Kelantan Food 吉兰丹美食

I was back from Kelantan, northern state of Malaysia recently. But I have no idea which topic to touch on first, so I think it’s better to have a start with Kelantanese’s yummy food.

Kelantan consists of 95% Malay race, its food focus definitely be on Malay food.

I have a Kelantanese friend, who strongly recommended me to try this Nasi Kerabu, but yet he didn’t know the source of the nice Nasi Kerabu (as his mom bought home for him always, and he just lying on the home and enjoyed the food). Thus, the only way he recommended to me was going there to look for it myself… and he would bless me to grab one…..

When I was there nearby Istana Jahar,Kota Bharu, we sensed very delicious fried chicken smile coming from somewhere, and it brought me to these 2 vendors’ stall which located near to the UMNO building.



One vendor selling Nasi Dagang , the other was selling Nasi Kerabu.



While looking on the blue-coloured rice, I felt so attracted but yet I have no idea the blue colour sauce was made of what ingredient.


Nasi Kerabu is using this kind of blue-coloured rice, mixed with coconut blend, and I extra ordered a fried drumstick, all together is only RM3, the price was so reasonable.



Friend chicken in Nasi Dagang was excellent as well, which my brother praised and praised after that, priced RM3.50.



You can call it unlucky or lucky enough, the street vendors didn’t provide any plastic spoon or fork or any equipment for taking the nasi, causing us “blessing” enough to eat the rice with local style-eating using own hand on the street…

I was addicted to the tastiness of nasi kerabu, as I was taking another nasi kerabu the next meal- breakfast at the reknown Pasar Khatijah.

But yet, I think I was misled by the sotong in this another vendor, as this breakfast cost me RM9.00, which was almost the most expensive breakfast I ever had in my life.



For dinner, Kota Bharu has an open space which is called Bazaar Buluh Kubu (the name is pretty called to pronounce out). There are many stalls selling different Kelantanese food and this is located near the pantai timur shopping mall (do take note that there is another Bazaar Buluh Kubu nearby which is a place for souvenir shops, the Bazaar Buluh Kubu on the tourism brochure referred to this, so please don’t be misled).The Bazaar Buluh Kubu is located at an open car parking space nearby.

The food selling in Bazaar Buluh Kubu are all seems very delicious, e.g this murtabak vendor. His murtabak sold at good price but yet very tasty. I tried on beef murtabak and it only cost RM1.70, though the beef was not too much, yet it’s enough to fit one’s starving stomach.


Before I came to Kelantan , I read a recommendation from a friend on Cari Forum, to this Yati’s stall.Her Ayam Percik was superbly nice, but yet the price was a bit too pricey…. RM8.50 for 2 drumstick. Mixed with the special made sauce, it was too tasty until I forgot to take its picture.



While in Bazaar Buluh Kubu , my personal advice is don’t go for its nasi lemak, it’s because it’s just a normal nasi lemak with friend egg yet cost RM2.I thought Kelantanese Nasi Lemak would have some special , but compared with either price or taste, both also lost to the nasi lemak stall near to my house in KL.

During night time , it’s very happening at the Kelantan china town –Jalan Kebun Sultan, besides the many-places-can-be-found Chinese food , here you can find some very good business malay stalls.


There is no free lunch in the world, these stall are famous not because of no way. For instance is this stall who sold rice in steam bowl.Their business was so good until I had an impression that their movements are the fastest among the Kelantan malays.



This is actually a mix rice stall, besides malay specialty –fried chicken, this is their weapon –the chilli !



Maybe the small bowl steaming helped in stimulate my appetite, I felt trying once more after finishing my packet! You can’t help your saliva when thinking their chilli..



Expenses in Kelantan is not high, there is another satay stall beside this steamed rice stall, only 40cents for 1 stick ,which is cheaper than a lot more small towns in Malaysia.



There are yet still lots more delicious food in Kelantan , which I missed out during this trip. Feeling regret of not having enough chances to explore all, but I think this would be the reason I come back to Kelantan in future ,for instance if I were to go Pulau Perhentian, I surely go by Kota Bharu way. To fulfill the regret I had in KB.

