My Top Eats in Malaysia!

When one introduces Malaysia, they probably start with the mention of how we are a multi-nation, multi-cultural community, followed by the FOOD.

It's no secret that Malaysians love to eat, and can really eat. I even remember Alex's cultural shock during his first visit to Malaysia lol - he couldn't believe how many times we (my family) eat in a day. 2 hours after lunch we would be thinking of where to go for 'afternoon tea' and in another less than 2 hours, it would be time for dinner, and who could say no to SUPPER when there is good company?

I have listed down the 10 must-eat for me here in my beloved home-country.
Let's see whether your preference matches mine ;)

1. Char Koey Teow!!!

Bean sprouts are extremely fat and juicy in the northern Malaysia which i LOVE very much. Fried over great heat, topped with huge prawns and cockles... super YUMS!

2. Nasi Lemak
(Grandma's trademark dish)

Rice cooked in santan and pandan leaves, crispy anchovies with Grandma's special sambal, assam prawns, curry squid, curry chicken and usual condiments like egg, peanuts and cucumber... plain beautiful.

or, the CLASSIC

3. Char Koey Kak ( Fried Radish Cake)

This is one oily but very sinful dish lol. With just the right amount of garlic, thick and thin soy sauce, crushed peanuts, radish cake, pickled radish, and a whole lot of fat bean sprouts - and there you have, my guilty pleasure!

4. Teh Tarik / Nescafe Tarik

Basically its tea or coffee or milo or just about any drinks been 'pulled' into having a froth on top. The urban myth was that this pulling technique cools down the hot drink for easier consumption. Not sure how true is that but I do love my 'Tarik'.

5. Satay

The above picture doesn't do good satay justice. In the right stalls or shops, you would be able to get huge chunks of meat (usually chicken or beef) grilled over hot coals, and eaten with Nasi Impit, cucumbers, onions and thick peanut sauce.

6. Durian!!!

I'm a sucker for durians. Especially now that I'm teaching in Gua Musang where the Musang King originated from, I'm spoiled with lots of good durians, especially the 'kunyit' type. Yellow, creamy, sweet (with a tad of subtle bitterness), a pure delicacy. I have yet managed to convince any of my American buddies to even try one lol.

7. Kan Lau Mian (Dry/Dark Noodles)

Personally I prefer to have my noodles with Roasted Duck, but we have plenty of options to choose from: Roasted or Marinated Pork, Roasted or Boiled Chicken, Wanton etc. Best eaten with pickled chillis!

8. Indian Roti... My fav will have to be Roti Tissue

 

Thin crispy roti with sweet layers of surprise in it! Ultimate fav to share with family!

9. Bak Kut Teh

A whole lot of pork (from all parts of its body) cooked for long hours in a herbal soup, best eaten with rice and You Tiao!

and finally,
the food that made my top 10 list is....

RAMLY BURGER

As much as I love big juicy patties in western burgers, there's just something about our Malaysian Ramly Burger! The thin patties are sliced in the middle and seasoned during the grill, later wrapped in a layer of egg. Both sides of the bun are buttered and put on the grill, then spread with a layer of mayonaise, grilled onions, chilli sauce, before covering the patty. A piece of cheese is put on top of the patty (personal preference) which will be melted by the heat from the cooked patty. Perfect when one gets the late night hungry pangs. The regret can come later lol.

The pics above are all taken during my many eating-out experiences. I'm pretty sure that there are a whole lot more of better versions, but these are my go-to food whenever I have the chance to.

What's your favourite Malaysian food? ;)

Cameron Highlands: Hits and Misses.

Two weeks back, My colleagues cum girlfriends decided to go for a short weekend trip to Cameron Highlands, that was only an hour and the half away from Gua Musang. One could say we needed the breather, and we had lots of cravings to satisfy lol.

Our previous trip to Cameron in the year 2012 was a quick one, and we were considered as 'singles' then. Another year later, one is a mum-to-be, the other about to be engaged, and I, about to get married ;)
I personally had lots of fun planning this outing of ours, but gosh was it far from easy. I was used to making trips to Cameron with my non-Malay friends so eating out was never a concern; but now that I have to search for Halal places, which led to me totally abusing my Google Search, and reading a whole lot of Malay blogs lmao. Still, we had a couple of hits and misses. So here's our account, feel free to take it as a reference if you are planning a trip there ;)

Since we were leaving from Gua Musang, our trip will not be complete if we do not start off with breakkie at Kak Zah's!

Kak Zah's pretty popular for its Nasi Kerabu and Nasi Dagang, but for us, it has always been Nasi Lemak with Daging (for me) and Hati (for Nad). The real deal for us has to be its Nescafe Tarik (kurang manis)! It is thick, creamy, fragrant, and gosh I'm craving for it now!

After getting our tummies filled, it was high time to start the journey.

Our first stop was none other but Cameron Lavender - a new attraction in Cameron Highlands. Before i fool you with the rather nice pictures later, my honest opinion about this place - it's a hoax.

