Food Off-the-Beaten Track

Dear Readers and Contributors,

This blog is created to list special food not found commonly every where. Maybe food in your hometown or current place where you are staying which you think poor ignorant souls like me and Keriso MUST TRY... No need to be dedicated to write in English, Malay or Manglish are also welcomed. Grammar no need to be perfect but try not to use your local Kelantanese of Kedahans slang though ahaha cos we might have a tough time deciphering them.

Those who're globe trotting on their jobs too might wanna intro to us what you've eaten plus most importantly, what's so great about them. It would be a great eye opener for country pumpkin like me. Heh!

Simple write up of the specials, any secrets that you can derive, how to locate this place, well, a map will be great. No need high tech stuff, hand drawn then scanned or snapped with digicam will do liau. Errr, if you could upload your photos on this place especially the food, then it would be great. You may upload your photos using this, this or this. Those who are gonna post up non-halal reviews, pls place a warning at the start of your entry. Thanks for your consideration.

Some of you have mentioned how to rate the food as it's pretty subjective. Well, let's just be reasonable ok. I guess we're not to hold each other responsible on this matter, I beg you guys some sort of masuk akal stuff to justify your recommendations.
As I quote here:

"Say for example, Ijok Beggar Chicken which is must try if you are there. OK there may be debate on how special it is, but we want to dig out those hidden secrets of a certain place, town, village or area. And we want to be quite discriminating. Sekali some poor soul go all the way to KB and found the food is really so so, no point lah." ~Keriso

So I hope you guys get it. Now, let's get down dirty and makan our way thru.

**I'm gonna place this post all the way up, ok**

Sago Worms

Article contributed by Kong Kay in conjunction of Merdeka Open House 2007: Muhibbah.





Sago worms, a delicacy among the indigenous people of Sarawak. The worms thrives on the fell trunks of the Sago palm, The cultivation of Sago palm is found along the coastal plains of Mukah, Sarawak, whose inhabitants are mostly Melanaus.

The worms are eaten live, or just fried. And I'm sure there other treatments that can be done to the worms by other cultures. To eat live ones, hold (cleaned) one by its head, pop its wriggling body, tail first, into ones mouth, then bit at the tip of its head, jerk off its head, and throw away. Chew away! Its innards is creamy and tastes like rich creamy toffee; no eerie taste or smell as one would have imagined. If I'm not mistaken, this thing is full of protein.

The worms we had came with some sago dust from the trunk. To clean the worms, pick up each individual worm and shake off its dust; then rinse them in running water to remove any further particles of the sago dust. Let them dry of moisture.

Heat up a dry wok on medium heat. When the wok is hot, throw in the worms and toss and turn them using a spatula. When the worm are not wiggling - dead - they are done. Don't over fry them, because its inside will start to boil and will bust at its tummy. It tastes best when certain potions are slightly seared, making it crisp and crunchy.

One can eat it straight; it tastes good on its own. Or it can be dipped into salt before consuming. Processed Sago corns (like white peppercorn in the photo) are used as accompaniment; pop one worm into the mouth, chew a few times to release its cream, then pop a handful of Sago corns into the mouth. The mixture of the sweet powder of sago corn and the cream of the worm enhances the whole munching experience.

There's an urban legend that a native kid popped one live worm and swallowed the whole thing; imagine what the worm can do if it can bite into the hard trunk of the Sago palm. The kid never lived to tell the tale. The moral of the story, kid, is chew your food well!

The Sago worms were fried at stall no. 12, Pulau Babi Hawker Stall, Sibu. It's fried by the sixteen year old daughter of the proprietress, Justine.

Garden Seafood Restaurant (Halal)

Tanjung Malim, a town about 70km away from Klang Valley, is the very first town in Perak after the Perak-Selangor border. The town used to be a stop-over town for city folks when they travel up north via the trunk road. Today, with the North-South Highway, nobody seems to stop-over here anymore and it has turned into a sleepy town.

Speaking about food in Tanjung Malim, most people will know about the famous halal Hainanese Yik Mun pau which is located conveniently at the Tanjung Malim interchange.

However, Tanjung Malim is not just about pau Today, Loctor will be introducing a good restaurant, the Garden Seafood restaurant.

I have been introduced to this restaurant by my parents in-law and they claim that the food here is somewhat the best in Tanjung Malim due to its nice atmosphere, friendly service, cleanliness and of course, good food.

We took our seats and decided to order their fried dao gan (a vegetarian food made from beans) with mushrooms, lemon chicken and the butter fried fish fillets.

While waiting for the food to arrive, I checked out the decorations..

The walls are full of cuckoo and grandfather clocks all showing ten minutes past ten O’clock. Ha ha… lots of ’smiley faces’.

The place is really clean, and is divided into smoking and non-smoking area. The non-smoking area is air conditioned. Not bad at all. In the background soft music is played so that.. erm.. you get to swallow better? Woa ha ha ha ha…

Soon, our food arrived. The first would be the fried dao gan with mushrooms:

Stir fried with carrots and peas, the dish is absolutely delicious. The gravy is not too thick and very aromatic. The bite sizes dao gan is just nice to be eaten with white rice and a little bit of cili padi on the sides.

Next up the Lemon Chicken arrived.

Just by looking at it, you can’t help yourself but to quickly grab a piece and put it in your mouth. The lemon sauce mixes well with the deep fried chicken cutlets gives it a very nice tangy taste. The chicken meat is not too hard and the skin is deliciously crunchy!

