Another New Dig in town

Last week, a friend asked me out for lunch on Sunday in Cheroh, a village about 12km from Raub... it was for checking out this another new place in town which everyone was talking about recently (even my doctor talked about it!) and so, off we go...

Well, the place is not isolated as in the Happy Valley Resort at Kampung Asap but rather nestled on the slopes of a durian orchard behind the village itself, on the other side of the river. The place is still in full construction everywhere but the guest houses and the restaurant are already open to the public. Looks like Raub is turning fast into an eco-tourism town with so many mini resorts popping up everywhere catering to the local weekend tourists. Fascinating.

As it was midday, it was a bit dusty, extremely hot and humid at the restaurant area. There are water features around the place but somehow the covers are not sufficient to protect the place from the scorching sun. I can imagine the guest houses under the scorching heat...don't think I want to be there just yet. As most of the tables were taken, we somehow managed to wait awhile and got one of the three gazebos that was much better insulated against the heat...by the way, the place is called Laman Persona in malay and "Song Huang Ge" in Mandarin - beats the hell out of me but I think it means something like pine grove or something (where's the pine???).

view of the place...spared everyone from the brown earth on the left and right sides of the resort...

 walkway to the restaurant...

 The main guest house which is actually the owners' abode. Not for rent.

 The gazebos.

 A water wheel in the garden. Water is pumped from the river.

Close-up of the gazebo. Everything is rather Chinese-themed.

 The real test starts here : Duck in house specialty way. Tastes like regular stewed ginger duck. Didn't pass the service test as servers are rather clumsy and offer weird excuses for shortcomings, eg saying out of ice cubes for serving overly concentrated orange juice and not listening to orders properly. We went back a week later for dinner just to try out the menu again but this time, it was worse - dishes were under seasoned and there were huge green houseflies everywhere attacking you while you try to eat. I supposed they need to look into their waste disposal practices when this happens...

 seaweed soup.

 braised pork trotters. Need more stewing time.

 Deep fried squid coated with salted egg. Nice but too much MSG in the batter (probably explains why)

Kangkung stir fried with belacan (water convovulus stir fried with shrimp paste)

 tiny pool with deck near the guest houses

 view of the restaurant from the pool

the guest houses 

 the camp area still under construction

Empurau Feast

Some time back, a friend graciously gave me a 2.7 kg Kelah (Tor tambroides) and it was sitting in my freezer for awhile while waiting some an occasion to be savoured. Well, this fish has many names depending where you are in Asia (generally called Mahseers) and in Sarawak, it is called Empurau. Restaurants like to call it "Wang Pu Liau" meaning unforgettable to justify its pricy tag (at RM1000 a kilo on the dinner plate, who'll ever forget!!!). Whatever and whichever, it sounds terrible to ever say that I actually grew up eating tons of these because in the olden days, this fish is just 'a fish'. My father would go fish hunting with his buddies or my uncle almost every week with a spear gun and came back with gunny sacks of these in all sizes. The one that we had at 2.7 kg would have been a tiny one in those days ( I have seen one the size of a 10 year old child when I was a boy and in the 90s at Kuala Medang, scales of a kelah bigger than a fifty cent coin selling at RM14 a kilo)....we had so much of it that it actually kind of a traumatised me and it took me quite awhile to get over eating freshwater fish.

Well, taste wise, a good river fish (kelah/emparau, krai, tenggalan, patin buah and jelawat) should have a fruity aroma at its belly and skin because they would have grown up eating a diversified diet inclusive of wild figs, fruits and semi-aquatic herbs (especially the aromatic Kesum that gets flooded on banks of rivers during the monsoon). Cage-reared fishes do not have these qualities but many restaurants still pass them off as river fish - so be prudent.

As there weren't any occasion, and that the fish should not be kept too long in a freezer, we decided to take it down to KL for dinner with my sister's family and they have chosen this restaurant called Big Nose at Kuchai Lama. Here's the result...

Salted egg bitter gourd - surprisingly delicious and savoury

 Steamed trio of eggs - fresh egg, salted duck egg and century egg.

 Herbal chicken soup served individually

I like this vegetable - a cross between garlic and leek called Green Dragon vegetable in Chinese. This is a recent hybrid slowly getting popular in Chinese restaurants.

 Deep fried sweet-savoury pork - the kids loved this addictive dish.

 De-boned chicken with fish paste - don't like this dish as it has a funny taste combination: fishy stuff doesn't mix well with chicken.

 Star of the show - the Empurau. It must be steamed with its scales intact to avoid damage to the sensitive skin which is deliciously infused with a fruity arome. Some even deep fry the scales to be eaten as crackers. An excellent fish.

Carcassonne in the Midi Region of France

Out of forgetfulness, I've always thought that I have blogged about this fortified citadel in the Midi Region of France but a check showed that I had not- and so here it goes, ramblings from the back of my mind...

 View of the citadel from the rest area of the auto route...

 At the entrance.

 impressive walls and tourets...

 detail of a carving at the entrance wall

 Within the first layer of wall is an avenue giving rise to a secondary fortification.

a well in the middle of the walled-city

 school museum

 details of the chapel's external walls

 the walls of many hotels and shops are covered with vines like these.

 View from one of the many facades of the fortified city

 Johan hiding coyly behind me...

 View of a gallo-roman church from atop the walls of Carcasonne

This part of the wall has a mediterranean 'feel' to it. It is on the more 'sauvage' part of the citadel.

The walled-in city has a peripheric external wall with walkways for tourists to explore and the views are stunning and impressive over the arid plains. Inside, the walled-in city is a maze of walls with surprising finds everywhere. We lunched at a restaurant inside a walled-in section (forgot to take photo) and had afternoon tea in another open air cafe under a huge chestnut tree within some walls...phew

There are also shows in the evening (joustling I think) all based on the medieval themes. A must visit if ever to come to this part of France...and yeah, these photos are from the summer of 2006.