One is the Loneliest Number

Only One American in Kuantan

It was time for two of us to go back home, so we left CJ on his own.  His adventures continue:

• Monsoon season: That means driving in the rain with poor markings on the road and some off roading, not by choice but by necessity
• Sad News: The owner of Breeze Bar passed away
• MYNY Update: CJ went to visit 20 minutes before closing and the employee behind the counter said that they were closed for the night.  So, Malaysia time means we close when it's convenient for us, not what the posted times are.
• MYNY Update 2: Hard to eat a pizza by yourself! Sorry CJ that we had to leave you there lonely!
• Black Pearl Update: CJ enjoyed the lamb shoulder and went all out with the pigs in the blanket appetizer. Still a lot of smoking potential, so be aware.  But Black Pearl is one of the rare places that serves real pork product in Kuantan!
• Krim Update: New flavor, salted caramel, made its appearance. It was good according to the AIK.
• The Fs of Kuantan: Fuzzy, Farmen, Fires, Forest, Friends Forever.
• Trying to get a picture of Forest Whittaker. He keeps showing up at the plant, but he wants to remain incognito, so no pictures yet.  CJ is trying.
• CJ might apply for Malaysian citizenship, get Malaysian haircut and go to work part time at the cheese tart kiosk in the mall... That's how long he has been there.

Where to Stay in Kuantan

The Hotels of Kuantan

There are many, many hotels in Kuantan. As Americans, we prefer Western style hotels which are definitely available.  There are a few choices:

EC has stayed a couple of times before at the Swiss Garden. It is nice enough but not convenient for extended say due to its far from town location and the beach is nothing to write a blog about. 

Unfortunately, during 2015/2016, the Hyatt has been closed for renovations. So, we have heard from other colleagues that it is a very nice beach resort, but we have not experience it ourselves. They are scheduled to reopen early 2017.

The Zenith is the best place to stay as it is across the street from East Coast Mall and a short walk to the Mega Mall.  It is also within walking distance to many of the restaurants on this blog, a grocery store and of course a movie theater!

Once the Hyatt reopens, we would likely stay there (nicer beach) but would definitely need a car to visit all of the places described on the blog.

Movies in Kuantan

Miscellaneous Reviews

GCS Movie Theater East Coast Mall:

PROS:

Inexpensive place to watch first-run movies. Assigned seats is good to allow entering at last minute. 

CONS:

Seats are not very strong – can break.  CJ, one of the American in Kuantan (AIK) had a mishap when he sat in his seat and ended up on the floor.

Asian movie etiquette not what it is in the US. A trade off between irresponsible people and low cost films.

Movies:

We reviewed many movies during our October stay in Kuantan including: 

• Deepwater Horizon - Three Thumbs Up - well executed movie. Our favorite one that we saw in October.  Sometimes a little too close for comfort for us since we do work around plants that have chemicals that can go BOOM.
• Inferno - Two Thumbs Down, One Thumbs Up - EC thought that it was good, the other two AIKs not so much.
• The Girl on the Train - Two Thumbs Up - One of the AIKs didn't make it to this one. EC read the book and wanted to see the movie. Warning: Quite a bit of foul language in this one, especially compared to the book.
• The Accountant - Three Thumbs Up - Probably our favorite one out of the bunch. Quite a bit violent though. SOLOMON GRUNDY!
• Jack Reacher - Never Go Back - No real thumbs up or down on this one. OK action movie, noting out of the ordinary, exactly what you would expect from a Tom Cruise action movie.  They do a lot of running in it.
• Doctor Strange: Good Marvel movie with a lot of action. Good acting. Fun seeing a movie which does not get released in the USA for another week!

Here is the Ericnization for the movies:

Deepwater Horizon is fiction and the other four movies are based on true stories... Not!

Caution:

Malaysians have poor movie theater ethics. They talk on their phone and to each other during the movie, and also like to check their phones – very irritating.  We actually had to turn around and get someone sitting behind us to hush.  Expected a teenager, turns out to be an older person (50+) on the phone having a full-voice conversation in the middle movie!

