Sunday 11 May 2014

Day trip Bentong - Raub - Kuala Lipis



It was a great Friday, nonstop eating and a day full with great food. A day trip together with my gf, Stephanie and her family. We began our journey at 830am heading towards Karak Highway. Here is the timeline to summarize the day trip.

845 AM : We arrived at Middle Ring Road 2 (MRR2), to our surprise there wasn't any traffic jam at all. Usually at this hour, the traffic jam will be very bad, and it would take approximately 30-40mins before getting out of the jam.

910 AM : Here, we arrived at Karak Highway which led us to Bentong. From there, we used trunk road heading towards Raub, and then Kuala Lipis.

1000 AM : We arrived in Bentong, started scouting for the famous and nice Wantan Mee (Egg Noodle with dumpling and pork) but we did not know where exactly. We don't even know the name of the shop, so we ended up driving around Bentong looking for a shop that supposedly has long queue and packed with patrons.

1010 AM : Bentong is not a very big town, it probably has around 4 streets from the main town area where all the shops are. We made the first one round on the "right" side of the town, and then we turned to the left side of the town towards the wet market.

It is famous for few a things, like the Wantan Mee that I mentioned, kaya puff, "old" ginger, stuffed tofu, and also Yong Tau Foo. While we were cruising along the wet market, we saw Moki, the old lady selling her famous kaya puff, known for its crispy pastry and soft kaya spread in a small coin-shaped pouch. Stephanie shouted "eh...Moki is here!!" that's when we decided to park, and go on foot to began our adventure.

Another surprise was that the parking in Bentong town is fairly cheap, 32cent an hour. However, as any townships, we needed to get the parking coupon : the scratchies, where we need to scratch off the number of hours we planned to park.

We were all anticipating the famous wantan mee, that we didn't have breakfast before starting the journey. Hungrily but patiently, we began our hunt for the wantan mee as soon as we parked. But first, since were already there, we went straight to Moki and bought the kaya puff, and asked for directions on the whereabouts of the famous wantan mee shop.

This is Moki and her stall, small simple looking stall. Don't be fooled by its simplicity. This aunty has her own "konco" (crew) to replenish her puffs

So, Moki gave us directions, and it's only a block away from her stall. As we walk closer to the shop, we see a crowded restaurant, filled with patrons. The shop only consisted 3 stalls selling wantan mee, yong tau foo, and economy rice (mixed rice / nasi campur). Before we entered the shop, a lady already started welcoming us and led us inside for seating. Probably it was all over our face that we are "tourist" and hunting for this wantan mee.

Delicious right?
This is wantan mee from Bentong. By the way, the image above you see is small serving.

Left : Big serving; Right : Small serving.

We got shocked to see it was that much in the big serving. I almost did not manage to finish it, but it was nice, it was really nice.

Yong Tau Foo

These were some of the yong tau foo we ordered. It's a hakka delight, where they have tofu, eggplant, ladies finger, fish ball, fried tofu, bitter gourds, red chilli, fried fritters and many other food items. All stuffed with fish paste and some restaurants will replace the fish with pork, or having both.

After our scrumptious breakfast, we moved on to our next target destination : Raub. On the way to our car, we saw another stall selling what Raub is famous for, groundnuts. We bought some of it, and of course the famous "old" ginger too.

1115 AM : We continued on our journey heading towards Raub.

1205 AM : We arrived at Raub, but we did not stop since we have gotten the groundnuts and we were still full from our breakfast, hardly have any more space for the famous curry fish head. So we continued our journey, heading towards Kuala Lipis. We took a slow ride, just to make sure we have enough time to digest our breakfast for our seafood lunch in Kuala Lipis.

The groundnuts with different flavour

115 PM : Finally, we have arrived in Kuala Lipis, it is a small town and it was very easy to drive around, the landmark we needed to find was Public Bank, and that's the seafood restaurant as it is situated just next to the bank. What a way to strategise themselves. In less than 10mins drive, we found the restaurant, found a parking, and headed straight to the place, seated and ready eat the delicious fresh from the river seafood.

Clock-wise  from top left : Claypot ginger chicken, steam river catfish, prawns with milk and butter, claypot vege, and fish paste with onions topped with spring onions.

All the above is what they are famous for, they have other dishes such as wild boar in curry spices. It has been a long time since I last tasted such freshness seafood, from the fish to the prawn. The trip doesn't just end here, apparently, we still have dessert, but all the way back in Bentong. It was homemade ice cream, and I can assure you, after a day long of eating and walking under the hot sun, the homemade ice cream really did cool us down, and great way to end our day trip.

The shop is famous of their Banana, Coconut, and Peanut flavour ice cream. Here is Coffee, Vanilla, and Coconut.

There is was, after the dessert, we headed back to KL,  concluding our eating day trip. Great food, fruitful and "food-ful".

Here are all the GPS coordinates, to each exact restaurant/shop situated.
1) Hoi Kei Wantan Mee : N 03° 31.371' 
                                         E 101° 54.403'

2) 球宝雪糕 (Homemade Ice-Cream) : N 03° 31.345'
                                                               E 101° 54.661'


3) 海记海鲜酒家 (Hoi Kee Seafood Restaurant, Kuala Lipis) : N 04° 11.067'
                                                                                                     E 102° 03.292'

4) Moki Kaya Puff - If you can find the wet market, her stall is just right in front of the entrance, you won't miss it.

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