Motormouth From Ipoh – A Malaysian Food Blog

Continuation from the previous post of Chalet Air Panas @ Pengkalan Hulu ….

In case you’re wondering, what else to do in Pengkalan Hulu, en route to your most sinful destination of Betong in Thailand (over the border, about 7km away from the custom checkpoint – for more information hop over to our 3 days/2 nights Betong experience last year), you can consider appeasing that hungry beast deep within you, with some simple Chinese food or Hainanese fare. Yup, read that right. Hainanese food in Pengkalan Hulu, courtesy of Gong An Restaurant. With a solid 30+ years of history, and opens from 11.30am until 9.30pm everyday, this restaurant is but a mere handful of Chinese restaurants in the small town, and possibly the only one that’s pork free. (Do correct me if I’m wrong)

Hainanese Style Fish & Chips (RM10.00)

A little underwhelmed by the spread served in Chalet Air Panas, we took a most delightful detour to town in search for some food. REAL food. Our eyes spied on a few Chinese restaurants believed to serve ‘Dai Chow’ type of cuisine (Rice with Dishes, and Noodles), one being 126 Seafood Restaurant, another named Huang Chau which I’ll get to later in this post, and of course, Gong An Hainan Restaurant which also acts as a guesthouse, All three restaurants are situated on the main road of Pengkalan Hulu named Jalan Iskandar, hence locating them requires no complicated directions whatsoever.

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Tranquility reigns supreme in the town of Pengkalan Hulu, in northern Perak

Pardon the hiatus. Been up and down Perak so often lately I’m having recurring nightmares. Really. In a short span of two weeks, I have been to Kuala Kangsar for four times, Taiping for three, and eventually culminated in the ‘grand finale’ of 4 days spent in Gerik-Pengkalan Hulu (both northern-most towns of Perak, with the latter sharing the border with our neighbour Thailand) last weekend.

And NOT for holidays, mind you. All in the name of work. See? J2Kfm REALLY, REALLY works lah …. unlike what most of you might be thinking, reading posts after posts of outstation travels.

Chalet Air Panas, aka Hot Spring Chalet in Pengkalan Hulu. The newer chalets with the most classic, wooden ‘kampung’ house setting. And to tickle your fancy, do consider skinny-dipping in the hot water canal running around the middle of the chalets!

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Curry Wild Boar’s Meat

A year ago, we went before to this restaurant for a meal. A restaurant with a name almost passing off as an expletive in Cantonese; Chau Y (ahem) Restaurant in the small town of Gerik in Perak.(For the previous post – The Gerik-Pengkalan Hulu Trail (Pt2))

Gerik may not sound like a familiar name to most, unless you’re one who travels to Betong often (you can of course, see how ‘often’ I actually crossed the border to the land of sins with a 3 days excursion to Betong last year, and subsequently a day trip (!!) to Betong recently), or you’re passing by the town en route to the east coast, arriving in Jeli (that’s a town in Kelantan, not the jiggly sweets you might be thinking!) then Kota Bharu in a matter of 4-5 hours. And that reminds me of the long overdue Kelantan posts I promised months ago …….

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After the slightly disappointing breakfast (or probably I was expecting too much), we moved on, or rather sped off to Pengkalan Hulu for our real job at hand. Wondering where in the world is this town? It’s roughly 42 km north of Gerik, at the Malaysia-Thai border. Yup, Perak HAS a Thai border after all. The neighbouring town is Betong in Thailand. We did not manage to cross over this time, but someday down the line, we won’t hold back our urges. (I meant that in a good way … stop thinking otherwise) =P

If you’re wondering what we did there, make a wild guess. I’m sure it’s easy enough with all these photos assisting, no?

No, we’re not officers from the customs department. We do not even wear uniforms. Nah … nevermind. During lunch break, we inched our way closer to the border by crossing the custom, and proceeded to …..

Yup, DUTY FREE. Magic words for shopaholics?

Don’t mind the cam whore … LOL

We did not buy any chocolates, liquor, or cigarettes. But instead, we bought a tin of candies each. Yeah, supposedly on offer, 2 tins for RM10. No pic, sorry. “Supposedly” imported from UK.

Variety of fruits sold at the border

Various local fruits on display, but be reminded that the prices may vary, and not all variety is cheaper than the ones you can buy from your grocery store. But the ‘dokong‘ is considered a steal, at RM5/kg, if buy in bulk, you can get RM4/kg even! But I’m no fan of the fruit, thus did not purchase any.

These, on the other hand, are my absolute favourite! But I dunno how to pick good ones from bad ones. Naive me? End up did not buy any as well. Muahaha ….

The final arch, leading to the town of pleasures …. (“,)

Look at the camwhore @ work, again …

Lunch was a simple meal in town, at a restaurant called C.K.S. Probably the initials of the owner? Dare not ask, to avoid being labelled as nosy outsiders. We had our meals here before, and the food quality was passable.

Braised Rice with Seafood (Wui Fan) RM3.50

Since there were only TWO of us, we did not order ‘dai chow’ but instead chose to have individual portions. KYT praised their ‘Wui Fan’, with lots of ingredients thrown in for good measures, and the rice braised and cooked to perfection.

Sweet and Sour Pork Rice RM5

My rice arrived much later, probably cz the chef was cooking for the next table which ordered the same dish. Though slightly pricey for a restaurant of such scale, the meat was deep-fried until crispy, and marinated well before frying. The tomato gravy concocted was just nice, tangy enough, yet not overwhelmingly sour.

Goodbye peaceful town …

After the meal, we decided to skip the afternoon session at the customs, and proceeded back to Gerik for some unsettled matters. Truth be told, the authority/men-in-uniforms working there are a bunch of inefficient personnels. Sigh …..

~ The End ~

…. continued from Part 2

Tropical paradise? … Nah …

Breakfast on the next day was a simple affair, at a half-open air outlet, resembling a medan selera/morning market eatery.Situated at Jalan Takong Datok, a stone’s throw away from our Hotel Avana.

Lady selling wantan mee (noodles with pork/prawn dumplings)

There were at least 10 stalls operating that morning, with the morning crowd mostly condensed at the same area, probably relishing the yong tau foo with noodles. But KYT wanted wantan mee instead, so we chose to park our derrieres nearby a pau/dimsum stall, next to a wantan mee stall.

Wantan mee with Char Siew (BBQ Pork) (RM2.40)

The difference between the noodles sold here, compared to the ones in Ipoh, is the one being sold here is slightly thicker, but KYT commented the noodles lacked the bounce normally associated with the egg noodles, and gave his seal of DISapproval.

Char Siew Pau (RM1.20) with Milk Tea

I opted for a lighter breakfast, in hope of devouring the almighty yau char kueh (Chinese crullers) at Pengkalan Hulu, which we had during the previous trip. (Trust me, there ain’t no other LARGER yau char kueh you can find). Thought of snapping a photo of the pau’s fillings, but was sorely disappointed to discover minimal, mediocre fillings. The milk tea fared much better however, even trumping the mamak stall’s version.

(…. to be continued, again …)