hygienic standard, reasonably priced food and good service. But sometimes the service is too good, it becomes an obtrusion. Before you can sit yourself down properly they ask you for you order. Menu? Well you read them on the walls. Or they expect you to already know what you want.
Now you move further up north to KB. I must share a joke about food in KB. Years ago when the Islamic Government (PAS) took over the ruling of the state, it was announced in the local press that people in Kelantan were starving due to the lack of foodstuff. So people visiting Kelantan, KB especially, from out of Kelantan State used to bring their own food - rice, meat, fish and some tinned stuff. The idea was that these food were for their consumption and to be shared with any relative or friend in KB. In the end the food they brought were never consumed as there were more food to be had in KB then than they could ever imagine. They found that all the market places, night stalls and roadside stalls were full with food being sold so cheaply that not many resident of KB need to cook at home. Today the situation is still like that in KB. Food, glorious food everywhere. Cheap. Hygienic? Its a matter of taste.
Just like KT, KB seems so unkempt to an outsider like me. Rubbish everywhere (almost) and trees, shrubs and grass in town not cut. I suppose they are used to that. But one thing I admire about KB, its full of people trading and be about doing business day and night. They even build resting places in the centre of the town where you can sit down or even lie down to chat. But of course the places for the men and the ladies are separated, but not necessarily veiled. In fact both sexes mixed very well without even the tension as described in the local press as being a strongly Islamic state. And ladies smile at you without the slightest reservation.
There are two kind of strange Kelantan originated food which are quite well known outside Kelantan. One is "Gulai Kawah" and the other is "Gearbox Soup". The former you have to go to Kelantan to enjoy it but the latter is well publicised in the mass media, has got imitation, the well known one being in the Temerloh/Maran border area next to the TNB Kg. Awah Substation. In fact "Gulai Kawah" now has got immitations.
What is "Gulai Kawah"? I cannot really describe it, its a sort curried large cut meat/bone mixture cooked in coconut milk, using spices just like what you get when you go to a Malay wedding feast. Not exactly but nearly. Why "kawah"?. Because its cooked slowly in a "kawah", a sort of cast iron wok the diameter of which may be above 1 meter, slowly over wood fire. "Gulai"? Its a Malay word used quite extensively in the East Coast to describe almost anything spicy food cooked in coconut milk. So the name "Gulai Kawah". The original one, I was told, that went into commercial being was in the padi field just out of Pasir Putih town, on the Pasir Putih/KB road. It is served with white boiled rice, salt fish, some ‘ulam’ and ‘sambal belacan’. Mostly these are served at lunch time. Delicious and cheap. Now many of the "Gulai Kawah" places have mushroomed in Kelantan itself, in Trengganu and even in Pahang.
Now what is "Gearbox Soup"? Its a spicy soup of boiled leg bones of cows/bulls, especially the moving joints part where I suppose how it is associated with gearbox. Of buffaloes? I have not heard of such but I am not really sure. I suppose it can be done. Sheep/Lamb? Never heard of it. Now you see the connection with gearbox. You strip off the skin, cut away the good meat from the bones and make soup out of the rest. You break and cut the bone of course. Your soup is cooked either in "kwali" (a sort of a wok or a small "kawah") or a big "kawah" or in large Aluminium pots, it does not really matter as long as you get a good drinkable/edible soup/bone spicy mixture. How do you eat the soup? In a large bowl of course, liquid soup and the broken legs bones in it. Sounds weird but that is how its done. To enjoy it further, you are provided with a knife and a straw (probably a fork to pick up the cut meat/fat, a spoon to spoon the soup with; but you can always drink the soup using your straw or out of a small bowl like what they do in Japan), to cut away the meat, the fat and the straw to suck the bone marrow after you fill the broken bone hollow with your soup liquid. Strange but its true. Savage? Not when you are used to it. After all I have seen on TV how the Arabs eat a whole sheep by tearing them into pieces with bare hands and just mouthing/biting those pieces. Have I tried this "Gearbox Soup"? Of course I have, but beware. It very high in cholesterol. I tried it not in Kelantan though but at a house of a Kelantanese friend in Pahang. I still have to find out where I can get this "Gearbox Soup" in Kelantan.
