My KB days: Sweeeeeeeeeeeet Kota Bharu…! (Still here in Kelantan…)

More pictures of traditional kuih, most of them sweet to the point that my teeth ache…

Clockwise: the ones in plastic wrap are buah tanjung (right), then nasi kaya with layer of glutinous rice, next to it is nasi kaya without glutinous rice, the mash potato look-alike is tahi itik (no, it’s not some shit…) and the gold-like folded strands are jala emas.

Again, clockwise: the dark pancakes are akak (right), below it are bananas soaked in sugary soup @ pisang sira, and those tofu are tauhu sumbat @ stuffed deep-fried tofu, my favourite, and they are not sweet.

Another favourite of mine, jemput jemput bawang @ deep fried flour-and-onion batter. This one is a bit sweet.

And oily, that I no longer need manicure. But still quite nice.

Apam bakar (traditional pancakes), served with nyior (grated coconut). Maybe I am wrong but it smells garlicky but tastes like cinnamon. They are other versions, made with banana or extra egg. Depends, can be sweet or just-nice-sweet.

My KB days: Medan Selera Buluh Kubu, Kota Bharu (I’m still in Kelantan…)

We all felt like eating som tam so all of us headed to Medan Selera Buluh Kubu to look for it. I managed to snap pictures though some end up lousy thanks to my “skill”. And after observing the many turns and landmarks, I was at lost and now unable to explain the road…

Anyway…

Despite being a weekday night, the crowd was quite huge. Apparently the pasar malam is being held every night. Most are food vendors but 2 stalls are noted selling pirated CDs.

When I saw all the kuih, I wondered how they still have the appetite to nibble sweet stuffs at night after dinner. As usual, I don’t recognize most of them since I’ve never eaten any before, except for some of my mom’s favourite.

Bottom left, the white pudding – like thing in leaf wrapping is tepung pelita. Next on the right, the one with sticks are chicken intestines in coconut-based gravy (kuah percik). The rest, I rest my case. Even my local relatives were at lost since they don’t eat those either. Hey, not every Kelantanese likes sweet stuffs...

Colourful cream cakes. Anybody notice the birds and umbrellas?

Pulut durian @ glutinous rice served with durian and santan (coconut milk).

This one is sotong pulut @ squid stuffed with glutinous rice.

Surprisingly, chicken wings are popular here too. These are marinated and coated with honeyed sauce, a nice sweet-spicy combination. 1 piece for RM1.30 – RM1.50, not bad. I thought only in Sabah I can find this, but back in Selangor also they are selling well.

When they run out off wings, the other chicken parts would be put up and are popular too.

Laksa, a local favourite. Laksam is another variant of it in Kelantan but served with the same fish-based broth.

By 9.30 the crowd has dwindled and usually the stalls are almost done with their selling.

I was taken aback a little actually by the mess and odor of rubbish as we approach the place. But within the pasar there’s no trace of it so you’ll manage to forget it. So far I haven’t been hit by diarrhea or food poisoning, since we select the cleanest stalls only. But this kind of scenario is almost always found everywhere in any pasar in Kelantan so bear with it a little I guess…

This is som tam, a Thai salad: raw kangkong, long beans, grated young papaya or mango (I preferred mango), cabbage and tomato tossed together in lime juice, dried prawn, shallot, garlic, chili and crushed nuts. Sweet, sour and crunchy. If you don’t want to cry your eyes out, tell the vendor to prepare yours less spicy.

My KB days: the polystyrene war

Back then I thought only UMS (Univ. Malaysia Sabah) is doing the anti – polystyrene war thing. But they use an equally environmentally unfriendly product to replace polystyrene container, plastic containers, telling students to recycle it by using it over and over again when they pack food from the café. Ha! From what I see, all those plastic containers either ended up heaped and unwashed in the washroom, or thrown away despite the fact that they cost RM0.50. Next, the café felt that the plastic container campaign is putting a strain on their budget so they switched to plastic bags and they still charge us RM0.50 o_O; While this cheaper alternative reduces the mess in the washroom, it doesn’t change the fact that again, they are using an environmentally unfriendly product.

Which is why, it was a pleasant surprise to find that they are using either hawker-style oil-based paper, or a biodegradable container made of palm oil waste here in USM (Univ. Sains Malaysia). The campaign was started in main campus (Penang) around early 2008 before extended to the health campus (Kelantan).

