GOOD FOOD IN TANJUNG TUALANG, PERAK

JOURNEY UP NORTH TO TANJUNG TUALANG

The river prawn fishermen used these cane baskets to do their daily catches from the rivers and mining pools which seemed to be teeming with BIG HEAD PRAWNS. It is the expanse waterways that the prawns are able to swim about thus, the meat are firmer and tastier.





I enquired the jelly dessert drink called "WEN TOU LONG" or giddy head ? such an interesting nickname and perhaps I was "giddy" too enjoying such a soft layer of jelly on top of iced water squeezed with lime juice, that I could literally sucked the jelly with the shaved ice and drink altogether and it was very refreshing indeed and certainly a good recommentation. 





YET BIG IN NAME !
YET BIG IN NAME !
YET BIG IN NAME ! YET BIG IN NAME !
YET BIG IN NAME !

It is in this lakes, ponds, Sungei Kinta and Sungei Perak that offers life back to Tanjung Tualang.


There was not much time left for us to explore Tanjung Tualang after our satisfying meal but I must have the dessert and herbal drinks that Jason has recommended and I was quick to make an exit to the nearest beverage stall leaving others behind.




It is in this lakes, ponds, Sungei Kinta and Sungei Perak that offers life back to Tanjung Tualang.



We spent a nite at Palace of the Golden Horse Hotel in KL before we continue up north to Perak and it has been years since I last journeyed to Ipoh famous for its fattened taugeh dish with chicken, smooth, soft kuay teow and great dim sum spread at Foh San or Ming Court.


31800 Tg Tualang
It is the breeding ground of a type of crustacean called BIG HEAD PRAWNS or better known in Cantonese dialect as "TAI TOW HAR" which brought droves of tourist buses and surrounding residents to relish the tasty BIG HEAD PRAWNS, considered the best in Malaysia (although I had some reservation about it probably we didnt get the real stuff?) and that was the reason we travelled long distance from Singapore to this town, which is about 45minutes away from Ipoh.

The changing sceneries as we travelled up in Perak offers a nice view of limestones hillocks dotting the landscape, not found elsewhere in Malaysia.
Our first stop at Tapah rest stop is very interesting and here you can find an array of local fruits some of which I have not seen before like the abiu, which tasted like persimmon to me. I also bought some Daging Tok and it's proved to be very tasty, just like beef jerky and full of flavour.

The river prawn fishermen used these cane baskets to do their daily catches from the rivers and mining pools which seemed to be teeming with BIG HEAD PRAWNS. It is the expanse waterways that the prawns are able to swim about thus, the meat are firmer and tastier.

I enquired the jelly dessert drink called "WEN TOU LONG" or giddy head ? such an interesting nickname and perhaps I was "giddy" too enjoying such a soft layer of jelly on top of iced water squeezed with lime juice, that I could literally sucked the jelly with the shaved ice and drink altogether and it was very refreshing indeed and certainly a good recommentation.

YET BIG IN NAME !




Most interesting is the eco-sights enroute to Tanjung Tualang which is sited along Sungei Kinta. Tanjung Tualang is a small quiet town and in its hey days, famous for tin mining and since then all tin mining activites have been disengaged and stopped, you will find on both sides of the road leading to the town, dotted with abandoned and disused tin quarry lakes. The sky was at it's best blue reflecting its image on the pools of water and small cranes perched on dead tree trunks or water buffaloes at the fields is a common sight.


Perak Darul Ridzuan
Contact Mr Phang Yuan Peng HP 016-5333026

I enquired the jelly dessert drink called "WEN TOU LONG" or giddy head ? such an interesting nickname and perhaps I was "giddy" too enjoying such a soft layer of jelly on top of iced water squeezed with lime juice, that I could literally sucked the jelly with the shaved ice and drink altogether and it was very refreshing indeed and certainly a good recommentation.




Such pleasing sceneries with stretches of empty land that met the clear blue sky has such calming effects.

I discovered about this town from TASTE WITH JASON, Astro culinary screened on Asian Food Channel just before I booked the tour and noted with interest the excellent dishes of Tanjung Tualang that we can savour.

Jason, a Penangite goes around Malaysia introducing off the beaten track good food and in one of his series, he introduced a popular Seafood Restaurant, one of the best of the 10 Seafood Restaurant in Tanjung Tualang. In fact, in the show, he even challenged that the restaurants should be name RiverFood rather than Seafood as these are river prawns.

Restoran Makanan Laut Yew Kei

Tel: 05-3606686

Our tour brought us to this Restoran Makan Laut Yew Kei which we found to offer notably very good meal too. By far, my lunch chats with my colleagues drew positive response regarding Tanjung Tualang and at least two of them knew about this town famous for its big head prawns and in fact one is travelling this weekend back to Tanjung Durian a short drive from Tanjung Tualang and definitely tasting Big Head Prawns is on his card.

Our first dish looked sumptiously good as the signature dish of big head prawns were served purely steamed with egg white with julienned ginger to accentuate the flavour. Notably missing was the BIG HEAD where roes are abundantly found...where has the heads gone to? The prawns are is tasty, springy, fleshy and fresh.

Owner, Mr Phang was busy in the kitchen cooking a storm for the 4 busloads of hungry tourists from Singapore that just arrived. The dishes are all very tasty, homey and everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.

These prawns are also deepfried Kam Heong Style and the biggest size cost as much as RM75 per kg. Hmm the tour package is certainly worthwhile where food is concerned as the last second dish, we tucked in crabs cooked with salted egg, another tasty dish. The belachan kangkong is so yummy too. We certainly enjoyed the special Rojak dish and steamed Catfish to add to the list of nice dishes.

Spoke to the owner if she was the one featured but alas, no, she told me that she does not take to the media much despite much persuasion from Jason's crew and had in fact recommended another stall within a shophouse to be featured instead.

What's WEN TOU LONG ingredients? Not your usual jelly stuff but a CEREAL from Sichuan Province in China and when used rubbed with banana and refined using a strainer, it forms a jelly like dessert, how interesting.

Another noteworthy name Jason introduced Ais Pegaga that goes by the moniker, "PAN TAI WOON" is a green herbal drink that is supposed to be cooling for the body and it was said that it is good for blood circulation and improved condition of an injured arm or leg.

What is PAN TAI WOON? In Cantonese is half big bowl? Basically the drink is the juice of Centella Leaves and the owner in the other stall was more than willing to show me. She brought out the bigger leaves direct from the fridge compared the much smaller ones outside and it certainly earned its name given the shapre of the leave. I left convinced and I bought the whole 1 litre bottle at only RM5.00 to save my injured arm, lol.

TANJUNG TUALANG SMALL TOWN