Cameron!

Destination - Cameron Highlands. This is a tourist and resort area, south of Ipoh, about three hours from Penang. Its altitude, about a mile high, makes it cool in temperature year round. Its attraction? many tea plantations, butterfly farm, golf resorts, strawberry farms, Cactus farm.

We left around 6 AM. Midway between Penang and Cameron Highlands is a town called Ipoh. This is a Cantonese town, so you better speak Cantonese here. We are looking for a restaurant called Foo Sun, famous for its Dim Sum. Dim Sum loosely translates to "touch your hearts" - little dishes of appetizer-sized dumplings, meat balls, cakes.

After stopping for directions a couple of times, we finally reached Foo Sun. We were ready to jump out of the car, when I noticed a red banner across the door: "Moving to a new premise, will start serving again on July 2nd." Bummer!

Seng immediately called up his friend who knows his way around Ipoh to find us another good restaurant. It turns out that it is only around the next block, a place called Weng Kok. Good, we were seated and food started piling up within minutes.

The dim sum at Weng Kok is not bad, but the portions are small. The varieties are the run of the mill Dim Sum, so for us, there is nothing to write home about. I like the shrimp dumplings. They are tasty but small. Mom's favorite expression is: "Not big enough to fill my tooth cavity." Seng and I both agree that is true.

we tried to finish off everything on the table as fast as possible. Meanwhile, the waitresses keep coming out with more new dishes. We finally have to stop them, and tell them we need to finish what we have on the table first, before we can think of getting more food. The food at this restaurant comes out very quickly, about every 3 minutes, there will be some new arrivals.

On the way out, we bought 4 big meat buns, 10 small meat buns, six custard pies, and four rice with chicken wrapped in leaves, to go. Seng said that the food in Cameron is not good, so it is better to bring some with us. We were all filling very stuffed when we walked out of Weng Kok.

Just as we were about to leave, Seng noticed the waitress serving egg plants and stuffed tofu to the people in the next table. He immediately stopped the waitress and ordered the same. He likes egg plants and stuffed tofu. Oh well, that means another 10 minute wait.

The restaurant was getting busy by then, and new comers are eyeing out table. I have to repeatedly fend off people by telling them we have more food orders coming out, even though it looks like we were done eating.


The egg plant dish was well worth the wait The egg plant was split in the middle, stuffed with fish ball filling, then pan-fried to caramelize the skin, then stewed in a nice, not too salty, sauce. When you bite into it, the sweetness of the outside of the egg plant, the softness of the egg plant flesh, and the plain taste of the fish meatball, and the saltiness of the sauce, all combined to wake up your mouth.

The stuffed tofu is very good, but nothing out of the ordinary. We enjoyed it none the less. The picture to the right shows two plates of egg plant and a dish of tofu. Notice the caramelizing of the egg plant. Very nicely done.

Here is a picture of two very satisfied customers. Although we all rate this restaurant as "No 2" after the legendary Foo Sun, we left the restaurant feeling very happy. (Note: I am trying the small picture format. You can still click on the picture to enlarge it on the screen. When you need to return to the block, you can click on the "back space" arrow on the top left corner of your blog screen, or press the "backspace" key.)

From Ipoh, with full stomachs, we set off to Tapah. The road between the two towns is very hilly. On both sides of the road are limestone hills. I love these type of hills, because the weather can cut off the hill slopes, giving you a vertical drop almost from the top to the bottom of the hills. The effect is a lot of sheer clives, much like the limestone hills in Qui Lin province in China. The hills in Ipoh are not quite as dramatic, but still very imposing.


We reached Tapah around 9:30AM, and filled up the gas tank. While we wait for Ann to come back from the rest stop, Seng made me a coffee (in a regular coffee mug.) When Ann came back, we took off, with a full mug of coffee precariously balanced in my hand. I have to sway my arm in motion with the car, so that it will keep level while we ascend the steep road to Cameron Highlands. I tried to sip away the hot coffee, while keeping an eye for road bumps and sharp turns, constantly swaying my body and arm in tune and in motion with the car. It was quite an adventure. Eventually, I was able to finish the coffee, without spilling a single drop on my shirt or pants. Ann was quite impressed by the feat.

About an hour later, we reached the highlands, the plateau. Our first stop, the Cameron Tea Company Tea House. This is a rest area, restaurant, gift shop, rest room combination stop built by the tea company. We stopped here briefly to clean up and look at the tea garden.

