If you’re traveling on the road north of Kuantan and past Kemaman, you’ll eventually pass Kijal before reaching Kerteh/Dungun/Kuala Terengganu on your way to some island holidays or oil and gas work.
Now Kijal is a pretty uninteresting town with probably the only interesting place being Awana golf resort, a hotel that I’ve stayed a couple times on business travel.
the stretch of lemang stalls at Kijal
What Kijal has though, is this whole stretch of lemang stalls by the road side between Kg. Baharu Batu Anak Dara and Kg. Meraga on trunk road 145. And yes, I got the information from google map.
On the way from Dungun going south, there’s a little sign board that says “Lemang in 500 meters”. We drove past that on previous trip, but this time around, I made sure we stopped by and grab some lemang for the road.
2x lemang at RM 2.50 each, 2x serunding at RM 5 each
We stopped by the stalls and bought ourselves 2 lemang with 2 container of serunding (meat floss, we bought chicken and beef) to go with it.
The aroma of glutinous rice with coconut milk came gushing as soon as the lady split open the bamboo that was holding all that goodness in.
snooze inducing food, guaranteed
We dug in as soon as we got into the car. The rice was soft and so fragrant, and I didn’t imagine that glutinous rice with coconut milk could taste so good! The meat floss gave it a bit of extra flavor but I seriously could eat the piping hot lemang all by itself. If only we had some rendang too…
So if you’re traveling on that road, don’t miss out the lemang. A word of caution though, lemang is also probably the best traditionally sleeping medicine in Malaysia. Haze certainly pengsan about an hour after the lemang, and I almost snoozed off while driving too.
Address:
Kijal Lemang Stalls
Kijal, Terengganu
GPS: 4.3306878, 103.4508196
Over the weekends I went to Kuantan for a short trip with Sheryl. We didn’t have any concrete plan, and it was basically just an opportunity to spend some time and catch up after she’d come back from her post graduate studies in Europe. After all, it was some 7 years since we were last living together in the States.
Pak Su seafood restaurant, with the best al fresco dining experience
After spending better part of the afternoon chilling at Cherating beach sipping coconut juice, we decided to check out Pak Su seafood restaurant by the beach. It was partly due to convenience as Pak Su is located rather close to where we were staying.
While this is a Chinese restaurant, it is also halal, and there were quite a number of Muslim patrons and workers alike at the premise.
We took a table at the al fresco dining area by the beach. The scenery was incredible, full moon, strong waves, and the rather powerful sea breeze makes up for one of the best seafood dinner ambiance I’ve experienced.
fresh Canadian oysters, vegetable, butter prawn
For the two of us, we ordered a pair of fresh Canadian oysters (RM 8 each) to start. They were huge, juicy and absolutely delicious, the other other place with comparable oyster would be Kensington at Seremban.
Butter prawn (RM 20) was another commendable dish, it was cooked in the “wet” style (there’s also the other butter prawn preparation you might have had from Chinese wedding dinners, this is not the same method). The prawns were huge, fresh, and rather delicious.
To fulfill the illusion of having a complete meal, we ordered a plate of vegetable (豆苗 RM7) too. It was however, a bit too old and not something I’d recommend.
stuffed crab and steamed siakap
The one famous seafood dish everyone must try when at East-Coast is the stuffed crab. Pretty much every seafood restaurants from Kuantan to Kemaman will have this particular dish on the menu.
We ordered two stuffed crab from Pak Su (RM 6 each). It was basically a crab shell stuffed with plenty of crab meat and god knows what else, but it was quite tasty! I would order more than one next time, it was like having the best of crabs without having to deal with the whole peeling off crab shell nonsense.
The steamed siakap (RM 18) we had was forgettable. The fish steak as per recommended by our server was way too tough it felt like we were chewing on cardboard. There are quite a lot of other live fish to choose from though, so perhaps other choices would be better than what we ordered.
KY, the awesome view, and Sheryl
The service at Pak Su follows the life style of east-coast Malaysia quite a bit too much, it was horrendously slow. While it didn’t take too long for us to get our food after ordering, getting the attention of servers to start the prepare our table/ordering/paying/getting change took way too long.
Our dinner was RM 84 in total, including 5% government tax, pretty reasonable price that is comparable to KL standard.
As for the food, there were dishes that was rather good (oyster, stuffed crab, butter prawn), and some were pretty lousy (vegetable, fish). However, I do feel that this place is worth visiting even if just for the ambiance. You really have to be there to appreciate it.
Address:
Pak Su Seafood Restaurant
No.4/1417, Batu 6, Lot 922, Kg.Bahagia Beserah,
26100 Kuantan , Pahang Darul Makmur.
GPS: 3.87582, 103.36636
Tel: 09-544 8025
URL: paksu-seafood.com.my
