I love to eat (this is common knowledge among my friends), and so do many Malaysians out there. So, when Paul suggested that we should start a Food Trail Series – travelling to different places in Malaysia in search of food, I couldn’t control my excitement.
Our first destination was Raub. We brought a group of 30 people that consisted of teenagers, working adults as well as senior citizens last Saturday, for a day trip to Raub. Age may be diverse, yet, we all share a common passion – “FOOD”.
Our first stop was at Sg Klau, about half an hour from Raub town. That was the time I realised that my passion for food cannot match my fellow travellers. The minute they were let off the bus, Kong-Kong Mark and a few of the senior citizens headed straight to a ‘yau cha kwai’ stall and started buying. Oh my, they are so bought in to the concept of this trip…
Our morning tea break was at a local coffee shop, famous among the locals for its wantan mee. I could see the surprise in the travellers’ faces when the coffee shop workers came around to take their drink orders. They looked at me and asked “Anything? We can order anything from the shop?” I had to remind them that this is an exploration trip, so, they’ve got to make their own discovery. I could see the joy in their faces...
Next to the coffee shop was the durian depot of Sg Klau – it’s the ‘pasar borong’ for durians. Haven’t seen so many durians in a single site in my life!
Lorries were coming and going all the time while I was sitting at the coffee shop – wooo…. I’m in durian heaven...
Meeting him has taught me a lesson – do not pre-judge people by their simple outlook. Actually, this guy owns the orchard, and he’s constantly trying to hybrid local fruits to make them taste better and bigger. In the orchard, we also discovered that there’s a Rambo among us – Uncle Stanley. Uncle Stanley aka Uncle Rambo was always there whenever we needed anything – when we needed a straw, the next minute Uncle Rambo was seen making one from a papaya stalk; when we needed water, Uncle Rambo opened up his cooler bag and jeng, jeng… chilled water bottles came out of his bag.
The 30 of us ate durians and rambutans by the baskets. Of course we couldn’t finish them … so, we had to sweet-talk the coach driver to let us ‘tapau’ the fruits back to KL.
I’ve also discovered angels in the group. The group of teenagers that were travelling with us gave me a positive view of our next generation. Mr Law has a few fragrant coconut trees in his orchard, and, we coaxed him to let us try some.
There were not enough for everyone, but, the teens unselfishly collected the coconuts and gave them to their seniors before sharing the remaining few among themselves. It was done even without being told!
Everyone decided that we needed a break from eating, so we visited the groundnuts factory just outside Raub town.
The machines used are as old as 3 generations, and it was really cool to see that charcoaled ovens are still used to ‘salai” the groundnuts.
Sempalit groundnuts are not often seen in supermarkets or retail shops, wonder why? The secret… no preservatives are used in the packing; hence, they can’t be kept for long. This also means that every packet of Sempalit groundnuts is fresh and guaranteed to taste fresh!
I think we managed to burn off some calories here – by carrying the packets of groundnuts that we had bought at the end of our visit.
We finally had our lunch at the famous fish head curry in Raub. Though we were all muttering about how full we were, once the hot curry fish head was served, we totally forgot about our full stomachs.
Our food discovery was coming to an end. As a reward for our achievement (based on the amount of food we could eat), we had ice kacang with ice-cream at the famous home-made ice-cream shop in Bentong.
Hats off to my fellow travellers – they were so gung-ho and passionate about food. When I asked if they could still eat, everyone except three, were confident that the food in their stomachs would be digested by the time we reached the shop. Kow Po, the famous ice-cream shop has also been around for 3 generations. It’s not merely the taste of the ice-cream, but, also the friendliness and genuineness of the Tan family, the owners of the shop that has attracted me to this place.
There were so many places to visit in Raub that we couldn’t do it all in one day. Looking forward to the 2nd part of the journey...
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