Just off the tea house is the hills of tea trees. We were surprised at how thick the tea tree trunks were - about the thickness of my legs. The tea leaves are big and old, not really what I had in mind for tea. Ann explains that the tea tree will continue to grow, and that is why the tea leaves are big. Those are not the drinking kind of tea leaves. When the new shoots come out, they are plugged, and those small leaves are the leaves in our tea. After they are picked, they are then dried, which further reduces their size.

As I pan my camera over the hills, I am impressed by how big the tree farm is. Hills upon hills are covered with tea trees. Up the slopes, down the valleys, along the ravines they grow.






In some places, I see white flags being planted at the beginning of the rows of tea trees. This I take to indicate which row is to be picked for the day. The tea picker must have been the model of fitness, as she has to climb up and down the hills, carrying the tea basket. Some of the slopes are quite steep, as you can see on the right side of the picture. I was tempted to plug a small shoot to chew on, to see what tea tastes like, but I decided I shouldn't do that. I don't want to end up in jail.

We visited the Boh Tea Company next. The tea house was closed on Monday, so we just walked around the tea trees, and took some pictures of the trees, flowers, and the stream running in the field. Again, note the steep terrain. I would hate to have to work here, but I suppose it will be very good exercise to have every day.

From here, we took a wrong turn, and went into some very narrow road, which apparantly leads to a communications tower many miles down the road. The road was also steep as it was narrow. Seng had to turn off the car air-conditioner a few times to gain enough power to climb the hills. Eventually, he gave up, and shut off the air-conditioner, and opened the windows.

When we rounded a sharp corner, we almost collided with a small mini-van whisking down the steep narrow road. The road is not big enough for the two cars to pass each other. After starring at each other for a while, the other car backed up the slope to a wider section, and Seng moved forward to an opening on the left, so the other car can pass. As he did that, we stopped the driver to ask for directions. He told us there is nothing much to see further up, so we somehow found a place to execute a u-turn and went down the hill.


We fared better once we got back on the main road. We next came upon a place called Cactus Point. It is more like a large flag hanger with rows and rows of plants and cactus. The interesting one I saw were Venus flytraps, Japanese lanterns, round cacti, hairy cacti, and red cacti.

The place is also a shop, of course. I bought some Boh Tea, to give it a try. Ann bought some strawberries, vegetables like tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, cabbages. Seng bought some dried strawberries for Theng2, and dried sweet potatoes.


Our next stop, Tanah Rata. Here is the home of the Convent Primary School, the first boarding school in Malaysia. It is run by nuns, and during the second World War, the school was occupied by Japanese soldiers. After the war, the school was taken over by the British army, until the left in the 40s. The nuns restored the building and built some new additions.

Tanah Rata is also where we found the newest hotel in Cameron, the Hotel de la Fern. We drove into the parking lot of the hotel, and got out to stretch our legs. Seng took the opportunity to eat some of the food we bought from Foo Sun this morning. I accepted Ann's offer for another coffee.

At the top of the hill, even when the Sun is shining brightly, the temperature is still cool enough to stand outside the car. We picked a shady area in the shadow of the hotel, but even in the Sun, it was not hot.

Tanah Rata also boasts a Starbucks coffee shop, a couple of Hong Kong restaurants, and many tourist trap type gift shops. This would definitely be the place to stay in, if you were to spend a few days in Cameron Highlands. I think there are some hiking and trekking trails stemming out from this town as well.


On the way down the highlands, Ann decided she wanted more strawberries. Seng did a U-turn and went back up the hill to a roadside vendor at the Rose farm. While Ann and I went shopping, Seng took the opportunity to take a nap. While we were shopping, a thunder storm swept in and begun pounding the building in which we were shopping. I took a movie of the rain storm, and some pictures of a very interesting looking plant. It looked like a giant spider with fat legs coming out from the pot. The legs are hairy, and they seem to be grabbing for the roof from which the pot was hanging. It looked pretty fearsome.

We reach Penang around 6:30PM. We were all exhausted. I was ready to go back to Seng's house to rest, but he insisted he knows of a very good Chinese restaurant, where we can get good Ramen noodles. Well, who can say no to Ramen noodles? so off we went to Queensbay Mall. The restaurant, Dragon-i, is also featured in http:www.penangtuapui.com, the food website for Penang food.

I thought we were just going to get Ramen noodles, but when Seng started ordering, we ended up with more than half a dozen items, plus my ramen noodles.

