Surprisingly good cendol at PJ

I recently had a bowl of nice cendol in Section 17 PJ after my favourite chicken rice stall and it was a wonderful addition to the small food outlets in the vicinity.

Not sure where they came from but it looks like they have opened from an original shop somewhere...

The simple no-frills decor is good as it cuts down passing the cost to consumers

The star of the show -  a bowl of nice cendol with red beans. Not only you get a spoonful on top, the inside of the cendol is also filled with red bean paste - total satisfaction and clever.

They also offer other Nyonya fares like Mee Siam and Nasi Lemak...

And kuih Chang (rice dumplings)...

pastries and cakes

liked the less colouring approach to making traditional kuihs...

70 year-old chinese restaurant at old Pudu in KL

A couple of weeks ago, my friend took me to a restaurant that gave me a real nolstagic jostling. Smack on the busy street of old pudu is a restaurant that stood for more than 70 years on its original structure and I think that is rare in KL. 

Restoran Sek Yuen. Built in old Straits Chinese Bauhaus-influenced style in a rather open plan (reminds me of buildings in my early childhood), the restaurant has ample air circulation which is more adapted to our hot and humid weather than today's cramped side shops over-flowing with hot stalls so common in PJ and Bangsar. The parking however is restricted to the back lane which is quite dodgy if you have a big car though...

the facade

entrance

cavernous structure of the interior, much like a pavillion

really old furniture with formeca-lined table top straight from the 60s! The worn patch is a testament to its years of repeated wiping and frictions...

liked that the owners took the pain to keep black and white photographs of the culinary processes in the kitchen on the walls

old-fashioned banquet plates made from aluminium - so 70s

standard condiments offered for the meals to come

a simple rustic chicken herbal soup (Yook Chook)

rice is served individually in tiffin-like containers. Refreshing but tad too much for small picky eaters like me...

my standard benchmark for Chinese restaurants: sweet and sour pork. Though a very common fair and rather simple, to get a perfect "Koo Low Yook" is an art and not many restaurants can pass the test of a crispy skin and soft easy center and a sweet and sour sauce that is well balanced. This one got a 6 out of 10 approval from me (considered a good dish)...

their signature dish - Pei Pa Ngap (Spiced Roast Duck). Rustic and hearty with sour plum sauce.

a simple sauteed "Thong Hor" vege -  kind of like a very tender Aster or Chrysanthemum plant that is comestible. Nice in soup and stir fries.

The Maitre-D is a very nice lady by the name "Choo Chay" meaning Sister Choo. Just don't call her lady boss or she will have a word or two with you...Price is reasonable for KL and definitely worth checking out for their other old-world rustic dishes lost in today's nouvelle Chinese cuisine and fusion cuisine.

Rustic Duck Rice in Raub

This is not the best duck rice in the planet but it certainly is a very satisfying one. It is one of those "must do" places in Raub if you ever go there to join the weekend "jalan-jalan cari makan" horde of local tourists. One warning though, they sell out way before noon and so it is actually quite difficult to get anything from the stall if we follow the city schedule of eating lunch.

The stall is located in Kampong Bukit Koman (gold mining village) right at the edge of the small stream that passes by the village and sells principally rice and noodles with roast duck and char siew (barbecued pork). On the side, there are also the usual poached eggs and pig intestines in dark soya sauce as well as authentic Yong Tau Foo (stuffed Tau Foo). Their soup, sold separately, is intense, dark, herbal and very rustic. A good strong bodied soup for those who has the liking for such things...

 Authentic stuffed tau foo and tau foo pok

 Poached eggs and intestines are offered too, with rice or noodles.

Raison d’être of the stall - their plump and rustic ducks well roasted with crispy skin and a very nice fermented bean paste sauce. 

Traditional Chinese fares in Raub

In the once almost forgotten gold-mining village in Raub called Bukit Koman, there are 2 existing traditional Chinese cake makers that still survive thanks to the spurt in local tourism in recent years and of course, it didn't hurt that they got featured in TV and YouTube makan-makan shows. Well, now they are mostly fuelled in parts by the durian economy as a by product of durian tourism. One particular one called Chop Yoon Thye was the go to brand in Raub when we were children and recently, I made a stop to get some more "rustic" moon cakes after having had those fancy city ones ad nauseum with too much untraditional flavours and colours not to mention a few. These days, buying moon cakes is more like buying a fancy box with a few fancy moon cakes thrown in as a gift. Too much commercialisation of a traditional event I think...

 Well they updated the packaging to go with the packs - used to be rolled in a cylindrical packaging of white glassine paper with a red label.

 Modern packaging but at least the moon cakes still taste "traditional" a.k.a rustic. A good substitute to wean off the commercialized products in the city.

 The lady of the house. It was her husband's grand papa's recipe that we are having here...

 House speciality: a rather soft and chewy glutinous rice cake

 Outside the shop, they sell traditional fares like dumplings, "chien loong pau" (meaning pan-fried pau) and "ham chien piang" (meaning salted fried bun). All as hakka as can get...

 Even more - traditional Chinese cakes known as "char kor" (meaning tea cakes). The yellow ones are of mung bean paste filling and the redones red bean paste filling. The green one is called a "chit chang kau" or 7-layered cake.

 The dark one on the left is a "chu-yap pan" or herbal leaf cake. Seasonal.

 White one is always made of radish and dried prawn filling. All these cakes are made of glutinous rice flour skin, sit on a piece on Jack fruit leaf (never banana which is the hallmark of Malay cakes) and steamed.

Finally, the bane of my childhood: steamed egg cakes.

Up Gunung Jerai (a.k.a Kedah Peak)

If one drives along the North-South Highway en route to Alor Setar, chances are that one will catch the glimpse of this isolated rocky mountains from Gurun with some coomunication towers on the peak... well, the curiosity gets the better of me and so I booked a night at the Regency Jerai Hill Resort at the false summit of the Jerai Hills.

A view from above the barren clifts at 1000 M above sea level.

Basically the hotel is very basic for the price and being the only hotel up there, there isn't really any choice for food, which was very average as far as hotel goes....the route up was surprisingly easy and hassle free (if you are used to bends and curves on the road). As we were there during the dryer part of the year, even at 1000 m above sea level, it was basically quite warm - and the fact that the rooms only has ceiling fans was not very convenient not comfortable. 

The actual reason I went up for the trip was for a quick survey of the insect fauna - helas a disappointment with very little activities. The forest is basically dry, barren and the flowering plants do not have many butterflies on them.

Came across a flock of 5 Orange-Bellied Trogons on the way up to the tower.

and this Red Billed Malkoha on the side of the tarmac (there were 2 of them together)...

Lepidoptera activities was not very forthcoming for such an iconic collection locality in the past...

 Above - the striking day flying moth Milonia brassolis visiting Lantana

 a female Glassy Tiger fluttered by...

Another moth came to the flowers

The Common Earl, Tanaecia julii xiphiones was the "commonest" butterfly around the trail up the peak...

gnarled trees on the wind-swept clifts

view of the peak from Padang Tok Sheikh

 Above the bloom of the Bromheadia orchid...

 Moss and lichen abound near the peak

The red-trunked Eugenia is common...