吉兰丹美食 Kelantan Food

刚从吉兰丹哥打峇鲁回来，不知道该先写哪一篇，还是来篇美食当开胃菜好了。

吉兰丹以马来人为主，占了95%强，当然吉兰丹的美食就是马来美食主打了。

我的吉兰丹朋友主打介绍这一个Nasi Kerabu，可是他不知道他常吃的Nasi Kerabu来源是那里，所以我就惟有自求多保了，自己去寻找。

我在接近Istana Jahar的一条支路闻到一股非常香喷喷的炸鸡味道，它把我引到了这个接近UMNO建筑物的两个流动小贩摊。


一个是卖Nasi Dagang,另一个则是Nasi Kerabu。


我看着蓝色的饭，感到很好奇，不知道它是什么汁弄成的。


Nasi Kerabu 的饭就是这一种蓝饭，加上椰丝，芽菜，香草，我加了一个鸡腿，价马币3.00,价格还蛮便宜的说。


Nasi Dagang的炸鸡也是很不错，让我弟弟赞不绝口。价马币3.50。


或幸或不幸，流动摊贩都是没有给匙羹，结果我很地道地在街边用手吃。。。

有点上瘾了，所以我连续两餐都吃Nasi Kerabu，第二轮的Nasi Kerabu 我在著名的市场Pasar Khatijah里面的早市。可是我被那看起来美味的Sotong骗了,这么一个加Sotong 的Nasi Kerabu要价9元，似乎是我吃过最贵的早餐。



而晚餐的时候，哥打峇鲁有一个开放空间叫做Bazaar Buluh Kubu ( 名字是有点难叫)，里面有许许多多的摊位，就在东海岸购物中心附近。（注：Bazaar Buluh Kubu同时也是一个贩卖旅游品的中心，旅游册子上就是指这一个旅游品中心，所以别被误导了，还有另外一个Bazaar Buluh Kubu 在附近是卖美食的。

在Bazaar Buluh Kubu里，就有各式各样的马来美食摊贩，好象这一个卖Murtabak的，相当便宜，牛肉Murtabak 就只是马币1.70,当然肉也是不多，可是也可以填饱肚子的。


当中，有一个佳理论坛的网友，推介的小贩Yati，他说Ayam Percik 很好吃，当然我们也买了，口感是不错啦，不过价钱也不弱，两块蛮大块的鸡腿连胸肉要价马币8.50。烧烤的鸡肉，淋上特制的酱汁，好吃到我忘了拍照留念。


在bazaar buluh kubu 不要叫椰浆饭Nasi Lemak,因为普通的Nasi Lemak，就只是给炸蛋，已经要价马币2元，还以为吉兰丹Nasi Lemak 有什么好康，比我家附近的Nasi Lemak 还输，我家那里的更便宜！

而晚上的时候，在哥打峇鲁的唐人街Jalan Kebun Sultan苏丹花园路，也非常热闹，这里除了有许多在大马其他地方都吃得到的中餐，也有一些马来摊位非常好生意。

当然人家好生意不是随随便便就出名的，一定有他好吃的东西，其中一摊就是这个以小碗蒸饭最好生意，生意好到我觉得他们是全吉兰丹手脚动作最快的马来人。


这一摊其实是马来杂饭摊，他们的食物除了马来人最拿手的炸鸡，就是他们的辣椒！


可能他们用小碗蒸饭也是有其辅助作用，整包饭令人吃了还想再吃！虽然菜肴不是很特别，可是淋在饭内的辣椒，真让人想到都垂涎三尺！


吉兰丹的消费还蛮低的，在这个小碗蒸饭的旁边就是这个卖沙爹档，一串沙爹（鸡肉或牛肉）也就是40仙，还比小地方如笨珍还便宜。



吉兰丹还有很多美食如Laksam，泰国餐的cao jam其实我都错过了，有点小遗憾，就期望下回如果有机会到Pulau Perhentian，过境吉兰丹去补偿这小小遗憾了。

Kampung Laut, Kelantan 吉兰丹 海洋村

Kelantan- the state ruled by Islamic Party PAS, always like to label itself as the country’s leadership in Islamic teachings. For sure by any chance won’t be missing from promoting the oldest mosque –Masjid Kampung Laut ,in Peninsula Malaysia.

The description on the tourism brochure stated that originally Kampung Laut Mosque located in Tumpat. But It was being attacked by a severe flood many years ago.In order to maintain its structure, the authority had moved the mosque to the current location near to the Kota Bharu.

Maybe the name is a bit misleading, or perhaps the name was simply too common. I purposely made a call from Singapore to the Kota Bharu Tourism Office to confirm the location of the historical mosque, somehow was still misled.

