Verves In Composition » Holidays

A Piece of Serendah

April — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:37:04 +0000

Part of the experience of living is the experience itself. Speaking of experiences in Malaysia, I would strongly encourage the idea of living in an area where you are transported to dreams by the lullabies sung my throating crickets and falling leaves; and waking up to filtered sunlight cocktailed with the scent of green.

Nestled amongst the state of Selangor's secondary rainforests, is the eco-tourism spot of "Sekeping Serendah" literally translated to 'a piece of Serendah' which is less than an hour's drive from the city.

I just had to pick this place for the Company's weekend retreat. My friends who have their own testimonials about this place will never let me off the hook if I didn't secure this.

I absolutely love the glass sheds here. Contradictory from the lack of visual privacy, I partially enjoy the vista of no walls. Quite a treat for those with a voyeuristic fetish as well.

The glass shed is a simple construction of wood, glass and zinc sheets equipped with cooking utensils, a microwave, some basic furniture and is incredibly airy and cool. BBQ pit right on your front door too.

My glass shed had a hammock! Whee!

A narrow banister-free wooden stairs takes you up to a cozy bed room with a view of green to die for.

Yes. Most of the bedding materials are from Ikea. The mattress is placed on a huge wired mesh (which I keep hammering my toes into by accident and it hurts!) but surprisingly comfortable

Oh, yes. EVERYONE wants to know what the toilets are like. No worries. HEATED WATER...in the open air. Happy will you be to have not only water streaming down your head but leaves and small twigs going 'Geronimo'. I swear you may get a tiny shock or two with a brief impression that a lizard has just lost it's grip and drops by to say hi in your comfort zone.

Fart in the toilet and maybe hear an echo or two amplified through the vibrations of the zinc walls.

Then again. How could you pass this out? The night is teeming with life and parts of the retreat bathes in the soft yellow glow of spotlights.

A piece of heaven, right here on earth .

East Coast Gastro Fest: Restoran Muhibbah, Kuantan

April — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 17:32:15 +0000

With Lydia still craving for her fix of Fried Sotong and me yearning to learn the roads in Kuantan, we drove into the then unknown territories of Padang Lalang (well,... unknown to us). Since it is an industrial area, Padang Lalang looks like the kind of place that is so well suited for filming the local industrial horror stories at night.

We were about to turn back when I noticed a small road sign. Following 3 of the same signs later led us to a brightly lit corner behind a seafood processing factory cars all parked until it backed up into the main road.

Your typical seafood restaurant, Malaysian Chinese style. Fumbling with our limited Cantonese food vocabulary we just requested for several recommendations including Lydia's much craved for Fried Sotong.

These were served as CHUNKS deep fried to a golden hue. You don't usually get chunky squid served like that in Kuala Lumpur.
The second dish that arrived was a steaming metal dish of fried mee hoon with about 2 1/2 crabs.

Nothing really fancy or different about this, but it's got really fresh crab meat that you can dig into The final dish were some prawns with hints of oyster sauce, green pepper, shallots and black sauce. I really can't recall the proper name of the way these prawns were done, but they were pretty good. The whole dining experience only cost us barely RM50.00 so it was quite worth it for a meal for two.Here's what Lydia's own thoughts. That's probably cause she's gotten her craving for fried sotong ;P

East Coast Gastro Fest: Sg Katong Curry Laksa

April — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:45:03 +0000

Not too long ago, I took a short road trip down to Kuantan with Lydia on a hunt for good weekend food.

With no maps and only names of restaurants scribbled down in a pocket notepad, we arrived for lunch in surprise to see much of Kuantan shops closed or barely occupied by patrons.

"Maybe folks here eat at home..."

Circling around the commercial blocks near Berjaya Mall, we stumbled across a shop that was lit and the word 'laksa' just above the entrance. Aprons and posters and newspaper cuttings as testimony for us to take a gamble on our limited vacant stomach space to give it a go (of course we were hungry as well)

Meet our lunch, a fantastic bowl of Sg. Katong Curry Laksa.

I found my lunch tastefully presented for a coffee-shop styled meal with the fish cakes fanned out , half a slice of lime balanced on a hard boiled egg cut in the same manner, Cockles and shreds of chicken gathered in their own batches on one side.
Don't request for your usual Yellow noodles or Bee Hoon mix or insist on it. Go for the laksa noodles which compliment the whole taste and texture for a different experience. Try it with and without squeezing the lime. I pinched some of Lydia's bowl to taste it without lime, but personally it goes better with lime

What really differs about this laksa compared to your usual curry laksa is the texture of the gravy/soup. Instead of a homogenous mix of drippy soup, there is a delightfully sloppy mix of santan in it.

Although the Katong Laksa is a Singaporean brainchild, the one in Kuantan provides a Curry Laksa meal like no other. It's not too salty, nor sweet like some oddly spiced Laksa(s). It's all in the texture.