Here’s how a biodegradable container looks like.








It’s not just the fact that polystyrene is environmentally unfriendly, it’s also because they have a long term effect on health that this campaign was issued.


A poster on anti – polystyrene container campaign: The White Coffin.













Save the Earth! And ourselves, of course. Peace ^_^


By the way, this was my lunch that day from the USM café. Chicken chop, nothing to shout about, looks like banana fritters at first glance, but edible.

And cool chairs in the library. Nice to zzz in...

My KB days: the picnic on Galeri Tengku Anis ground

After a hectic week, this is a nice retreat. I’m not very familiar with the road so I can’t really outline the direction. It’s suppose to be somewhere near Pantai Sri Tujuh.

The first thing I did was clamored up the tower like the 7 year-old kids playing nearby. There I was struck by the blue sky and stood there gaping until the kids screeched nearby.

Down there, the folks were happily setting the line and fishing to their hearts content. nobody says that fishing is illegal here by the way, so...

Er, what fish is this again…?


I can see Tak Bai, Thailand! Actually I think anyone can swim cross this, provided no boat ram into the fella or something.

The gallery. I dunno what’s inside though.

So green and peaceful… I lolled off to sleep after that while waiting for more catches of the day…

My KB days: Kelantan (or more specifically, Tumpat), I’m back…

This time I was able to snap some pics of my visit to Tumpat. My relatives decided to go on a picnic and brought me along. On the way to Pantai Sri Tujuh, we dropped by Tumpat t get our supply of food and bait for fishing.

So this is the aunty that we always get our nasi berlauk and other rice from. She’s been here for quite some time already.

Kopes @ leftover parts of chicken (neck, liver, feet etc) to be served with rice. Pretty nice actually.



The usual scene in Tumpat market, upstairs, where folks tuck in for breakfast.

Same level, behind are the shops selling garments at unbelievably cheap prices which can still be bargained down.

Then we went down to look for my uncle. While waiting for him, the sweet smell of apam balik got better of me.

Always like this aunty’s one.

The usual scenery at downstairs of Tumpat market. Here you can find many local produces and products such as sos pencicah, keropok, budu, spices etc.

Beca! Nearly extinct. The one who man these are all into their old age.

K'tan post: you cannot leave Kelantan without doing some of these… Crucial onformation!

For all my ramblings I forgot to put down some crucial information for Kelantan first – time visitors.

1. ALWAYS say “kurang manis” (less sweet) when you are ordering a drink. ALWAYS. See how I emphasize on this. Because if you don’t, I think you’ll be drinking what that is worth 5 – 10 drinks worth of sugar and condensed milk. No kidding. I was served with milo with 1/3 of the glass consisting of condensed milk. My other mistake was to swirl the spoon too much that all of it dissolved resulting in the most revolting and sweetest milo that I’ve ever drank. So in line with “kurang manis”, DON’T EVER swirl your spoon until you have tasted the drink.

2. When buying corn – in – cup, always check how they prepare it as you may get corn – in – condensed – milk – in – cup.

3. Food to try. Here I list down and summarize the common local Malay food that you can find anywhere there. Your visit to Kelantan is NEVER complete wthout sampling at least one of these.

a. Nasi berlauk (rice with side dish of chicken/fish/duck/deer) for breakfast. If you can find etok (a mollusc, usually fried with sand. Just be careful when it’s typhoid season and be wary of hepatitis A) to go together with it, even better

b. Nasi kerabu (aka salad rice): the blue rice (sometimes green or yellow) with lots of raw vegetable, coconut and chili sambal, keropok (crackers) and budu (fermented prawn gravy, very salty so don’t overdo it) with accompanying side dishes

c. Nasi dagang: glutinous brownish rice with accompanying side dish almost similar to nasi berlauk

d. Ayam percik: roasted chicken in creamy coconut – based gravy. You may find other variety like kerang (a mollusc), tonggeng (literally, chicken’s butt), eel and fish.

e. Keropok lekor: traditional fish soft cracker

f. Laksa & laksam: there’s a difference between these two. While laksa noodles are the thin spaghetti – like rice noodle, laksam is more like kueytiau or fettuccini except way thicker but both use the same fish – and – coconut milk – based gravy with the accompanying chopped raw vegetables, a dollop of belacan (fermented prawn) and chili.

g. Belut (eel): sweet sour, fried, paprika… the Kelantanese really know how to cook their eel. Last time it used to be the food for the poor, they even use it as the base of the laksa gravy.

h. Chakuey: served with pandan kaya, this flour – based snack is a tea – time favourite.