Perhaps the officer was too aggressive to promote his own hometown, and I was misled to a very common Malay village Kampung Laut which located the opposite shore from Kota Bharu.

When we were walking in the village, I guess the villagers must be wondering from which earth these 2 guys coming from and to visit their village. They must be puzzled to see 2 “loyal followers” from far far away just to visit their village mosque.

The real Masjid Kampung Laut, situated in Nilam Puri. Asking the villagers the direction and way of going the real Masjid Kampung Laut. Their strong accent of Kelantanese’s Malay made me fall into big question marks….

We these 2 weird guy appeared in the odd hour (3pm), took the boat beside the Tambatan Diraja, and so strangely exist in Kampung Laut. When I recall, I still find it funny for such situation.


And through the mistake we made this time, we got the chance to experience the Kelantanese life in unconventional way. A different view on Kota Bharu in different angle along the Kelantan River.

The sky was with bright blue, and Kelantan River was just merely brown, between the sky and river divided by greenery land. Combination of colours- blue green brown is not that matching, but it made me meditate- how Kelantanese survived in year end raining season where flood could happen anywhere easily? Or the way newspaper report is not that objective, well, I believe from now on, I will take note more on Kelantan’s news after coming here.

Little Kampung Laut, but its jetty was so gorgeous, but our boat never stopped at this beautifully looking jetty but a plastic floating jetty beside. I was wondering why… it’s just such a waste not to use the already-completed jetty .


3 motorbike was welcoming us at the jetty , but they were not coming to fetch us, but the 3 Malay ladies same boat with us. It’s their family member. None of them bothered us, not even a taxi driver, but only the cats, chicken, and goats happily ran here and there welcoming us.

That is in this small village, I saw something rarely seen in Malaysia- The grocery shop boss was sleeping in the shop with the main door opened widely- not even woke up when we tried to wake him up for direction! Good ! at least it shows Kelantan was far safer than in other places.

When we return to the jetty, we found nothing to be done, and the boat was already stopped at the jetty waiting for people get on board. But there was not even 1, except us 2 tourist at the supposed-to-be busy peak office off hour. And this made the boat owner to stop at the jetty for 30min to wait more people to come.

The journey to Kampung Laut was really out of our plan, time could be said waster to have gone to a super-duper common Malay village. But from my point of view, this is where backpacking trip is fun in, because not everything ran smoothly as what was planned. Treat it as a journey and explore the other part of earth. Maybe could gain some other thing which was not beautified and more nature.

As for this case, we able to see the floating houses along the Kelantan river, their houses were built on numerous floating plastic tank, I think this is a smart way to overcome the notorious floods happen frequently in Kelantan, because their house will float higher when the water level rise up. The intelligence of daily life was not written in the tourism brochure ya.


How to get there?

From small jetty beside Tambatan Diraja, boat departing to Kampung Laut every 40min

Fare:

RM 1.00 per trip

吉兰丹 海洋村 Kampung Laut, Kelantan Malaysia

吉兰丹贵为回教党执政的州属，当然老爱标榜自己身为回教的领导者，更何况马来半岛历史最悠久的回教堂Masjid Kampung Laut在吉兰丹，回教党焉有不宣传的道理。

旅游册子上是说这一座Masjid Kampung Laut海洋村清真寺本来矗立于道北的Kampung Laut，后来大水灾，结果为了避免它进一步遭摧毁，所以整座回教堂搬到了哥打巴鲁去。

由于名字实在是有点误导性，名字似乎太普通了。我特地从新加坡拨了一通电话到吉兰丹旅游局确认该回教堂的位置与前往方式，结果我还是中骗了。

也或许该名员工来自哥打巴鲁对岸的Kampung Laut，想宣传他家乡。。。结果我来到了一个普通的海边马来村庄，到处问人回教堂的方向，我想他们也都会觉得奇怪这么两个身穿短裤的“虔诚教徒”远道而来。

真正的Masjid Kampung Laut位于Nilam Puri，问村民如何前往，可是他们浓厚的吉兰丹腔马来语，实在不甚明了。

我们两个就是那么奇怪的时间（下午3点），搭上了在Tambatan Diraja旁边的小码头的汽船，那么奇怪地出现在海洋村，现在想起来都有点好笑。

不过就是那么的机缘下，我们可以以另外一个角度去看哥打巴鲁在吉兰丹河畔的一番风味。

天空一片蔚蓝，而吉兰丹河水却是一片泥朦褐色，天水间则分明隔绝了一片绿，蓝绿褐不太相配，却煞是勾起了我的冥想，想着年尾雨季的吉兰丹人如何在这“大马黄河”边讨生活，或是报道偏颇了？也许需多加注意吉兰丹的新闻。

