2014 Dec - Year End Villages Hopping Trip

It's a super dated blog post. Seems the effort should not be wasted, with the pictures all ready for posting... plus there was great food exploration around Perak, a place consider half or quarter of hometown. Guess it was the most fruitful year end food and cycle expedition.

Taiping
Food :  Keling Mee & traditional black soya sauce Char Kuey Teaw @ Larut Matang Hawker Centre
Stay : Taiping Tune Hotel

Keling Mee & Black CKT

Kuala Kurau
About 45min drive away from Taiping.

Visited place : Salted Duck Egg factory @ Joo Hong Chan Telur Masin
Activity : Cycle with my foldie into the fishing village to hunt for foods

Duck eggs size separation

All packed

Food : Traditional fried prawn cake & local coffee @ 建成利

(The fried prawn cake is a few doors away from the coffee shop and temple)

Fried prawn cake

Back to Taiping in the evening, unfortunately it was raining. We hoped the following morning will be sunny.. too bad, it wasn't and we couldn't cycle around Taiping Lake.

Dinner in Taiping : We wanted to taste the small packeted nasi lemak udang, but Siang Malam food court was closed on a Sunday. Instead, we landed on a Hainanese coffee shop that served their famous chicken chop and CKT. What a combination, it was @ Yew Lee 有利茶餐室

Taiping Lake

Ayer Tawar
A small town between Sitiawan and my dad's hometown. We stopped by for late lunch, because we found the place for lunch in Sitiawan was close that day. Craved for red wine chicken noodle. Instead, we settled here, an old place we use to patron for the past years, @ Sin Han Siong Restaurant

They serve pretty good home cooked dishes too. I like their simple and yet old fashioned setup. From the opposite road, I always think the building is leaning side way.

Red wine rice noodle

Bruas
Following stop... my dad's hometown. Had a night stay over, enjoyed the cool weather and nature. Too bad, some plantation road was too muddy for my little bike to cross over. We had to turn away and return home, as it was slightly drizzling that morning. Nevertheless, air was fresh.

Pantai Remis
Food : We had our dinner with uncle @ Ling Song Kee Restaurant
(Felt a little nostalgic, cos the last time we were there was with my late grandmom)

Main street - Jalan Laksamana

Ipoh
Before returning home, we stopped by Ipoh. Our last stop. Another must-stop town with lots of good food.

Accomodation : MH Hotel, at the new township opposite Ipoh Parade.

Little pantry in the room

Foods hunt :
1. Choy Kee Bakery - Famous for their egg tart. Packed for tea time.

2. Biscuit QunKee - Right oppostite Choy Kee, I personally like this egg tart more, as they had pork floss on it. Salty taste egg tarts, its exactly a nicely blended taste. Probably its just me, one with a weird taste bud. :D This place famous for their kaya puff.

My favourite - pork floss egg tart

3. Seng Kee Food Trading 成记香饼 - Right within Gunung Rapat itself, there are many home made cookies, as comparable with the ever famous and tourist type of Yee Hup. Simple village home where they bake those cookies with old coconut shells.

4. The Happy 8 Retreat @ Old Town - I could not remember what we had for dinner.. but obviously we had gone for a hangout place.. just with a glass of non-alchohol mojito. A place with nice natural wood furniture, stream within the restaurant, unfortunately the design of its gents and ladies were not strategically built, was pretty near to one of the stream-sounded dining area. This place has its own backpacker or boutique hotel upstairs. Well design.

5. Nam Heong Food Court - We settled for lunch after check out from the nearby hotel.  High end food court, and I called it a food court for lazy butt. You can find most Ipoh famous food here, decent quality for some (since I didn't taste all), but expect to pay premium. Why did I called lazy butt, because you don't need to queue up to grab your own foods. You need to place your order via the online tool, waiter will come fetch your payment and there goes your food will be served to your table.

Food court setup

6. 189 香饼行 - Tried another recommended biscuit stall before departing Ipoh, this one with sesame. Quite nice and tasty too. 

Ended the year well... Bye 2014.

Weekend Trip - Tg Sepat, Aug 8 2013

It was about 4-5 years since I been to this place. The particular location was once made happening by AhXian, a local Chinese food channel, and that was the time I was one of those who 'flocked' into the village.

This time round, I could not recall what brought us there. Only recalled there were 3-4 cars that Sunday, on which we went on a Sunday family day trip. To me, its another adventure over a weekend day trip. Couldn't miss any food or shopping.

Stop #1 - Mr. Black Hainanese Pau shop 

(Google Coordinate : 2.659064,101.566369)

Some prefer to queue up for the famous one in the main village area, but we so happened met a warming local at a coffee shop. She'd been very helpful and pointed us some hidden places to shop. The locals prefer this pau shop, not sure why. Perhaps is to avoid the heavy tourist crowd, for some reason, the famous one seems to be overrated. I didn't had a chance to buy them the last round, neither this time. Honestly, I am not a pau person, hence I didn't even buy anything from this Mr. Black pau shop.

Mr. Black Pau Shop

Stop #2 - Kerepek Ubi

(Google Coordinate : 2.659611,101.568236)

Another local introductory buy the lady in her motorcycle. Good quality and deal for locally made snacks - potato chips. It comes with 6 flavors, can't remember all the favors but I know I liked the black pepper the most.

Kerepek Ubi Uncle's home

Uncle's stock

Stop #3 - Ever famous Pau at Tg Sepat

No tourist will miss this location. In fact, it's just a street away from where we bought the chips. Look at the queue, and it flew all the way to the main street. Imagine how tourists queue up under the hot sun.

Since we didn't fancy, we made ourselves towards a place to chill. Passion fruit drink was nice. And its local coffee was good too. It's shopping time!

Queue at the famous Pau

Passion fruit drink

Local coffee

Stop #4 - Home made fish balls

(Google coordinate : 2.659611,101.568236)

Another hidden supplier for the locals. We made to another local's house for their homemade fish balls. It was great, and obviously not commercial. Just like those feel of not needing to literally fight with tourists.

Home made fish balls

Made to fed under the hot sun

Stop#5 - Hai Keng Seafood

(Google Coordinate : 2.655535,101.566227)

Last highlight by our local guide. Another local hidden place to dine. We all love the  traditional ambience, overlooking the sea. We had pretty nice sea breeze that afternoon. Lunch was good, with serving of tody + stout, local fried fish, and many many special local dishes we had not try before. It was tasty.... awesomely good.

Hai Keng in Hokkien means Sea View

Local styled restaurant

Toddy with stout

Lala fried Bihun

Local fried fish

Fish meal and fried cuttle fish

The bill for 12 pax

Stop#6 - Gold Coast Morib

This was unintentional, but we wanted to check out if we could have any possible plan to have a 2 days 1 night stay over.

Gold Coast Morib

The Lobby

Crab hunting by the beach

Very summarized trip report. Nevertheless, the lunch was great :) Return is on its way.