4. Hygiene. Typhoid and food poisoning can be rampant here when in season.

5. Dengue. There’s a season for this too.

6. Budget and shopping plan. It’s very easy to go overboard with shopping here. Seen that too many already.

7. Silk batik. Forget Chow Kit in KL. Here you can get more variable and lower price.

8. Tudung. All kind of patterns and grades. In fact, those sequined and stone embedded ones which you’ll find in KL priced as Rm100+ will be mostly only RM60 – 100+ here.

9. Pengkalan Kubo. Duty - free except when you hit the limit. From table wares to house decoration items to curtains to wedding items to “branded” jerseys of your favourite team… you get the idea

10.Beach. Pantai Sri Tujuh and Pantai Cahaya Bulan.

An eatery in Pantai Sri Tujuh where we always settle down to fish while snacking.

Some kitty waiting for tit – bits.

A view of Pantai Sri Tujuh from our fishing spot.

11.Museum. Yeah, museum. A great place to get to know this culture – rich place which is situated in the state’s capital Kota Bharu with breathtaking architectural design. And next to it is the White House kopitiam which operated seasonally but served some of the best roti bakar (toasted traditional bread) and roti stim (steamed traditional bread) accompanied by their famous kaya (equivalent to marmalade, made of coconut) and butter.

12. Traditional plays: wayang kulit, Mak Yong and others at the Cultural Centre. This is the hub of all of Kelantan’s cultural activities, where tops the size of a human head spin effortlessly, giant gaily-coloured kites frolic in the air, and wayang kulit (shadow play) and rebana ubi (traditional drums) thump to the rhythm of your pulse. The Cultural Centre is located along Jalan Mahmud near Perdana Hotel and admission is free on Saturdays and Wednesdays between February and October.

13. Universiti Sains Malaysia, School of Science Health. This is the branch campus of USM where the main curriculum centered in health sciences e.g. medicine, dentistry, nursing etc., the main building is in Penang. They offer elective programs to interested local and foreign students. Very well equipped with extensive medical library, teaching hospital, accommodation, sport centre etc.

K'tan post: Kelantan and the food they made me ate…

There was this one particular one month when I was on my own in Kota Bharu was when all hell broke loose. I went on an eating rampage which I never regret until now even as I went through a hell of time to lose the extra 3 kg and the love handles gained from it. All done is done, the water’s under the bridge, I had fun so nothing bad can be said on it. I think I spent at least RM10 – 15 daily but believe me, that amount is more than enough per person daily. It’s just me losing control here… Hehe…

My relatives whom I’m staying with over the weekends were more than happy to take me to eat out, or buy packed food from many of the famous but nameless stalls such as laksam, nasi berlauk and chakuey in kaya sauce, but nothing beat what they made me eat. These folks served me some of the most delicious traditional delicacies now rarely found or difficult to find in the city such as gelotok (traditional dried sausage made from cow intestines stuffed with meat) and daging lemo’ (le – mok, the Kelantanese version of lemak or fat. There, you get the idea. Fatty meat. Real fatty meat. Chunks of fat with slivers of beef within, roasted with herbs and spices. Your shortcut to hypertension and flabs prior to getting a heart attack). What more, they took care to show me the scrumptious combinations of delicacies and the accompanying rice to eat with like etok (you can find this in Tumpat market) with nasi berlauk or nasi dagang and such.

Speaking of Tumpat, this is my mom’s hometown. My grandpa’s buried here so most raya we’d visit the grave then head off to the pasar Tumpat @ Tumpat market for breakfast or snacks. While my mom did her shopping on various goods to be brought back home to KL, we kids and dad would sit down to our favourite snacks of apam balik (the guy who sold it is from my mom’s childhood days, really old!), somtam (a Thai salad of boiled kangkong and young papaya slices in this spicy – sour sauce. Fuoh… Nice!), sometime roti canai served with sugar instead of the usual dhal gravy or curry and the-so-sweet-your-teeth-hurts milo or teh tarik kurang manis (“less sweet” by name alone…). Then mom would call us to help carry of the spices, sos pencicah, belacan, keropok ikan, pineapple, Thai mangoes and so on before we settle for our next snacks of keropok ikan with sos pencicah. So whenever we travel back to my mom’s hometown, a stop in Tumpat market is a must.

