northern food and art exploration (parit buntar and georgetown)

boy, i am glad i took a weekend off and went for a short break. well, thanks to my ex-housemate who chose last saturday for her wedding banquet night and i got to have a bit of fun before the haze attacked us here in the north.

the weekend included a lot of food and a lot of walking too. haze was not that bad yet so it was all right to walk around outside without a mask. i did not see anyone wearing one at all.

the journey north started with meeting two other friends who were also attending the wedding. i wanted to go to foh san dim sum restaurant in ipoh since i have never been there. but gosh, it chose to have its holiday when i wanted to go. so in the end, we went to a shop a few doors away, yoke fook moon and the dim sum was good too.

some of the food we had on our table. it was such a satisfying lunch as i had been craving for dim sum for almost a month after i saw photos of dim sum posted on facebook.

this is durian and fresh cream pancake. it is cold and it is really nice. they did not blend the durian flesh but instead put one chunk there in the middle. however, i feel that they could have put a bigger chunk of durian. the fresh cream was really good. you will normally see mango pancake sold this way outside too.

so after dim sum, it was off to parit buntar, the bride's town. she had booked rooms for us at hotel damai and was waiting for us there when we arrived.

since i was in adventurous spirit, the journey did not end at the hotel before the dinner. the 4 of us who travelled in two cars, got into one car and headed to kuala gula and kuala kurau. the scenic drive took us about one hour to kuala gula.

we turned into kuala gula bird sanctuary resort hoping to get a boat ride but their ride comes in a package. they give you two-hour tour on the boat and a boat can fit a dozen people at the price of rm180. it is not expensive but it was just not for the 4 of us.
it was low season and the bird-watching season will only start in august.

so we decided to explore kuala kurau next on the way back to parit buntar.

we turned into a road leading to 'jejantas kuala kurau' (jejantas=flyover) feeling curious where the flyover would lead us. and we ended up at this flyover:

we are near the sea already here as kuala kurau river flows to the sea and the main occupation of the residents here is fishing. we could definitely smell the sea.
my car could not go on the flyover as it was only wide enough for motorcycles but we had a nice view of the sea from the bridge.

there yonder is the sea ;)

then we headed back to parit buntar and decided to get something to eat first as it is a norm for all wedding dinners to start late. yup...ours did start one hour later than the time stated on the invitation so we were happy we had something in our tummies earlier.

i had already done my homework earlier and i read that there is a good rojak store here in the town in a kopitiam opposite billion. so we circled the place until we found it and it was well worth the effort.

the thick dark rojak sauce was good. it was not spicy when you first started, but it slowly got to you. the sauce was not too spicy nor too sweet, it was just right and thick. my friend even licked the sauce from the plate when all the fruits finished and they bought two jars of sauce home too.
the name of the rojak store is 888.

there was also a char keow teow store and i ordered a plate.

it was good too, not oily at all. i was really contented. aaahhhh.......

next- wedding dinner.

the dishes served here are almost similar to what you have at other places, except for two.

first is this- yam paste with ginkgo and almond. the yam paste was sweet and it was oily too. you can see the oil at the base of the paste running out on the plate. i thought this dish was more suitable as a dessert and eaten with some chinese pastry but it came as the 4th dish.

next is this- steamed man tou with curry prawns. the curry was really fragrant and the man tou was really soft, too bad the prawns still had their shells. hahaha......i only had one. it was troublesome removing the shells and being cautious at the same time so that the gravy would not splatter on your dress.

the dinner ended at 10pm and it was back to the hotel for our rest. haiz....my pillow was too tall and i was turning and tossing the whole night.

we went to the bride's house the next morning at 9am and saw her getting ready for the arrival of the groom.

a sumptious breakfast was served at the house and there were so many things to choose from.
there was rice, mixed vege, stewed pork trotter, cakes, prawns, achar, pork belly soup (!!! yummy!!!), assam laksa, etc.

this is supposedly the best assam laksa in parit buntar and it really lived up to its name. the soup was really good. yup.....you can slurp it all, which i did.
the laksa cook was not at the house of course but it was made by her still. i read somewhere on the internet that she only opens at weekends at her house.