Important Information about what to listen to on the radio

Radio Stations

Several good English stations like MIX (94.1), Lite FM (104.7), Red FM (91.6), Hot FM (92.4), HITZ FM (93.2). 

The fun things to listen to are the Morning Shows with trivia contests, questions for the audience, surveys and simply all around different morning DJs. It can be interesting to understand what is being said at times with the different accents.

Two questions/surveys recently, as examples:

1. Is it OK to "force" your children to like the same sports team you like or should you let them decide?
2. Is it OK to have a no-children allowed wedding?

The DJs and the listeners go back and forth with their argument. It makes for an entertaining time while driving in to work in the mornings.

Several Hit songs on the radio that left impressions on us:

Are you Eddy? by Adele

A little background here: One of the people we are working with in Malaysia is named Eddy.  When our Elder Colleague (EC for short) heard the song, he immediately started to sing Are you Eddy? Are you Eddy? I am Eddy!

If you are wondering what song it is, wonder no more and click on the wrong title above.

Bump you up by Black Eyed Peas

This one comes from another one of our Malaysian co-worker that picked us up as we were walking back from the MegaMall.  He turned on his radio to an English song and EC was rocking to it. Of course, in all his Ericnizing, the song became Bump you up... 

Do you know what it is yet?  Click on the song title above

Another one we heard a lot was When I Was 7. That one is sad for EC, his life hasn't been the best in the past few years regarding relationships.  So he gets sad and morose when he hears that one.  We keep reminding him that he should have made some friends when he was 7 years old but he didn't so he is lonely... Poor EC!

Another thematic song was both in the original French, Le Moribond and in the English version, Seasons in the Sun.  Click on the title to get a feel for the two songs. EC comments: We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the son but the wine and the song like the seasons are all gone.

Who are the Americans in Kuantan

Americans in Kuantan

Three of us working together have spent a lot of time in Kuantan in the past three months. We are Americans, even if we have differing back ground and not necessarily born in the States (two out of the three of us were born elsewhere)

When you are in a place for a long time with the same people, it starts to get a bit underwhelming, especially a place in a foreign land, such as Malaysia. Malaysia is a very nice place to be, but Kuantan is smaller city on the East coast of the country and Trip Advisor can only take you so far with places to eat, things to do and sites to see.

As a side note, we have daily sightings of Bus 602!

So, here we are, rating the area as Americans, with as honest opinions as possible.

Be forewarned that the majority of blogs were written by our eldest member of the team and, sometimes, his words don't quite match up with reality. I've tried my best to link the actual places and people where available, since you will have a very difficult time to find Def Leopard in Kuantan (Actual name of the restaurant is Bayleaf Steak House). We no longer ask why, we simply accept and move on and actually refer to the places by their Ericnisized names.

Here is a few translations as a quick reference for you:

Def Leopard - Bayleaf Steak House
Hyperbole - Hyderabad
Hazuki Mikada - Hana Mizuki
Cochilee Monster - Croque Monsieur
E La Wadi - Lila Wadi
Cool-A- Cakes - Kula Cakes
Umbok - Ombok
Lemongrass TIE Café - Lemongrass Thai Cafe
Somebody named Wang Bakery - Sungai Wang Bakery

We hope that you enjoy our travel blog and can actually find useful information if you ever find yourself in Kuantan!

Kuantan journey of meals

Places to Eat

Top Tier:

1. Def Leopard: Best steaks in town!  Cooked to perfection!  Need to visit again to see if consistency is there.
   UPDATE: 2^nd visit and we all had the tenderloin which again was cooked to perfection and delicious.  A must place to visit for steak – best steak in Kuantan.  Only negative is you won’t want to try and of their other menu items.
   UPDATE: One year later and it's still the best. Check out our review from other blog entry.
2. Hyperbole: Cheese Kulcha to die for! (Owner’s wife often present which really makes this place – top tier!).  Fuzzy is friendly host!  Good Chicken Tika and Mango Lassi! UPDATE: Fuzzy and his brother and his brother's wife are no longer involved with this place. Still Top Tier though!