K'tan post: Kelantan, food and shopping.

Whenever I’m in Kelantan I’ll be hunting for these; nasi kerabu, nasi berlauk (usually fish with ikan kering), nasi dagang, laksam, Sun Too’s chicken chop and special ice kacang that comes with buah kabung and ice cream, gelotok, daging kering, White House’s steamed bread and etok to be eaten with my rice. All in Kota Bharu. At night whenever we felt that the night is still young, we’ll drive around for food and scenery before finally settling down for some teh tarik and nasi tumpang.

Eating in Kelantan, especially in Kota Bharu, is heavenly especially in the fasting month where numerous bazaars selling traditional and local food crop up. From the sweetest dessert to the most delicious ayam golek @ roasted chicken can be found at the most unbelievable low prices. One of my favourite bazaars was the one in Jalan Hamzah where rows and rows of my favourite food stalls stretched to the point that you would give up surveying all among the huge crowd and resorted to buying at the stalls nearest to you. (Note: beware of typhoid and food poisoning, hygiene is still the utmost priority.)

In short, Kelantan is one of the amazing places for food lovers. Sweet, as one may literally put it here. And of course, there is another famous association with Kelantan, which is shopping, mostly for the women. To the women, for a peaceful shopping trip to Pasar Siti Khadijah in Kota Bharu, leave your men and boisterous children to indulge among the numerous shops selling all sorts of tudung of all names and grades and patterns, along with the beautiful cotton batik caftans and sarongs. 1 hour is not enough, that’s why I advised you to leave the men and children to find their own amusement while your flocks bargain to your heart content. Duty – free shopping at Pengkalan Kubo also I can say mostly for women because aside from Thai – branded stuffs, the other sex would just be there to pay for your newly acquired table wares, clothes, wedding preparations, knick knacks and so forth. For the men, I suppose you can go sight – seeing around Kota Bharu city, hit the museum with your kids, take pictures near the palaces and SUK building or settle down at nearby warong (coffee shops) and chow down the above food.

Here is one webpage that can give you an idea of some of the famous Kelantanese food and travel info. Hope you guys find it helpful.

K'tan post: Kelantan and nasi (rice)

Whenever someone mentioned about Kelantan, or if I chanced on the subject, my first respond or thought would be “great food, damn cheap”. Seriously.

There was once this article in The New Straits Times (Malaysia) citing that Kelantan has, at least 10 types of rice (rice = nasi in Malay) even though she is not the main producer of rice in Malaysia (Kedah is, for those who doesn’t know, one of the north - west state of the Peninsular) i.e. Kedah produces the rice but Kelantan cooks it, get it? This, I absolutely agree. To make things clearer, the article was not referring to the how the rice are processed or anything along the line of rice processing and production e.g. into beras pulut or normal, plain rice whatsoever, but rather on how the rice are cooked, prepared or served. So far, during my stays there, I’ve encountered nasi kerabu, nasi dagang, nasi berlauk, nasi tumpang, nasi kukus, nasi ambang, nasi jeje and nasi air. Since I stayed with relatives most of the time, I discovered that the folks here basically eat rice at least 3 times a day! (Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Add supper and tea time then it’ll be more). How appropriate when you put down that rice is a staple food in Malaysia, especially here.

Here I give you some examples of the local favourites.

(This is a pic of a typical nasi berlauk with fish)

For nasi berlauk and nasi dagang, the local favourites among them would be

• gulai ikan kayu @ ikan tongkoI with ikan kering
• gulai serati (serati is a family of duck)
• kopes (the leftover parts of chicken e.g. feet, internal organs... you get it.)
• chicken kerutup.

As for the nasi kerabu (the blue colored rice, sometimes plain white. Some people refer to it as “salad rice”), take a pick between these tasty accompanying side dishes:

• telur masin (salted egg)
• ikan goreng tepung (fried fish in batter)
• roasted beef
• solak lada (seasoned fish and coconut – stuffed chili)

with lots and lots of ulam (mixed vege that comes along with the rice), chili and sambal kelapa (coconut sambal, if you like more zest).

With these much choices of rice why bother looking for nasi lemak here in Kelantan, unless you wanna eat a sweet nasi lemak then.