The best lunch in Cherating and Dinner with the Chief

 Lunch in Cherating

For Lunch on day two in Cherating, Jono and I decided to walk a little further down the main road to see if we could find something a little different. To be honest I wasnt all that fussed on the place where we got our Nasi Lemak. And I wanted to check out a little more of the town, you never know what is hiding just around the next corner.

I'm glad we decided to venture a little further because we found what I think was the best food we had in Cherating. We picked this place because it seemed the busiest  of the warongs in this little strip and they had Roti Canai advertised on thier sign. Once we got there we found out the Roti was only for breakfast, so we ordered Ice Tea and Nasi Goreng. The Ice Tea was wonderfully refreshing. It tasted very similar in make up to the Teh Tarik I had developed a taste for already. It was a stinking hot day and the cool sweet milky tea was just perfect. Again a perfect match for 4 Dunhills.




There was a Nasi Lemak on sale at this place as well but I'm glad that we went for the Nasi Goreng because it was cooked fresh for us out the back. The moment they put it down in front of me I knew that we had made the right choice.It was piping hot and the smells wafting up hinted at the fresh chillis onion and garlic that awaited.

 This was without a doubt the best Nasi Goreng I have ever had, Now you may be wondering what the fuss is all about, its just fried rice. But I gotta say that cooked fresh, served hot in a little village on the beach Nasi goreng is divine. There were all the stars there in this little dish, I had asked for my Nasi to be extra hot so the chilli had more than just a bit part, it wasnt crazy Indian hot, but it had a great deep chilli flavour that built to a nice warm burn through the whole meal. Then there is of course the kecap manis, a true south east asian hero, it somehow manages to impart sweet and salt both at the same time, genius. Tamarind is another South East Asian delight, it has a characteristic sour piquancy that sits in the background and adds a great depth and complexity. Then of course there was the meat, in this case, being that it was a coastal town the meat of choice was fresh squid. The few other times I had squid in Malaysia it tended to be tough and over cooked, to be fair, squid is kinda picky, cook it just a bit too much and it turns to rubber (or u just leave it in a bain-marie and it does the nasty work for you). But here in Cherating in this great Nasi, the squid was perfect, it had the perfect time on the heat, nice and tender but still a little resistance on your teeth, it was so fresh that you could taste the ocean. All in all a great Nasi, one I would definately go back for.

Dinner with the chief

Probably the highlight of my whole trip was the night Jono, Jess and I spent at the mosque in Cherating and afterward with the Chief of the mosque. We had been invited to come to evening prayer by the chief who sat with us and talked to us about his faith and his village in his broken English during the whole service. He then blew our minds by inviting us out to dinner. We went in his car to the most incredibly busy restaurant I saw in our whole time in Malaysia. It felt like the whole town was there to eat that night.  The meal was started with drinks, and snacks. The coolest of these snacks was kerepek pisang, these were deep fried savoury banana chips, salty and with a hint of garam masala these things had a fantastic texture that could only come from a banana. I bought a whole packet home and my two year old is a massive fan.

 The next course was what we called "fish with fangs". This was a whole, deep fried fish that was coated in a delicious salty spice mix. You cant really make it out in this photo but this fish looked fierce! It had a mean looking mouth packed with a whole array of nasty looking teeth.  Now I'm not much of a seafood fan, as I have mentioned earlier, but this stuff was great, again it was just so fresh that you could taste the ocean. On the outside it was crispy and salty and inside it was wonderfully light and flaky. Thanks to the mosque's treasurer who also joined us for tea, I even learnt how to pull out the little bones along the spine.

I  want to take this opportunity to thank Jess, one of my companions who convinced me to eat the fishes eyeball, that nasty little white thing you can see in the picture. It had no taste and was hard like plastic. just a wonderful experience, thanks Jess ;)

The final course for dinner with the chief was Ayam Goreng. The chief of police told me this was like KFC kampong style. And man, this stuff was great, I reckon I must have gone back for thirds. It was fresh out of the fryer and steam was pouring from it. I don't know what the spice blend that they cooked this stuff in but it was fantastic. I definitely tasted chilli and salt, perhaps some tumeric, but after that I have no idea. They had blended the spices with some kind of really light batter and then deep fried it. What can I say? Its just fried chicken, but Kampong Ayam Goreng, whips KFC's ass any day.



Here we are after our meal. from the left we have the Chief of the Mosque, Jono, Jess, Me and the Treasurer. A great time, a truly memorable experience.