小小的海洋村，却有着美轮美奂的新码头，可是我们停船的地方却是一个以塑胶桶筑建的漂浮码头，有点奇怪。

迎接我们汽船的是三辆摩多，因为与我们同船的是三个马来妇女，她们的家人在码头等待他们。我们没人来迎接，连一个搭讪的司机都没有。。。 可怜兮兮。。。只有猫儿羊儿鸡儿兴奋得跑来跑去。

在这个村里，我看到在大马难见的景象-杂货店老板开了门，自己却在里面睡觉，钱财就那么坦荡荡的放置一旁；我们试着问路，老板睡得还真熟呢！

回到码头，无所事事，汽船已在码头等候；纵然已经是下班时间，可是等候它下一趟赴哥打巴鲁却是漫长的，相信海洋村的村民人口不是很多造成的。

其实旅行有时有些出槌，也是有点那么的乐趣，虽然未能看到想看的景物，可是旅程中的风景就是一种乐趣了。既来之，则安之吧。况且因为这一次的失误，看到了哥打巴鲁真正的一面，不是经过有关单位粉饰的。

我们看到了吉兰丹河上的水上人间，他们的木屋就建立于塑胶桶上，漂浮在河上，相信吉兰丹河泛滥也不会影响到他们，因为屋子会跟着“水涨屋高”。




如何抵达？

从Tambatan Diraja旁的小码头，出发至Kampung Laut RM1(单程)
船次每40分钟一趟

Pengkalan Kubor,Kelantan 吉兰丹 彭加兰古堡

Ever since 2years ago I went to Malaysia-Thailand border-Wang Kelian, this time round I arranged another border trip, and also due to the unforeseen circumstances, I didn’t go to the more-famous border Rantau Abang, but the less-famous Pengkalan Kubor.

From Kampung Jubakar,we continued our journey from Kota Bharu to Malaysia-Thailand border.

Actually before boarding on the bus no 27, we were not sure if the bus was going to the border checkpoint, we were afraid that the bus driver would dump us in middle of nowhere and told us :”from here you take taxi , can reach the checkpoint” . Anyway our worry was extra because the bus no 27 was towards its terminal at Pengkalan Kubor.

Similar to other Malaysia-Thailand border checkpoint, Pengkalan Kubor is having a tax-free trade zone, and it’s much bigger than it was in Perlis’s Wang Kelian.

But Pengkalan Kubor was not giving us a good first impression, as the authority fenced up the area as those we watched it on the movie (Those Jewish detainment camp back in WWII), well I admit I was watching too much war movies before this…

Malaysia-Thailand border was divided via a river, its natural boundary has given the officers’ work much easier- in order to cross the border, you will need to board on boat/ferry. I saw the ferry there were much smaller compared to those in Penang, and without shelter, well.. under the hot sun/raining day, I guess you wouldn’t like to cross the river..

We never thought of cross over to Thailand, maybe read too much negative news from the paper, always felt that South Thailand wasn’t that safe

The free trade zone here wasn’t with any attraction to us, as the merchandise sold were almost the same categories eg kitchen utensil, toys, and dress. As a tourist point of view, we absolutely found no attraction at all because the shirt sold here also wasn’t souvenir shirt,all were imported from China ! (our famous Batik also imported from Yunnan, what a shame!)


With such a far far away border, with such a normal day it was, it was so extradinary that me and my brother walked in this “refugee camp”, but none of the shopkeeper came approaching us to promote his/her product, because they understand that tourist not going to buy kitchen utensils, haha


There was this small market in Pengkalan Kubor, I would say of a little bit attraction to us. We saw one kind of Asam, they called it Asam Java, the vendor gave us free sample to try, even though we declared earlier that we were not going to buy the fruit all the way back to Kota Bharu, she insisted us to try , saying it’s for us to try only. Kelantaneses were so friendly.

Free trade zone was only with 3 rows of shops, you can easily kill your time walking the whole area. We tried delay the time , walking slowly from shop to shop, just to experience the difference in this far-far away land. Thus we specially make ourselves to have our lunch in the trade zone.

Such eatery shop style can easily found in the whole KB, in which all the customers sitting surround the boss, boss preparing the food at the center. Customers just to raise up their hand, then boss will straight come to your order.