         3. La Casa: German influence is always a plus!  Thomas (owner) does a good job and has a nice looking spouse which doesn’t hurt when she is working.  Nice setting – prefer to sit outdoors but there is inside dining as well
UPDATE: We had poor service and the meatballs weren't great, but Thomas made up for it by comping us dessert because of the issues.

• Cool-A- Cakes: Fun place for dessert – many good things to try and nice places to sit outside and enjoy. UPDATE: Kula Cakes moved up to Top Tier after an excellent showing in both taste and service

Close to Top Tier:

• Hazuki Mikada: Farman rules! Good food; not quite top tier. You may consider leaving Farman a tip.
• Nando’s: Corn on the Cob is heaven – Malaysians must learn the proper way to eat it – with butter and salt!  A stable standard when eating at East Coast Mall – provided you want Chicken.  

UPDATE: We went there for lunch again and Nando's offers a new flavor Mango Lime. CJ and the Elder enjoyed in very much

• Breeze Bar: Best French Fries in Kuantan!  Stay away from ‘pretzel bread’ substitutions.  View is nice.  Fridays they have hot meal of the week; other days is limited menu of mainly hot dogs and Cochilee Monster.

• Manhattan Fish Market: Good seafood. Stay clear of flaming mango dessert. Fried banana fritters were great! Great alternative to Nando’s (but no corn on the cob here)
  UPDATE: We went back this trip (12-2017) and the meal was not very good. Not somewhere we will return to.

• Kitchen 7: Some may feel it should be in top tier as their steak was very good and close to Def Leopard’s. However, the smoky atmosphere and the fact there is only 1 kitchen, not 7, keeps this place out of the top tier.
  UPDATE: We should know better than to try something that is not the specialty of the house. The Elder had a Chicken Caesar salad and the Frenchman a pizza. Both were horrible! The chicken was undercooked and the pizza was soggy. If you eat there, stick with the steaks!
• Crocodile Bar & Grill: Okay place but name is misrepresentation as there are no reptiles at the bar. Pizza so-so as was burger. Shakes not that good. Tries to emulate ‘La Casa’ but fails.
• E La Wadi: Ikea it is not! Avoid the Swedish meatballs. Burger looked good but didn’t sit well later. Famous for Mango Cheese Cake but not sure why? It was frozen and so-so. Looking forward to compare it to MY NY
  
  
  

• Umbok: But long ways to drive to.  Cat (Nutella aka Sir Lancelot) is fun and friendly.  Decent food. Fires the host was friendly.

• Black Canyon: Good Chinese food and fast and easy access from hotel.  Good option to Nando’s when you want something other than Chicken. 
• Hai Tian: Only time there was so-so. Not too interested in going back but to have chance to speak fluent Chinese to staff!
• Black Pearl: A recent find that is good! Beer drinkers delight. Nice atmosphere. Update: Last couple times they did not have all menu items nor all beer choices. Also, smoking is allowed (it is a bar) so it can be bad. Other than the draft Guiness, this place would fall to the lowest tier. 
• Zam Zam: Good Arabic food – but watch your back if your Westerner. Avoid wearing Orange so as not to give ‘them’ ideas. Shwarma is okay but terrible station on TV all the time disrupting meal.
  UPDATE: The owner must have read our blogs and the TVs were off this time. The food was great! and Cheap!
• Burger King: Always good burger and taste of Home. Place is nice especially considering it’s been around since the 50’s. Sometimes they don’t have whoppers – how can that be?
• Lemongrass TIE Café: Good Chinese food but waitresses don’t speak English – who knows what they speak!
• De Garden: Entrées and appetizers were good; atmosphere not very good.
  PROS:
  Decent food - pizza okay as was fish/chips; pasta not so good
  short walk from Zenith Hotel
  CONS:
  Smoky environment (it is a bar) and dark.
  Don’t know how to properly pour a Guinness draft (only Black Pearl achieves this criterion).
• MYNY:  “Best Pizza AND Cheesecake in Kuantan!”.  Recommend the Yankee Stadium pizza.  Avoid ‘sausage’ pizza as it is simply cut up hot dog.  Spaghetti was excellent as were the shakes. 
  CONS:  Atmosphere is very stale, save for the piped in music highlighting NY (enjoyed hearing Frank singing New York, New York).  Staff uninteresting.
  UPDATE: We went to a different location of MYNY in the area which was a much larger place and very nice. The pizza and spaghetti were again very good maintaining our consensus as the “best Pizza in Kuantan”.  We tried the mushroom soup and the fried cheesecake which were also good. UPDATE: MYNY no longer exist!