In reality food so common in a Kelantanese life that food is found everywhere and easily in KB. One habit I observe about those people in KB, they buy takeaways for dinner. And the food are delicious and sweet. I suppose just like the ladies from Kelantan, they are very sweet looking. They called the ladies over there (and in Trengganu) as "Mek". Lucky those who are married to them. Now back to restaurants. A few I can mention here are the ones that I have really been to, once at least. Four especially are in my mind.
1. Yati Ayam Percik. This place serves very delicious Kelantanese food. Its on the Jalan Pekeliling somewhere near the main KB Bomba (Fire Services) building. You will not miss it if you turn off right at a traffic light just out of town after the New Pacific Hotel on the KB/Pengkalan Chepa Airport road. Its only about 500 meters from that junction. The food is heavenly, the service prompt, hygiene acceptable but price a bit pricey though. When you have come all the way to KB, why worry about the price. Its cheaper than KL anyway. What is their specialty? "Ayam percik", "gulai daging", "ayam kampong panggang" and "daging panggang". One special drink that they serve is "peraga juice". What are these? Find out for yourself when you are there. The owner is a sweet oldish Kelantan lady whose husband I was told has a school for young and upcoming soccer players. What a combination. A bit of extra information, you can also buy packed "ayam percik" from that restaurant.
2. Four Season. Sound Chinese? Yes, its a Chinese halal restaurant in KB. Its very popular in KB, well patronised by many KBrian. The food is cooked in Chinese style, good, comparatively cheap, and no complaint on hygiene. Who serve? Chinese and Malay men and girls. In KB you say, can that happen? The answer is yes, in KB the races mixes so well that its only us from outside KB who do not understand them.
3. The other restaurant which I must mention here is a small Chinese run restaurant which sells Malay food. Its only open at lunch time. Which street in KB? I am not sure but I can still find it when I am there the next time. Its on a small back street in KB town somewhere off tangent between the TNB office and the Diamond Putri Hotel (The Hotel has now changed its name and under a new management team). What made me notice the place was on how the food was served. They are served as "nasi campor" in a plastic covered squared brown paper. No ceramic plate is used. You Q-up, ask for whatever you want from the cooked food choice all placed in containers in front of you, the server will put all these on the plastic covered brown paper, fold it, you pay up and away you go. You can either eat there in that restaurant or take the food as a takeaway and eat somewhere else. If you eat there, there are tables and chairs and long benches. You make your choice. A lady will ask you for your drink, you order, eat your food (and pay for the drink), fold the leftover on your paper "plate" and off you go. Its easy. The food is cheap, not much variety, service prompt and hygiene acceptable. But if you are the fussy type the place is very crowded and the furniture old.
4. And lastly, you have not been to KB if you have not visited the White House. Its not that White House. This White House is White House Coffee stall, very close to the Sultan Mahmud Mosque Kota Bahru, close to the "gerbang" (the Gate). Its a ‘kopitiam’ shop selling one of the best coffee in KB. It serve "roti bakar" the old style with butter or "kaya", which ever that you prefer. Its a very old fashioned stall, small, quaint and quite clean. Its owned by an old Chinaman but I can assure you that what they serve are all halal. They also sell ‘nasi lemak’, ‘nasi dagang’ and a few local "kuih" (local sweets usually of flour). But the coffee stall does not open all the time, it is only open a short time in the day time and later after the Isya prayer. Even then, there is always a long Q. If you want to have their coffee, you have to be prepared to wait or be in the Q.
Now as I mentioned earlier, food in KB is plentiful. You choose and you get. At night time, at the Padang Garong night market, next to the TNB office, they have night stalls every night selling food such as ‘satay’ and other types of Malaysian food. And if you are a bit westernised you can go to MacD, KFC, Pizza Hut and such places where franchised food are sold.
Well, "food, glorious food" as they say. Who said that? Was it Charles Dickens in David Copperfield? I cannot remember now. Some of you may. If I am wrong correct me. I am still learning.
East Coast is fun to be in, and better still if you know where to find good food. I shall end here, as I have said enough. Probably I will meet some of you in anyone of the restaurants that I have mentioned. Bon appertif.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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