Malacca Part 2 - Ikan Bakar at Umbai

I cannot resist this once I’m in Malacca. Ikan Bakar at Umbai. Lots of restaurants waiting but we have our favourite one – Haji Nasir Ikan Bakar. The foods are cheap, nice and most importantly, the foods are fresh as they are locally catch and cook as we wished.

We arrived early at 530pm, few families has arrived and start to queue to select the seafood. Here, they not only offer grilled fish, but all type of fresh sea creature like crabs, cockle, squid and oysters and of course fish. You will get a slap if you ask for Atlantic Ocean Fish like Salmon – get if from The Manhattan Fish Market.

We chose clam (lala), flower crab, golden snapper (ikan jenahak if I’m not mistaken) and squid.  It is fresh, just choose the size and amount and they will put it on the weighing scale, and make an order.

The restaurant located exactly before the estuary. Our table is uncovered one, but there is a covered section. There are no walls, so you can forget about air-conditioning. Fishing boats arrive at the shore and unload some of the seafood to the long stretch of restaurants nearby.

Some people love to enjoy the grill fish with nasi lemak. I ate my nasi lemak before the seafood served. It is a small one and the sambal is damn spicy, I totally can’t stand the heat. The otak-otak quite good compared to what we normally have in KL. But it is totally uncomparable to otak-otak in Tanjung Lumpur, Pahang. The otak-otak and sata in Tanjung Lumpur is the best that I ever had. Proud to be Pahang born.

Grill golden snapper served with special sauces that is made from tamarind juice mix with soy sauce and added bird chillies. I don’t take this. Spicy!!

Clam (lala) is very fresh and fantastic.

My favorite is the sweet and sour crab. Forget the cutlery here, enjoy the food with hand is the best. The crabmeat is sweet, white and fluffy. Best gila. The sweet and sour gravy just oke.

Deep fried squid ring. It was alright, quite nice, but not fantastically good. Serve with chilli sauce.

We ate until full and no left over.

On my way back to KL, the traffic at first quite smooth, but later..

Malacca Part 1 - The Journey, The Hotel and Malacca River Cruise

Saturday noon after work, we were off from KL, and then heading further south to spend few days at Malacca. The journey was tiring, normally it takes 2 hours to get there, but it took 5 hours! Imagine you sit in a car under the hot sun, traffic was so terrible and moving at a slow pace? Plus you were bloody hungry.

The journey

This is the place where we stay, Everly Resort  Hotel. We arrived at the hotel around 9pm and have a quick dinner before get into our room. Since we were late, there’s no vacant seat for us. Urgh sad.  No choice, thus we have to enjoy the dinner with the VIPs. It was buffet dinner, but I can’t do my buffet routine (5 plates of foods haha) since I sat in a same table with the VIPs. The food was oke, nothing exciting at all

This is my dinner

Oke before that let me do a review for the room. Despite spacious room, there are a few things that I don’t like. I do not expect to have old furniture, old tv, stain here and there on carpet. I don't deserve this for 4 star hotel, it look luxury from the outside but run down for the interior. On the good side, the staffs are quite friendly especially from the front desk. The room is spacious and is great for a big family to gather for quality time

So after we have done with dinner, and someone (can’t remember who) suggest we need to consider a river cruise since we in Malacca.

Yes it was exciting experience. A 40 minute cruise along a river cutting right through the city, with beautiful kampung house on each side. It was awesome. I saw many murals on the buildings and it tells the history of Malacca.

Watching people having their breakfast

Next day, I woke up late and what a beautiful Sunday morning and the sky was a bluebird! I was super hungry looking for a breakfast. The breakfast menu from the hotel mostly a local society cuisine. Not much choice available and the taste 2.5/5. I’m sorry hotel but the food was totally under my expectation

View from front

View from back

Forget about the food, back of the hotel, a beautiful garden around the swimming pool and looks straight onto the beach.

This is me

Temerloh : Gulai Tempoyak Ikan Patin

I went to Temerloh few weeks ago  for my GF’s wedding, and at the same time, to sniff out some good eats. Said Temerloh, what else we can think..? Gulai Tempoyak Ikan Patin lah. As Pahang born and raised in Pahang, I am so familiar with this and this is my top favourite food other than Laksa Pahang, Opor Pahang and Murtabak Mengkasar. Hoi sedap. I’m already salivating thinking about it.

After I’m done with my GF’s wedding, I head over to Pekan Temerloh to have superb Gulai Tempoyak Ikan Patin. As I arrived at food court, wow the crowd is massive and diverse - families, couples, people in uniforms (policeman, nurse etc) and big bikers. The seat was full and I decided to take away the gulai since i’m still full from the wedding. 

I got an opportunity to ask the aunty who cooks the Gulai Tempoyak. The fish is actually not wild from the river, they are actually reared in the river itself. They are in cages and still able to swim around with fresh, flowing river water running through ensuring the fishes have a clean, wholesome taste.  They cook the gulai on the premises and served instantly. So that the gulai lover get freshly cooked gulai tempoyak right on the table.
A whole fish divided into two parts only – head and tail. Each part cost RM10, worth it. So I got my gulai tempoyak for my dinner. The gravy is tasty like no other, hearty, thick enough and fantastic. The color is great and just right. I don’t need any other adornment, just gulai tempoyak itself. The fish is so fresh, no fishy taste and it is so soft. Perfect and thumbs up aunty.

My brother and I managed to finish one part each (both head part), it sounds a lot but yes we did. This is addictive as the next morning my brother said he keeps thinking of the gulai tempoyak that we had last night. FYI, I don’t take both durian and tempoyak. I cant stand the smell but gulai tempoyak, I cant even resist it! Especially during Ramadhan, gulai tempoyak is a must have for my family. So for the Gulai Tempoyak Ikan Patin lovers out there, I enclosed a recipe that I heritage from my late mom.

You´ll need:

Ikan Patin, cut into 1.5 inch thick

Bird eye chili, blended – Quantity depends on your liking

A handful of red chili, blended

About 2cm of fresh turmeric, blended

2 stalks lemon grass, pounded

1 leave of turmeric

1 cup tempoyak (durian paste)

Old cucumber, peeled, cut into cubes

Water

Salt and sugar to add taste

The cooking method is super easy like abc :)

Wash the cut fish with tamarind juice for 2 minutes to get rid the fishy smell.

Add water into pot and bring the water boil.

Add tempoyak, bird eye chili, red chili, fresh turmeric, lemon grass and turmeric leave. Mix the ingredients and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Once the gravy is boiling, add the patin and cook under low heat. Season with salt and sugar.

Switch off the heat and add cucumber.

Have a great weekend, everyone! 

Astro Fest 2011 : Face Painting

Astro Fest 2011, it was held on 12th February 2011. Urgh I'm no mood of writing so let's enjoy the photos.

This is me before

The look that I'm going to have for

This is me waiting. 3 hours!

The making of

This is me after

We are family

And this is me at home.

Happy New Year..!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE. 


Last night I went to..

 and the traffic after countdown was

I have a video to upload but it failed I don't know why :(