• Sherwoods: Same menu (and sister restaurant) to Cherating Steak house. Much smaller venue but same food quality. But service was bad – one order came out 20 minutes before the others.
  PROS: decent food and located immediately next to a Western Grocery!
  CONS: small place with poor service. 
• Cherating Steak House: Great atmosphere – Good music playing (Red FM) and has live band on weekends. Steak was good (but not quite the quality of Def Leopard). Duck appetizer was excellent as was the soup. Stay away from Risotto. Nice menu – a must try again spot for something other than steak. UPDATE: Had to drop to Close to Top Tier due to terrible service
• KRIM Ice Cream: Decent home made ice cream in a quaint corner storefront. Friendly staff. Flavors change daily. Krim is as good as Baskin Robbins, plus it's locally made and supports the Kuantan economy! The portion are tremendous! One scoop will fill you up easily.
  UPDATE: In our latest visit, music was played because of our previous visit's request.  The staff is the best, very welcoming staff.  A ‘free sample’ turned out to be a free dish thanks to the great staff!  A MUST VISIT!ANOTHER UPDATE: Krim no longer exist!
• Cheese Tart Kiosk: Excellent tarts and great marketing – you can just eat one you must buy and eat 6 (buy 5 get one free). 
• Baskin Robbins: Good ice cream and same as back home. Fattening though. The first girl I met in Malaysia works there – doesn’t say much and doesn’t move around but always has a smile for me!

• Coffee Places: Starbucks and Coffee Bean are right across from each other. Recommend Coffee Bean over Starbucks as the latter didn’t have coffee one day. Good desserts as well. But nothing really special at either …. They are just ‘in the way’ as you enter the mall.

• McDonald’s at Mega Mall: Good for typical and normal McDonald’s from back home. Also, home to the Mega Mac, because two patties is never enough. Stable eatery.

• Somebody named Wang Bakery: Great tarts of all kinds. Not easy to park near.

Stay Away Tier:

• Owl Café: One look at place/menu and we turned around and walked out
• GC Curry House: Once high on the ‘mid-tier’ listing; it dropped in our ranking. Only good thing are desserts (Laddu, candy)

Other places in East Coast Mall:

• Pizza Hut – not same as home - Soup was very watery, pizza lacking taste.
• Sushi King – Not

Other places not in East Coast Mall: Seoul Garden – just walked away.

UPDATE: We tried the Seoul Garden recently opened in the East Coast Mall and it ranks as a solid middle tier. See review in another post Another Day, Another Lunch

• Bar at Zenith Hotel: Band M and M is terrible! Singing is pathetic. Girls not cute to look at. Only plus is when Eddy’s cousin is working there.
  UPDATE 12-2017: The band is no longer there and there is a man with a guitar singing on the second floor.

• Bombay Indian: Not good. Won’t return. Hard to get to. No Gollum! 
• Alor Akar: Chinese seafood; food okay but open air place with cheap tables and chairs (again CJ?). Pros: Mayor Guiliani works there; Orange cutlery. Would not go back. No way it should be #1 on Trip Advisor.