A trip to Sauk, fresh water fish

My sister-in-law, Aderene came from Johore Bharu to visit us in Ipoh. Alfred suggested we take a drive to Sauk, a Chinese new village located in-between Kuala Kangsar and Lenggong, which was popular for fresh water fishes.  We followed the North-South highway from Ipoh and existed at Kuala Kangsar toll.  It took us only forty minutes to reach our destination.

We were looking for Ikan Kelah (banned fish because near extinct) at a few restaurants but there wasn't any of them. Finally we settled at Lau Kai Restaurant.

The lady boss of this restaurant recommended us ikan Sebarau (hampala) and ikan Hantu(marble doly).  Before they cook them ,Alfred want to make sure  that they were fresh but not frozen in the freeze,(to eat fresh water fish, always insist for fresh but not frozen fish, otherwise the flesh of the fish will be very soggy and tasteless).

Life and cooked ikan Sebarau or Hampala. This cooked fish weighed about 900grams. It will be better if it is around two kilograms. The flesh will toughfer and bones will be bigger too.(Y-shaped bones easily get stuck at our throat.)

Live and cooked ikan Hantu or Marble Goby. This fish was almost one kilogram in weight. Just nice for table .

We can see the flesh of the fishes, pure white and well shaped. Really good cook, the sauce and the fish matched well.  Ikan Sebarau have more bones, those of y-shaped bones, not advisable for young children and old peoples, but the flesh is sweeter then that of ikan Hantu though it has only the main vertebra bone.

We manage to finish both the fishes though only four of us because the fishes really taste good and delicious.

We paid only RM 150.00 for the lunch, including Chinese tea, rice and a fried bitter guord. Worth it!!

Lau Kai Air-Cond Restaurant is located at

NO. S 44, 45, Jalan Besar, 33500

Sauk, Kuala Kangsar, Perak.

Tel: 05-7511615

Operate from 12.00pm to 9.00pm

Close on altenate Thursday.

From Sauk, we took a drive to The Raja Muda Nazrin Bridge Rest area, just ten minutes  away. Surprisingly, from the view-point area, we can see the beautiful bridge and amazing scenic views at the surrounding area.

Raja Muda Nazrin Bridge. Across Perak river.

On the left side of the bridge,a  lake holiday resort at the far end and some fresh water fish farming at the front.

The quiet , fresh and beautiful scenery on the right side of the bridge.

The calm .clear water of the lake.

We left the scenic views behind and proceed to locate for Leggong Archaeological Museum. It took us ten minutes to reach the museum. It was situated two kilometer away from the main road among some oil palm plantations.

This is the first Prehistoric Museum in Malaysia and built in this area called Kota Tampan, officiated by DYMM Paduka Seri Sultan Perak Sultan Azlan Shah on the 21st, July 2003. There were Audio visual orientation, library, observation tower and geology park in the museum.

The sites of the excavation.

The excavation.

According to the record, Lenggong Valley was the ancient migration route from Africa to Australia.

Perak man is the only known prehistoric skeleton in the world born with a deformity.

After the tour inside the museum, we went to the Geology Park just behind the museum building.

Some of the rocks that found only in this part of Malaysia.

The lenggong Archaelogical Museum is located at

Kota Tampan, 33400, Lenggong, Perak.

Tel: 05-7679700/693

The museum is open daily 9.00am to 5.00pm.

Friday: from 9.00am to 12.15pm. and from 2.45pm to 5.pm.

Except: the first day of Hari Raya Aidilfiltri & Aidiladha.

Admission is free.

We had a very enjoyable trip, good lunch, beautiful sceneries and knowledge as well.

OVERSEA RESTAURANT IPOH

Words been saying that Oversea restaurant in Ipoh has the best roasted piglet(with sticky glutinous rice) in town. What is so good and special? The best way to find out is to taste it .

Coincidental my daughter and her husband were back from Melbourne to celebrate Alfred's birthday. We booked a table on the 5th of December, but we have to pre-order the special roasted piglet two days ahead.

Roasted piglet with glutinous rice under it.  RM 170.00 (worth it)
The skin was carefully and beautifully sliced. Tasted it, the skin was roasted  to have the crisp but maintain the juiciness, can't resist to eat more .We enjoyed the piglet skin so much that forgotten to snap the picture of the glutinous rice. Anyway, the rice was so good and tasty, I just  can't express it out, you guys out there must try it out.

The next dish was the normal shark fin soup. We ordered because my daughter miss this so much.

This is something special in this restaurant as well.  Stir fried seafood with fish roe .(RM70.00)
We  stirred mix well the roe with the seafood then scoop out one spoonful of the mixture and wrap by a piece of green vege and eat it. Emmm..yummy, yum.

Mayonnaise and salad  sauce prawns.  The sauce was really good and prawns were fresh.

Birthday noodle

Desert- Lotus paste pan cake. My daughter really missed this.

It was a very satisfactory dinner.  We adjoined back home to have our real birthday celebration- singing and cutting of birthday cake for three members (father's birthday was on 26th Nov, while Alfred's and Ah Hoon's were on 29th Nov). I had a surprise for all of them, my first cheesecake.

Though the cheesecake did not look beautiful but taste good.  All my family members love it.

CHEESECAKE

I never like or would not eat any diary products like butter or cheese because I can't bear the smell and taste of it. However, one day I was convinced to taste the first time baked cheesecake of a friend, reluctantly I tasted a small piece of it. Oh! Surprisingly I can take it and like the taste at the first bite. I manage to finish the whole cup cake. The cup cake does not have the usual heavy milky taste and smell. I was so excited and got the recipe to try  to bake the cake myself.

I modified the recipe . I make use of Oki high fibre crackers instead of Oleo chocolate cookies and I make use of only half of the ingredients.

The ingredients are
425 g cream cheese, Philadelphia
100 g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/4 cup sour cream
pinch of salt
20 pieces of Oki high fibre crackers, 8 pieces coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees, line the whole crackers on a round  22cm baking tin.

Beat cream cheese till smooth, gradually add in sugar, beat till well mix, add in vanilla essence.

Add in eggs one at a time, beat in sour cream, salt and finally stir in chopped crackers.

Pour in the well mix batter into the lined cake tin, bake for 40 minutes or till its done. Transfer the cake to wire rack to cool.  Refrigerate it at least for four hours before serving.

My first cheesecake

YUM YUM RESTAURANT

Yum Yum Restaurant is famous for its Nyonya cooking like Asam  curry fish heads, assam fried prawns,
petai with prawns and most of the other Asian cuisines.

The best Siam laksa in Ipoh is found in this restaurant.  Siam laksa is served only on Fridays from 12 noon to 3pm only. 

The laksa is served with desert and fried (fu pei), only RM6.00. Delicious and is cheap.

Yum Yum restaurant is located at

5, Persiaran Greenhill,

30450, Ipoh.

Tel. 05-2537686.

GATHERING

After the dinner at Damansara Palace Restaurant, we had another gathering at Carrie's house at Ara Damansara. 

Carrie is another great host like her parents and she is good cook too. Look at her concentration at her barbecue station.  She barbecued pork slices, sausages flew from Australia, prawns, mushrooms and onions.

Prawns and Sausages

Carrie's most popular roasted pork ribs

Salad in sesame dressing

Braised pork legs

Mutton curry by Carrie's mom, Judy

Yong Tau Foo Pok by Judy

Popiah by Mrs lee

Salted chicken from Ipoh

Braised duck from Sg. Siput

Organic baby cucumbers from Johore Bahru

Organic four ankles bean from Johore Bahru

Young and old all enjoying all the good foods.