The first item that was served was the "cold chicken in hot and sesame oil." This is an excellent appetizer dish. The chilled chicken is marinated in a mixture of sesame and spiced hot oil, with sesame seeds sprinkled on top. It is a great appetizer on a hot summer day. The chilled chicken cools you down, while the hot oil "heats" up your taste buds. You are now ready to try on more Chinese food.

The next dish, "red oil hand fried", is a dish of dumplilngs in hot oil. It is not actually fried. It is wontons that have been boiled, then hand mixed with hot oil. The dumplings were very juicy. When you bite into the dumplings, you get the sweet juice of the meat stuffings, as well as the hot flavor of the hot oil. A delightful combination.

Peking Raviolis are next. The three raviolis were beautifully arranged on an oval plate. They were pan fried, brown at the bottom, and untouched on top. They were accompanied with Juliane-sliced ginger root, on which we pour soy sauce to make a condiment for the ravioli. The raviolis were not as spectacular as some I have had, which oozes hot juices when you bite into them. This version is less juicy, but the meat is very sweet and tasty. Ann divided them amongst the three of us, and suddenly, there were none left.

The next dish came in two baskets. Two bamboo baskets of steaming hot "Shio Loong Paus" (small baskets of buns). These are very thin skinned, but almost fully loaded with dumpling meat inside. The result is a basket very delicate meat buns. When you pick it up, you must be very careful not to poke through the skin. You carefully pick up the bun, and put the entire bun into your mouth. When you squeeze it with you tongue, the juices will flow out into your mouth, and they are juicy! A basket comes with five small buns, sitting on top of steamed Chinese cabbage leaves. The leaves keeps the bun from sticking to the bamboo, so that when you pick up the buns, you do not run the risk of breaking off the skins and losing the juices inside the bun. A very delicate dish, and a very good dish indeed.

The next dish was almost an overkill. "Beijing Dumpling" came arranged five on a plate. They were pure white, and were boiled, instead of fried. The flavor of the dumpling was good, but they were not spectacular as were the steamed buns in the basket. It was almost a let down after we have had the steamed buns. The dumpling taste somewhat like the raviolis, and were not juicy at all. You almost have to dip it into the hot sauce to get some respectable flavor out of the dumplings. We could have skipped this dish and not feel anything was missing. Never the less, we make quick work of this and was ready for the next one.

This restaurant has a very interesting way of keeping track of the food served. I have seen this in some other restaurants as well. After you have ordered your food, the server types in your order into a computer program. Two copies of the order are printed out. One goes to the kitchen, and one goes to the table. When an item is served to the table, the server will cross out the item from the printout. The customer can see what has been server, and is reminded of what is to be served next. All in all, a very efficient and functional way of serving.

Next on the list is my order of "Schishun Spareribs DanDan Noodles". The noodles, a version of the ramen noodles, is long and springy. The server came with a pair of scisors. Upon request, he will cut the noodles into smaller chunks for you. We would like it cut, because we intend to divide it among ourselves. The alternative is, you suck on one end of the noodles and slurp it into your mouth. That may be okay when you eat alone at home, but it would be more appropriate to cut the noodles into bite sizes. The noodle is not as good as I thought, mostly because I ordered the wrong broth. I had wanted the spareribs in soup, not the DanDan flavor. The sparerib soup is a spicy soup made from boiling spare ribs in a spicy soup. This is the dan dan ( a traditional sesame seed infused) flavor. The texture of the noodle is still good, but the flavor is not as good as I thought.



"Salt and Pepper Tofu" is next. The tofu, cut into small pieces, and rubbed with salt and pepper, is fried crisp outside, and custardy creamy inside. The outside casing is slight salty, but firm and crispy. You dip the tofu into a sweet chili sauce, and pop it into your mouth. The result is a combination of crispy and soft texture in a slight spicy flavor. This is very similar to the Loh Bak tofu that I have been enjoying in the last few days, except the crispy outside is more tastier, versus the plain flavor in the Loh Bak tofu.



The last dish was "Honey glazed crispy eels." An eel cut into small 2-inch stripes, deep fried until crispy, then glazed with a honey sauce. It is almost like eating a sweet potato-chip, you can just stop at one. The eel does not have any fish smell or flavor, because of it being deep-fried. It is almost like a potato chip. A wonderful end to a wonderful day. Thanks, Seng, and Ann.