Now what says East Coast better than keropok lekor and cendol pulut, the mainstays of traditional food when you think about Kuantan? 🙂
I just came back from a weekend there and tasted some of the best keropok lekor I’ve had. Kuantan faces the sea and there is seafood in abundance. This makes fish and the likes very cheap.
Keropok lekor is made with fish and sago before being stuffed into a casing – it’s like a fish sausage of sorts. The keropok lekor is then sliced and deep fried. There are two version that we had but the definitive Kuantan keropok lekor seems to be the chewy type as opposed to the crispier Terengganu keropok lekor.
This cup of keropok lekor sliced into bite sized pieces just cost us RM 1.
It’s eaten with a type of chilli sauce that’s black in color and sweet in taste. The chilli sauce is homemade – that’s the trick that makes it taste so good. The stalls in Kuantan all have their different recipes for the chilli sauce. This particular keropok lekor is chewy and tastes like a sausage made with fish.
There’s also another version of keropok lekor which goes for RM 1 for 8 pieces.
This is the crunchy type and is the more traditional version. It’s also really good and you can really taste the fish in these crackers – it’s almost made entirely out of fish!
However, the best thing that I’ve had the pleasure of introducing to my taste buds in Kuantan is cendol pulut. We have cendol pulut over here, but most of them consists of a meager piece of pulut placed into cendol. The one we had in Kuantan has HALF of the cup filled with pulut.
It’s very filling and it tastes awesome – the gula melaka (palm sugar) used in the cendol basically seeps though the pulut (a type of glutenous rice) and the sheer quantity of it makes it an authentic Kuantan style cendol pulut. I think people eat it to get full – it’s like a meal in itself. -_-
Whoaaa! The Cendol OMG OMG! ROcks!
Yeah it’s one of the best I’ve ever had! The amount of pulut is crazy, it’s very filling, but also very good. 🙂
I had the cendol pulut in Sg Petani – http://suituapui.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/wuthering-heights/
and mine had ice cream in it but it did not really turn me on.
Nice post! I went for one of the roadside stalls that was recommended – lots of the locals were having it there too so I reckon it was pretty authentic. Heh!
Do you like pulut? I do so I guess that’s probably why I enjoyed eating it. 🙂
Eyewwww…..those raw keropok lekor look like worms…or worse!!! Muahahahaha!!!!
HAHAHA
Yeah, it does look a bit dodgy when it’s raw. They stuff the fish into these sausage type casing but I was eating lunch opposite and I didn’t have time to take a photo of that.
It does look a bit anatomical in nature eh? 😉
I love those lekor! YUM!
Me too! Which one do you prefer bro? The thinly sliced crispy cracker keropok lekor or the sausage type of keropok lekor?
I personally prefer the latter, it tastes like fish sausages. Heh! This one is made with just fish and sago according to the owner. Awesome stuff. 🙂
i never had cendol pulut before. it sounds so sinful!
It’s awesome! It’s like that kueh that has a layer of pulut at the bottom and a green layer of agar on top, the name slips my mind at this time. I used to eat just the top and leave the bottom. Heh!
…however, when the pulut is saturated with gula melaka and santan goodness in cendol, it’s awesome! Delicious stuff, perfect in Kuantan.
Noticed that places that’s near the sea tend to be hotter than landlocked areas e.g. KK, Miri etc. 🙂
they make the best keropok lekor in east coast, the only one that i found pretty good here is the one near KL sentral monorail station. man i miss it!
Yeah, it’s like most places sell keropok lekor and it’s all really good. I like the chilli sauce and the fish filled keropok lekor. I haven’t seen good ones over here but will check out the KL Sentral one and see if it’s similar.
I hear there’s balut in Kota Raya too! 🙂
huai bin that looks good
I hope you ventured out to try the Lemang Kijal too – awesome!
Alas! Unfortunately we didn’t manage to eat lemang kijal, we were only there for 24 hours and spent most of the time on the beach and in the pool. 🙂
No worries, it’s not that far away, shall try it next time I head over to Kuantan!
Cheers mate! 🙂
so sinful yet tempting at the same time! haha man you gotta start watching what you eat huai bin, most of all ur posts are related to unhealthy food. lol
Heh! Indeed! I’m generally a very unhealthy eater. I like lots of fat in my diet (it tastes good) and my food pyramid is an inverted one. 😉
It’s all good though, we only live once. 😀
I love rich desserts like cendol pulut, it’s amazingly refreshing on a hot day.
oh-my-freaking-god… i’m frm kuantan and i didn’t know they serve keropok in a plastic cup that way…. where exactly was that stall? any street or landmark nearby? can’t tell from the photo that u posted…
anyway, n kuantan, the open secret is ‘keropok sago’ at tanjung lumpur…. and i heard there’s ‘keropok bawang’ too (which the last i heard, the stall no longer operating, but perhaps ask around?). both should be eaten at the stall and NOT to be ta pau back…
there’s also Zaman Nasi Lemak (again, ask around, coz they have been moving their stall around in Ktn)
and there’s cendol ‘on the road towards teluk chempedak’.. pretty famous, but standard’s dropped…. but ppl still visit to gather and meet up.
and do try nasi dagang in kuantan…. it’s different from nasi dagang in trengganu/ kelantan….
and there’s a few cze char places around, where you can get good and cheap food… just ask around 🙂
and and…. do ask around if these are available…. think they are relatively unknown in other parts of msia, and getting rare in kuantan as well:
– samosa ikan (http://aziancollections.blogspot.com/2010/08/samosa-ikan.html)
– pisang goreng madu (behind Pantai Selamat… pretty famous stall, the pisang goreng is fried with honey and sesame seed….heavenly)
Popular:
– nasi lemak…. there are well-known stalls…. besides nasi lemak Zaman, there’s nasi lemak Simple (sorry, the above comment is referring to this version), Nasi Lemak Kuantan Garden, etc…
– Karipap Taman Gelora (great place to hang out with friends)