Let's see, to enter you need to pay RM5 (fair enough), but 80% of the garden is not filled with Lavender (surprise surprise). The whole place is rather gimmicky I would say, but its worth a first visit, and that's about it. Since we paid the entrance fee, might as well go all out in pictures!

 

 

biggest gimmick of all!

 

 

and no trip to Cameron is legit without nomming on fresh strawberries!

After Maximising our 5 bucks worth lol, we went straight to check in at our budget hotel. From a personal friend's recommendation we came across Bird's Nest Hotel at Tanah Rata. Oh well, if we were charged according to its Weekday rate, we would have been more than happy; but for what we had been charged - RM150 for a really small room with beds for 3 was a little let down. On the pros side of things, the budget hotel is relatively new and clean, which is actually hard to come by in Cameron.

After the girls finished their prayers, we headed off to our next destination - The Big Red Strawberry Park at Brinchang! I saw many people blogging about this place so I was quite excited. But I guessed I might have placed my expectations a tad too high. Nevertheless, we had great laughter and the cafeteria was kinda generous with the servings of fresh strawberries.

Here's the Menu Display

and here's my order for the day...

Scones (hard and flaky) with cream and strawberry jam, English Breakfast tea, and a bowl of yoghurt laden with honey and lots of fresh strawberries.

While the girls shared a strawberry sundae (supposedly very famous but just too sweet for my liking), a puff (which they claimed was disappointing) and a strawberry yoghurt.

For the reasonable pricing and options, I guess its not too bad to make a stop there.

Next up - What is the Must-Do activity in Cameron other than stuffing yourself with strawberries? Steamboat, of cause!

And, this was my biggest headache. Most of the shops in Cameron have very questionable 'Halal' status. You could hardly find one that has the 'Halal' sign, and if they do, its probably outdated. With that, we decided it would be wise not to take risks at eateries as such and head off to a hotel for our steamboat dinner after our walk at the Brinchang Night Market. Our choice was...

Let me break down to you first, what you will expect. It costs RM25 per pax, and after counting the items they served us, it seemed as if the portions given are through estimation instead of been 'set.' It comes with free refillable chicken soup, so if you want to have tomyum soup, that would be a RM8 upgrade. We went for the upgrade as we love steamboat with a spicier and tangier soup paste... only to regret paying that amount for possibly the worst tomyum soup we have tasted. It was powdery, bland, and loaded with vegetables that were old-ish!!! I have to really praise my photo-taking skills as the food turned out so much nicer in pictures than in reality lol.

My take on this place: Don't go if you have better options. Won't be recommending to anyone.

Our night was filled with laughter as we had girly talks, hips exercises etc lol. And soon enough, morning came and it was time for breakfast! We really wanted to try out The Lord's Cafe after reading so many positive reviews online.... BUT TO OUR DISMAY, it was closed that morning!!! T____T

Hence we had to settle for just about anything, and went to Mamak Rasul for some not-worth-mentioning food huhuhuhu... At least we got ourselves fed and head off to Kea's Farm for some serious shopping! No pictures taken because the wind was crazy strong and we all had our hands full with our purchases!

So, it was time to check out, and  head back to reality in Gua Musang... On our way back, a sign caught our eye and led us to this new restaurant way up on a steep hill!

 

 

The whole concept was rather unique and the restaurant really has space! But do go there prepared to bear with the smell of fertilisers and earth. *don't say i didn't warn you*

 

 

 HOWEVER, the food at Earth House was plain disappointing. We were told the strawberry juice was supposed to be fresh juice... Hmmm.. Take a look at the drink on the left, does that look fresh to you?

The chicken chop was just... BAD. It was oily, over-fried, and the chips were just soaked in oil... As I mentioned before, my photography skills or rather my Galaxy S4 takes good pictures as the food seemed pretty okay in them lol.

And that practically completes our two days one night trip to Cameron Highlands! In short, we had less than satisfactory food, but a great trip is great because of the company. It was really nice just to have time together as girls (yes, we are still girls!), taking selfies, shopping, pillow talks and all things girly!

By the way, what was stated above was purely based on our actual experiences. Do not let my words deter you from trying any of the stops mentioned above, and make your own judgment ;)

Toodles!

the silence

So I haven't blogged for nearly 3 months. That's a record lol.
But then, it wasn't due to busyness or even plain laziness that I left this place forsaken... Instead, I was actually contemplating to quit blogging altogether.

So much has happened within these few months, so much so that I realised the dangers of exposing oneself too much to the public eye. Where do I draw the lines? - Probably the biggest question I have now.

I'm facing a lot of life changes, first time dealing with so much legalities, and most of all, throwing myself into a whole lot of uncharted territories.

Am I comfortable to share them in details? Probably not. As much as I wanted to document all the steps I've taken, which I would probably do so in a private outlet, but not to just about anyone. The internet has become a pretty dangerous place, where people think they know you from what they read about you, and where one can easily be misquoted, way out of context.

So, I'm moving to a whole different concept of writing.

I be talking writing mainly on three things I love most: FOOD, TRAVELING and TEACHING.

Let's give this outlet a different type of sprucing up ;)

Be back real soon!