Temerloh-Mentakab-Teriang (Triang) Food Hunt

Last weekend, coupled with Awal Muharram was a 3-day long weekend. The dad initially though of going to places like Penang or Malacca but common sense told us those would be the first place to avoid during Malaysia public holidays these days. The last time I was in Cameron Highlands when it was Deepavali, gosh! It was a 1-hour bumper to bumper crawl from Brinchang back to Tanah Rata during 3pm in the afternoon. Imagine traffic jam in Cameron Highland, ok, what's new since these days Cameron Highland can flood like low land... :P

And so, my dad decided to go Temerloh to eat Patin Pauh for dinner. I wonder what's patin pauh, since that it is not patin sangkar (caged patin) nor Patin liar (wild patin)... Erm... anyway, our journey eventually turned into a 2 day 1 night trip around Temerloh, then Mentakab and lunch at Teriang (Triang).

We started off our journey on the east coast highway, stopped for lunch at Bentong. My dad's idea of good food would be a place where everyone congregates. I guess that is true to a certain extend *roll eyes*

For that we had to do rounding around the whole Bentong, eventually stumbled at this hawker place in this Chinese Town Hall building. Had good wantan here, and the home made beef ball soup is very good too. Curry mee so so... got the stale coconut milk taste. Wantan mee, erm... had better ones in KL but I guess it is fair since we dunno where are the better ones here in Bentong.

We then continue our journey on the east coast highway, and stop over at this one-and-only fruit stall. My advice : DON'T BOTHER! Definitely cut throat because the price is not cheap.

Was like wanting to eat the nangka, opened two different fruit and both are infected with fungus inside. My dad decided not to pay, but still the uncle say must pay RM2 as we ate one piece. Duh...

As we approach Temerloh, we branched off right before the toll. Town center was not so far from the toll. Too bad we arrive quite late on the Sunday. I was surfing around the net and found that Sunday in Temerloh is hustling and bustling with the weekend market known as Pasar Sehari. Loads and loads of uncommon goods were sold here at this longest weekend market in Pahang!

Again, it is my dad decision that we should be adventurous in our life, therefore we pick to stay at the Temerloh Rest House instead of the spanking new Green Park not too far away.

When we inspect the room, my mom sniggered over the worn carpet and grey looking sheets. I was like, it is just a night for RM85 for 5 people in a room, what do you expect. :P Not only that, we get to steal the next door Seri Malaysia's wifi, since the rest house wifi didn't work at the first place.

So then the night came, and we started hunting around for fresh water fish. Initially thought of eating at Wee Kee recommended by few people, but the thought of being cut throat sort of drive us away looking at other restaurant. My dad motto is : eat at the place where it is crowded with people. My motto is : when you are hungry, food are always out of reach!

Eventually few block up the main street, we past the centrepoint hotel and saw this Restoran Delight. Its at the same row with Hotel Jelai.

Order a very very tasty 白须公, Bak Sou Goong, also known as tropical bagrid catfish, Asian Green Catfish or ikan baung, which suppose to look like this:

and when cook, turn succulent looking like this. Slurrp...

Also ordered tapioca leaves, and this smoked ribs. I warn you not to order this unless you like ribs that comes with sweetened cinnamon sauce.

After that, went to Mentakab (About 8km away). Was told that there's a daily night market right next to The Store supermarket. Not much there as it was raining that night. Bought some pau at RM1 each, still home made, maybe even handmade. Taste quite good.

Came back to the Temerloh Rest House and found that the whole parking lot is all full! Everyone was puzzled why the commotion at this unassuming hotel at the first place, eventually I remember read somewhere on the net that this place is famous among the malay people with their patin (巴甸, silver catfish) cooked with tempoyak (durian rubbed with salt and left fermented for 3 months). Decided to order the wild patin at RM70/kg. Came this small little bowl that smell strange.

I was the one that dipped my spoon in as the lab rat. Hmm... taste like sourish curry fish with hint of durian. It is really very good and creamy to perfection. Didn't take us too long before we finished it and longing for more.

So the mom took initiatives and order the Patin cook with assam gravy.

This too taste very very good. The assam sauce is thick in gravy, fully loaded with a lot of bunga kantan and assam jawa. Both dishes together cost RM85, quite a lot considering portion was moderate.

By the time we finish both the dishes, we found ourselves too full to walk. Went back to the room and take turn to use the shower. Slowly everyone dozed off while watching Astro in the room.

Next day woke up, was very hopeful in find good breakfast around town. Then only realize that it is Awal Muharram, most of the Malay stalls are closed! Was wanting to have a very good plate of laksam to start the day, but after rounding around, found one mediocre nasi lemak stalls. Better than nothing I guess.

We then hang around the Esplanade Temerloh. Essentially this so called Esplanade is a white elephant project beautifying the river bank of the Pahang river. Looks very run down... sigh. Wild grass are growing everywhere, and rubbish littered here and there.

Initially wanted to take a small boat to cruise the river. Guess it must be holiday, because no sight of any of the transport boat around. There was this guy looking a little nosy came warning us that the river can be dangerous to cruise around as there were news on Japanese tourist get robbed earlier this year.

That kinda make me a bit worried. Luckily the dad decided that we should stop waiting for it. Instead we then took a short drive on the road along the river bank, passing through kampung houses.

Was very glad to be on the drive about. Saw local selling the caged Patin along the way, like RM14/kg. I probably won't buy it if I were you, as the fishes are all reared from the river bank just right next to the house. That river, is very very filthy, with discharge from known and unknown source.

Then saw a guy training the monkey to pick on coconuts. Had a lot of fun seeing how he told the monkey to only pick the fully ripe coconut. After that these ripe coconut will be chop open to extract out the coconut milk from its flesh.

For lunch, we decided to travel down to Teriang (Triang) and eat at this Lee Keng Sang restaurant recommended by my dad's close friend.

The phone number of restaurant is here

Some of the more "famous" dish in Lee Keng Sang

What came dishing out was a very huge wild patin like 1.5kg! All steamed with the Siew Heng Hua Diao Chinese Wine. Very fresh for the fish, I feel the meat cooked just right to perfection. My mom somehow didn't think it was anything special.

Came next was the One Bucket Rice (一桶饭). What they did was a fried rice with small bits of yam, mince meat, then topped with fresh scallops and small canned abalone. Then dishes out on a claypot that settle on the wooden bucket for prosperity good will blah blah blah. Tasted ok too. Liked the mince meat and scallop actually. But slightly oily.

Then we order a strong recommended claypot kangkung fried Petai and dried shrimps. We all thought it didn't taste anything special at all. Petai itself didn't leash its fully potential tasting when cooked with kangkung. The whole claypot was filled with oil beneath!

As for dessert, we had this stewed pumpkin. Not good also, very bland like baby food.

Luckily for so much food, the bill only came like RM160. So I guess you can't complaint much.

After lunch, we then continued our journey down south, driving through the scenic drive passing Kuala Kelawang and eventually ended our trip by stopping by in Seremban at my aunt's place. Was invited to eat the famous Seremban BBQ marmide crab by her, but all of us were just too full from lunch in Teriang. So we just hang around a bit more then drove back to KL.