Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Imagine fresh and piping hot from the wok on the outside; a piece of crunchy fried chicken marinated with turmeric powder and a handful of spices; complemented by the fragrance of curry leaves. Don’t leave Ma Chai (stands for Twin Brothers) without chomping on at least a piece of this!

I left Petaling Jaya early this morning; driving home and already setting food itineraries in my head while stifling that yawn; no thanks to the late night supper of chicken satay in Paramount Garden. Wait, let me rephrase that a bit.

I was having breakfast at Annie1 in Damansara Uptown yesterday morning, and was already craving for a plate of REALLY good chee cheong fun (CCF is a serving of steamed rice noodle rolls, commonly served with a myriad of sauces, toasted sesame seeds and fried shallots; and optional sides of pickled green chillies and stuffed beancurd). And almost instantly …. the Menglembu Ma Chai’s version came to mind; behold the gloriously sinful sights of curry wild boar, sambal petai (stinkbeans) and curry pig’s skin ….

Back here for the long Raya break and kept hearing about Plan B, STG and JJ Lifestyle Cafe, yet you’re actually longing for something authentic, hardcore-delicious and cheap? Try venturing towards Menglembu.

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A feast of traditional Hakka Yong Tau Foo (Stuffed Fish Paste), and a few extra sides @ Wah Kiow, Lorong Peel in Maluri, Kuala Lumpur.

The hunt for good yong tau foo continues. Was severely demoralized from the first Ampang Yong Tau Foo experience back then (not the famous Foong Foong, but heard from colleagues that Foong Foong’s not that exceptional nowadays), but faith restored in the eventual Puchong YTF excursion.

Since then, I have not come across another YTF stall worthy of recommendation. Paramount Garden’s Kheong Kee is but another one of those so-so outlet we frequent, but more so for the porridge and the sake of convenience than die-die must try yong tau foo.

Serenity in the realm of chaos. You can imagine their hardship on a daily basis; stuffing, boiling and frying those pieces of fish+pork+salted fish paste made from securely-guarded traditional Hakka recipes.

And next in line was this Yong Tau Foo stall at Lorong Peel in Maluri, Kuala Lumpur. Been itching to go all the way from Ipoh for a chance at this, ever since watching this on Taste With Jason food show on Astro. But to no avail.

You know lah … procrastination, and the fact that the short weekend getaways last time were barely enough for all the food on my list. Then I relocated to PJ and …. ta-dah!!!

A review finally, on this stall best described as traditional, humble and damn famous.

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A sudden two days one night excursion to that same hot springs park we ventured to back in 2008 had me feeling somewhat thankful; no matter how mundane the itinerary might get. After all, this might very well be the LAST outing with my current colleagues. After 3 whole years of tirelessly travelling on the roads, to the most ‘ulu’ (rural, outskirts) of places, eating at the most off-beat stalls and nameless eateries, putting up nights after nights in hotels, budget inns, training centres and even dodgy chalets.

With the size of a drumstick smaller than the size of a fork, is your interest piqued?

More on the surprisingly comfortable, pleasant and delightful stay at FELDA Residences Sungai Klah later. For now, let’s forgo the formalities, leave out the generics and clean your palate from the same old flavours.  Let’s do ‘exotic meats’ in Lawan Kuda of Gopeng ……

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Curry Wild Boar (RM12/USD3.90) – Cubes of chunky, gamey meat from the wild, paired with potatoes in a thick, robust curry paste. Typical Chinese style of dry curry dishes.

Talk about hectic. Pardon me, for Motormouth just returned from another short excursion to Kuala Lumpur, and suffering the wrath of heavy, torrential downpour somewhere along the expressway.

But as they say; ‘When life gives you lemon, you make lemonade?’ The saying somewhat rang true when the foodie instincts suddenly kicked in and off we went for an early dinner at Fu Man Restaurant in Tanjung Malim. Or so we thought, already contemplating on the prospects of licking our fingers from the delicious deep fried salted pork belly or even a serving of the almost extinct dish of stir-fried pig’s large intestines with pineapples.

Lo and behold, Fu Man was packed to the brim! A few tourist buses were parked haphazardly by the road, and we suspected something amiss when a few diners were standing around waiting impatiently although there were a few vacant tables here and there. The restaurant was booked by the tour agency, and this called an immediate alternative around town ….. Read the rest of this entry »

Updated (9/11/2009) – This post was featured in The Star Sunday Metro dated 8th November 2009. You can read the article at The Star Online at the following link : Memorable Chow

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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