after witnessing the arrival of the groom and all his bestmen, we decided to make a go. i said goodbye to the two friends who were heading back to ipoh while my friend and i went further north to go into georgetown. i told you i was in an adventurous spirit. ;)

i parked my car at beach street and started walking around the area looking for street art and quirky stuff which i have seen many shared on facebook.

these are the street art i mentioned and you need to walk to every nook and cranny of the smaller lanes to find them.

however, i was more intrigued by the metal sculptures which depict comical characters representing the areas where they are put.

aaah......how could i leave this out. can't see? well, tell those ladies to move aside. it was a bicycle and two kids riding on it. if i had to wait till there was nobody in front of that mural, i would have to wait a long long time as there was a queue and these people were not satisfied with only one pose. haiz...so this is what you get to see lah.

mr nasi kandar. i wanted so much to have nasi briyani at kapitan restaurant which was just around this corner, but my stomach was still full from all the food i had in parit buntar. next time. so now my latest craving is: nasi briyani ;) haha

there was just so much to see in every lane. just make sure you bring comfortable walking shoes, lots of water, hats, sunscreen and umbrella. many were cycling too.

the lady was selling shaved ice with syrup.

this is khoo kongsi.

vintage toy museum.

when one is in penang, one seems to be transformed to another world where one gets to forget about all hustle and bustle of life and soak in the uniqueness and quirkyness of this quiant city. since it was a sunday, the roads were not busy and it was just nice for slow strolls to soak in the city.

lunch was at china house, a place recommended for its cakes but not its service. i was wondering how bad the service would be after i read about it on the internet, and now that i had been there, i couldn't agree more.

the place was fully packed but waiting for table was ok. it was the service from the waiters and cashier without a smile on the brink of rudeness that really put you off.
you will be spoilt for choice choosing all the cakes available there as there were more than 10 on display. i had a hard time too and finally i settled for apple strudel with vanilla sauce and plum and berry carrot cake. the carrot cake was a bit too sweet but the apple strudel was awesome. coffee was not bad and the bento set we ordered to share was good too. definitely worth visiting again the next time i get here.

they also have an art space on the first floor and as georgetown art festival is on-going now, there is a photography exhibition. ok now i have to confess. one of the main reasons why i wanted to go to georgetown is for the art festival too. and yes, i managed to find a few exhibitions. yippee!!!

this is a magazine exhibition just across the road next to sekeping victoria on victoria street. yes, you can pick up the magazines to browse.

and if you decide to sit at the backyard to browse your magazine, they also prepare raincoats and rainboots in case it rains while you are browsing. how thoughtful ;)

another exhibition i saw was domestic evolution at sekeping victoria. they have used local everyday products and transform them into hanging art pieces dangling from the ceiling. creative.

can you make out the products?

we were also just in time for a story-telling session there and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly reliving our childhood listening to stories of sang kancil, sang buaya, tok rimau and swordfish attacking singapore.

from all the lanes, we then decided to go to clan jetties. i have seen it on movies and photos, but never with my own eyes....so it was a must go.
the famous one is chew jetty, so it was where we went.

from chew jetty i decided to walk to fort conwallis. haha...it was quite a walk but no one was complaining. i was walking through a part of a city i had never been to.

rapid penang station.

custom building.

church street pier.

the germans were in penang too.

paid rm2 for entry into fort cornwallis.

sir francis light commemorative statue.

after fort cornwallis, it was back to beach road to the car park and goodbye georgetown. we had been here for more than 4 hours.
but before we left, we couldn't help from checking out the umno building where an antenna fell and killed a car driver.
we had almost given up looking for the building when we accidentally found it.

and with that, we finally left georgetown. what a day.

and now back to reality.
outside, it is so foggy, as if a fogging session had taken place to get rid of mosquito. the air pollution index level outside should be around 150 and all outdoor activities had been cancelled at work.

fruitcake with brandy bought from china house, but it was rather soggy and i could not taste brandy. i thought rum would be better with fruitcake.

the haze in the afternoon. now it is worse.

almost everyone was wearing mask at noon and i also got one. but gosh, it was more difficult to breathe under that mask and it was hot! pray the haze will leave us soon.