Last weekend I made a short food seeking trip down south to this little kampung at Negeri Sembilan aptly named Pedas (or Spicy in English), as what we’re looking to eat is indeed something spicy!
Sabak Salai, Pedas, Negeri Sembilan
Our destination of the day was Resipi Sabak Salai, a rather popular spot located just 2 kilometers away from Pedas exit point on the North South Highway, which itself is about 20 kilometers south of the more popular Seremban exit.
Sabak Salai has a very simple set up not unlike most Malay road-side restaurants – zinc roof, electric fans, tables and chairs, but no wall or air conditioning.
What you do get though, is a good selection of Negeri Sembilan style dishes – starting with the most important ingredients – daging salai and itik salai, or smoked beef and smoked duck, both in masak lemak cili api- with tumeric, coconut milk, and plenty of hot cili padi.
choices of dishes at Sabak Salai
Additionally, they do also offer ikan masin, ayam goreng, ikan bakar, terung sambal, ulam, and more. My suggestion is to keep your stomach space for dagang salai or itik salai, with a healthy portion of those yellow spicy thick broth to go with steamed rice.
The in-house smoked beef is the star here, they pack a sweet, smokey flavor that I find rather delicious, and the masak lemak broth makes for a perfect compliment with its spicy and rich nature.
daging salai and itik salai with masak lemak cili api
If dining in isn’t enough, they also sell vacuum packed smoked beef as well as masak lemak condiment you can cook at home.
Instead of the usual R&R meal, do consider stopping over Pedas for a meal on your next trip down South.
Address: Sabak Salai No.13, Batu 5 1/2, Kampung Kundur Hulu, 71400 Pedas, Negeri Sembilan GPS: 2.549070, 102.037146 Tel: 06-697 0128 Hours: 10 am to 5 pm, closed on Mondays
At workplace, I am a bit of a freelancer when it comes to lunches. Most people have a group of colleagues or friends they always lunch with, but I sort of wander around a little bit, hanging out with different groups of colleagues and friends. Partly to socialize with more, and mainly to appease my appetite of having wide variety of different lunch options since most groups usually to go to the same places repeatedly.
Restoran Salero Negori, at Jalan Gurney, KL
A couple weeks ago I joined a group of Malay colleagues on a bit of a lunch excursion to this place suggested by our friendly Indonesian expat by the name of Pak Alwi to this restaurant located at Dato’ Keramat by the name of Restoran Salero Negori.
The name is pretty self explanatory – a restaurant that serves Negeri Sembilan delights. My only previous such experience was to Restoran Rose 911 at Kampung Pandan.
plenty of different dishes to choose from
Restoran Salero Negori is located in a converted bungalow house along Jalan Gurney (not to be confused with Persiaran Gurney which is in Penang).
As with many Malay restaurants, the set up is pretty similar to “chap fan” or nasi kandar style. Most food are already prepared, and you just point and pick what you want. The benefit is that you don’t ever need to wait more than 5 minutes before food is served.
For lunch, we ordered up qiute a big feast for the six of us. There’s boiled duck egg, smoked beef curry, paku pakis, deep fried chicken with rempah, curry squid, curry chicken, and more.
I find the beef pretty interesting, a bit of a smokey taste that goes well with the spicy curry. The rempah from fried chicken was addictive, but my favorite turned out to be the brinjal, covered with sambal and fried to almost crispy texture while still retaining the sweetness.
Over all, it was a very good lunch, plenty of kick, and maybe a bit too much lemak, but that’s what Negeri Sembilan food is all about.
it was a great afternoon lunch session
We spent about RM 24-25 per person for this meal including drinks. Cheap? No. Satisfying? Oh Yes! Will go there again.
Address: Restoran Salero Negori Jalan Gurney Dato’ Keramat Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.167662, 101.720818
