The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Back to Cherating Steak House and Kula Cakes reviews.

Kula Cakes rose a step higher after today.  As we entered the small shop, the shelves were filled with all sorts of sweets.  We decided on the Cadbury cheesecake, the peanut butter one and the crème brûlée.  The two cheesecake were delicious, and we really enjoyed seeing the crème being brûlée right in front of us.  The staff was friendly and communicated with us on a personal level, i.e. they laughed at our jokes. THE GOOD

Cherating Steak House’s food is still top notch, but we had enough issues with the service that it has to drop from a top tier restaurant to a near top tier.  We ordered an appetizer that showed up after we finished our meal, risotto that showed up after the main meal and appetizer, the soup and the main meal arrived at the same.  And it all started with having to call the waiter over to get our order after waiting about 10 minutes. THE BAD

Traffic, drivers, road condition. It seems that everyone is out on the road every time we go out no matter what time it is. It’s near impossible to drive across the road to the side that we need to be on, motorcycle come up to you from the left, from the right, people backing up almost hitting us. THE UGLY

Sad News in Kuantan

We were heading to dinner to MYNY and as we arrived at the location, we couldn’t find it.  We found out that all MYNY in Kuantan had shut down.  That was a disappointment because the best pizza in town is no more.

We headed to Cherating Steak House instead.  More on this in the next blog.

After dinner, we were looking for dessert and remember how much we enjoyed Krim.  Looking for it on Google Map, we noticed that it had moved location, but unfortunately, we noticed that Google Map showed that it was permanently closed. Disappointment # 2 for the night.  I’m not sure Eric the Elder is going to be able to handle much more of this.

Instead, we headed to Hula Hoops, better known as Kula cakes, to enjoy dessert. More on that on the next blog.

Trouble in BPC Lemongrass

We arrived at the plant this morning and lo and behold, rules changed.  Nothing unusual about that after a year, but the rules seemed to have changed within an afternoon.

In the past, we have driven in the plant to the control room or the lab.  The control room is about half a mile from the gate.

Today, we were told that the policy is that the only way to have a permit to bring a car in the plant is to have heavy tools or to have a BPC rented car.  Mind you that we are not allowed to work in the plant, so we can’t bring heavy tools in the plant and we have to be BPC employee to have a rental car from BPC.

This is a no win situation for us.

And apparently the car permit to go in the plant was approved as of yesterday, but by the time we made it to the plant, the policy changed. We have Captain Eo to thank for that. His motto: We Are Here to Change the World... One rule at a time!

So, right now we are getting exercise; walking to and from the front gate.  Of course, on top of that, it’s monsoon season, so there is a good chance that we will get wet.

Where not to eat?

There are many side street, open-air restaurants around Kuantan.  We have tried a couple of them over time.  Sanitation is definitely not a high priority at those restaurants.  For example, today at lunch, we ask for bottled waters.

Side Note: Even though the faucet water is called potable, drinking water, AIK recommend that you do not drink it and avoid ice cubes.

One of the bottled water that was brought to the table had been already open and probably refilled from the sink.  Good thing Eric noticed. The owner was apologetic.

Here is another story that did not happened to us, but we heard from a reliable source, Manfred.

As he was sitting in the local Malay restaurant, a gecko was crawling on the wall, travelling to the ceiling. Once it reached the light fixture, the fixture was so greasy that the gecko could not hang on and took a plunge straight into an awaiting pot of food.  As the cook saw the splatter into the stew, he cheerfully and happily continued stirring.  His thoughts probably were, “I should charge more for this soup; it has a higher protein content.”

Morale of the story: When dining at open-air restaurants, be careful what you eat, it could have some extra special ingredients.

Does CJ remember the way?

Mayflower rental car did not have any cars available. So we rented from Avis. There are actually 7 different car rental choices in the small airport of Kuantan.

Sue at Avis was very friendly and let us know that if we have any issues to call the police.  Eric panicked!  We had to calm in down. He was doing fine until Sue shook our hand and wished us “Good Luck!” Panic mode again!

We are driving a very nice Honda Civic named Val.

She’s gets us where we need to go. CJ did very well remembering where the hotel was from the airport without the need of Google Map. After 7 months here in 2016, CJ feels this is his second home.

Zenith Hotel also has its Christmas clothes on. The rooms, garage with the ever present lady in the box, the lobby and the breakfast are the same.

Lady in the Box

Eric met up with Eddy’s cousin again. And the person that checked us in, Shah, is definitely related too, even though he denied it. Proof? When we asked if he was related to Eddy, he asked, “You mean the guy working in the restaurant as a cashier? No, no relation.” Then, how does he know who we were talking about?

It's good to be back

Our first day back has been great. There is no place like Kuantan home!

The East Coast Mall is in full Christmas mode: decorations, songs, festive atmosphere. Even Eric’s girlfriend at BR is in the holiday spirit.

Eric was excited to see her again. She still has a smile when she sees him.

For our first meal in Kuantan, we chose the #1 ranked AIK restaurant, Hyperbole.  It wasn’t disappointing.  The food, the mango lassi and the atmosphere was still awesome.  There was some personnel changes though.

Fuzzy’s contract ended and he chose not to renew it, so we now have Actif as our point of contact. His English leaves some to be desired, but low and behold, the old man that was there last year is still there. He remembered us, and his English was very good. He shaved his mustache and was wearing a baseball cap.  He looked much younger!

So, the young man formerly known as the old man took good care of us. Even introduces us to a new type of Gollum, white Gollum. The difference between the two gollums; the originally brown one is hot and the white Gollum is cold. Very good.

On the celebrity spotting in Kuantan front, we saw Colin Kaepermick (sorry no photos, he was shy) and Weird Al Yankovick at Hyperbole. 

We are hoping to be able to catch a glimpse and a picture of Forrest Whittaker when we go to the plant. We saw him several times last year, but he did not want proof that he was working undercover in Malaysia and refused a picture with Eric.

Another great update is that the Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tart place has additions!  You can now get chocolate tarts and special edition Matcha Tart. We should have invested in Hokkaido when we had a chance. Business is booming!

AIK are returning

After over a year sabbatical, the Americans in Kuantan are returning to Malaysia.

So far, CJ has had an adventure trying to get there. The eldest member, Eric, and the Frenchman are in LAX right now waiting for the 18 hour flight to Singapore, before once again embarking on our Kuantan journey.

Stay tune for more fun, more adventures, more non-sense, more blogging...