Finally, our last dish the butter fried fish fillets.

Oh my, how can you not go hungry looking at this?

I’m not sure what fish was used but the smell of sweet butter mixed together with the crunchy fried soya protein is absolutely heavenly! Bits of lemon grass (i think) also helps to give the dish a very nice balanced taste.

Together with one pot of tea and 2 plates of rice, the bill came up to slightly below RM35 for two persons. Not bad at all for such a hearty meal!

I highly recommend this restaurant to you guys who think that Tanjung Malim is all about Pau only Woahahaha..

The restaurant’s other famous dish includes the Nyonya steamed fish, char koay teow and deep fried taufu amongst others.

To reach Garden Seafood restaurant, from the highway exit at the Tanjung Malim interchange, take the 2nd left turn into Tanjung Malim and go straight on till you see it on your right. You will have to make a U-turn to reach it so don’t worry when you passed the restaurant.

The address is: 7-8, Jln Wangsa Utama, Taman Wangsa, 35900 Tanjung Malim.

In case you would like to make reservations, please call 05-458 3398.

Oh… for gearheads.. the GPS coordinates are:

N 03° 41.895′

E 101° 30.807′

Tambun Seafood!

If you're in Penang and when you mention the word 'seafood', the locals will recommend you to several places but one place that will never be forgotten is Tambun.

Tambun is located on the southern tip of mainland Butterworth. The place is full of seafood restaurants each claiming to serve the freshest and cheapest seafood. To me, I like a place that has a nice atmosphere, easy to find and has lots of car park available.

Hence, one place that I will always go when having Tambun seafood is the Fish Village Seafood Restaurant:



If you're driving from the South, go along the North South Highway until you reach the Bukit Tambun exit. After the toll, you'll reach a T-junction. Turn right and go straight till you reach a cross road. Just go straight and you will see this restaurant located on your left. Very easy to find and car parks are plenty. Make sure you go early (~6pm++) to get tables else you'll have to wait.

The choices of seafood are aplenty, you can go to the aquariums and select whatever you want to eat.



I had the sweet and sour sauce crabs:



and also the mango strips with cuttle fish deep fried fish:



Both are very nice and absolutely delicious!!! The seafood are very fresh too.

As side orders, we tried the special satay:



The satay sticks are first dipped into the peanut sauce first before being BBQ-ed. Very nice and special indeed.

So what's the cost of the meal?

2 crabs : RM18.90
Fish : RM15
Satay: RM6.00 for 10 sticks
Chinese Tea: RM2
Some other charges which I don't really bother: RM1

Cheap cheap! :D

We were listed in KLUE!!!

Hip hip hurray!!!!

I didn't know we were listed in November 2005 issue of KLUE magazine. Just saw them at julie the biscuit. Check out what the mag wrote about this blog here.

However, I'm really sorry at the rate this blog is updated. I have not been to any far flung places for ages. I hope my fellow bloggers could help me out a bit here.

Anyone out there who feels they could contribute to this blog kindly sign up with me at babe_kl(at)yahoo(dot)com.

Thanks to all and to KLUE for featuring us!

West Wing, Kuching

Every time whenever I drive past this shop, West Wing, it reminds me of the television series The West Wing, a television show created by Aaron Sorkin. I went to the restaurant last night with my friends and found out that it is a very pleasant place, especially after rain when the cool breeze is blowing through the air, gentle and refreshing. Even though this place is not as glamorous as TGI Fridays, Chilis or Dave’s, but the food is sumptuous and the price... very very reasonable. And everything is HALAL here.

Mix Grill

Grilled Fish

Fish and Chips

And the most important part... The location: Wisma Ng Aik Oh, 2½ Mile, Rock Road, 93250 Kuching, Sarawak or in close proximity from TIENS, Teledynamics or Fortune Land.

Fish & Co. Seafood Platter (Gurney Plaza)

Another post from me.

So Loctor & the Mrs went to Gurney Plaza last Saturday to try out the new restaurant at Gurney Plaza known as Fish & Co. This shop was highly recommended by friends and colleagues especially their shop specialty -- Seafood Platter.

The outlet is located at the ground floor in between McDonalds and Sushi King. I forgot what name that stretch of walkway is called. (Could be Gurney Walk or something like that...)

The ambience is nice with seafood theme decorations all over. We ordered the 'Seafood Platter for one' and also the Ice Lemon Tea.

The Tea arrived first and it was good!!! For a long time I've never tasted such a full iced lemon tea. It came in a big glass too. Unfortunately, it's bloody expensive. (~RM5 if not mistaken)

Later, our dish arrived:



Actually, there are supposed to be 5 prawns. One was quickly carted away by the Mrs as can be seen in the background.

In the kuali lookalike metal bowl, we have a strip of fish, 5 prawns, sotong tossed with spices and chilli flakes, fries and also rice.

In my opinion, the fish and prawns tasted the best. The sotongs were a bit too much and I couldn't finish it. The fries are just nice.. not too salty and soft in the insides. The rice looks like nasi briyani but tasted quite bland.

All in all, we spent ~RM35 for both food and drinks. There is another version called 'seafood platter for two' which costs RM40++ with bigger servings.

If you happen to drop by Penang, go and give it a try. You might just love it.

Loctor in OUT

p/s: the next table ordered a black pepper stingray which looks waaaaaaaaaay more appetising. Might go there and try it in the future.