Along the river at Malaysia side, reside this Fishery Research Board also, theoretically nobody was allowed to enter its compound, but as mentioned, Kelantanese were kind-hearted—Just say hi to the guard, saying you just want to take photos, basically shouldn’t be any problem I guess.haha

Geographical location of this Fishery Research Board was very strategic, you can take photo without any obstacles to the opposite Thailand border.

And in fact, our Kelantan trip was of a lucky one, there wasn’t any rain during our outing. Even though we always fall tired easily, but much better than having umbrella to visit any site, isn’t it?

We saw the bus no 43 stopped at the same bus station we alighted just now. Its air-conditioning was function. After making sure that this bus was heading to our next destination- Pantai Seri Tujuh. We board on bus to catch our dream, while waiting the bus driver to come back from his break.

Even though after 20 min , we found we were still at the same place without moving any meter, and the passengers on board was just a pity some number- total 5 of us ! hard-earn money ya..

Expenses

Kampung Jubakar to Pengkalan Kubor RM1.70

吉兰丹 彭加兰古堡 Pengkalan Kubor, Kelantan Malaysia

继2年前去了马泰边界王可怜，这一次我的吉兰丹之旅同样安排了去一趟马泰边界，这次也是因为机缘关系，还是没有去到比较出名的边界，就如上一次错过Rantau Abang 去了王可怜，这一次也是错过较著名的Rantau Panjang，去了Pengkalan Kubor。

从Kampung Jubakar，我们一条龙式的从哥打峇鲁玩到马泰边界。

其实在我们搭上27号巴士之前，我们不肯定它有没有开到边界去，深怕司机又是随便放我们在半途下车，但是担心是多余的，因为27号巴士的总站就是Pengkalan Kubor。

正如其他的马泰边界，Pengkalan Kubor 也是有免税区，而且规模比王可怜的还大还整齐。


可是，Pengkalan Kubor 给我们的第一感觉不太好，有关当局把免税区用双层篱笆围起来，我觉得有点像是犹太集中营。。（可能不久前我看了二战的电影，被它影响了）。

马泰边界是由一条河给分开来，天然的条件使移民厅的工作容易多了，要到对岸，就得乘船过去。船只是渡轮，可是比槟城的简单多了，没有遮顶，得日晒雨淋。

我们没打算到泰国走一回，也许是看报道太多了吧？总觉得泰南不太安全的。

可是这里的免税区也没啥“康头”，卖来卖去都是差不多一样的东西，厨房用具，玩具，衣服。对于旅客的我们来说，实在没有吸引力，衣服也是普通衣服，没有一间旅游衣服，而且很多都是中国入口，实在没瘾。（我们著名的Batik都是中国货，实在是丢脸）



在这么一个遥远的边界，这么一个普通的周日，我们两个年轻人走在“难民营”中，显得有点特出，只是店员们都没有把我们叫住，因为他们知道游客不会去买砂锅盎铲。



里面有一个小型的市场，还略有小看头，卖有一些形如花生的亚叁果Asam Java，其中一个水果贩还给我们免费尝试呢，虽然我们跟她说我们不会买了带回家，她说就只是让你们试试味道，嗯，这里的人还蛮友善的。。


免税区内就是三排店面而已，很快就可以走完，我们尽量拖延时间，就是想慢慢体会完这里的不同，所以我们临别前，还在这里的一个树下摊吃午餐。这是一个吉兰丹常见的小吃店，就是食客都坐着围着在中间的老板，老板就在那儿准备食物给每个人，每个人也只要举手，老板就看到了。

依傍着河边的还有一个渔业研究局，照理来说，外人是不许进入的，但吉兰丹就是比较“随和”点，只要跟看守打个照面，说我们是外地来的，想拍照。基本上，应该不成问题的，呵呵。


这渔业研究局所处位置很好，可以没有阻挡地拍摄到对岸的泰国。


说起来，我们的吉兰丹之旅还蛮幸运的，老天都没有下雨，只是天气太热，容易陷入爱睡状况。

我们看到了前往Pandai Seri Tujuh的43号巴士停了在那儿，冷气还开着，等候搭客，我们爬了上巴士，来个午睡，醒来后，巴士还在原地，巴士搭客还是五指可以数到。。。看来生意真难做呢。。。




费用：
Kampung Jubakar 至Pengkalan Kubor RM1.70