Dining like a local-lite@Alor Akar Seafood restaurant, Kuantan

A local customer introduced us this place for dinner. At 6 pm, the restaurant was already packed with patrons, both local and out-of-towners..and caucasian tourists were also spotted here!

Besides being packed, packets of take-aways were laid on the table. Easily 30-40packs, pre-ordered by customers.

According to him, even if you close your eyes and randomly point out any dish on the menu, I will not be disappointed.

"FOR REAL ?!"

Seeing that I will not get to come here often, we chose the popular dishes: claypot pork with salted fish, ginseng chicken and claypot tofu.

The dishes were really good as confidently quoted by the customer.

The ginseng soup was pungent and ful of herbal fragrances, penetrating into the chicken. Protein overload!

The pork slices were really tender and not overly fatty. And I learnt a  new thing that evening. Flies of all sizes are attracted to 'ham yu fa lam pou'. Not sure its the pork, sauce, or salted fish. But we were terribly distracted by the dozens of flies hovering over our food and we noticed the flies were not disturbing the patrons at tables near us. And we noticed they did not order this dish too.

The claypot tofu came with a generous portion. Frankly we struggled trying to finish our food. But they were delicious, as difficult as the struggle was, we wiped our food clean.

All in with 2 bottles of sugarcane water was only RM 56. STEAL DEAL!

We had a good time over dinner, catching up with business opportunities and foodieventure too. Thumbs up, alor akar!

Meaty affair@Big Joe, SS2

This new dining joint became one of the popular hang out spots in SS2, especially during supper time.

The puffs of smoke from the grill clouded the road and racks of chicken were sizzling away on the charcoal coated metal strips.

Time for a new foodie exploring session.

I was pleasantly surprised that the Big Joes actually decorated the small patch of curb area with flowers, garden grass and lights. Like a tiny garden home project. I never seen any restauranteur who actually bothers to do this. Salute!

The price on the menu does suit those who are on a budget but stilll craves for western food. My beef burger was about RM8, but the patty was a bit of a let down. As described on the menu, the patty was supposed to be thick but umm...as it came to me... flattened and taste wise was also average.

The trademark grilled chicken was slightly more expensive. Half a chicken for rm20. Did not look like that many pieces after the 1/2 chicken was chopped. Tastewise also nothing really great and memorable. Could not beat the grilled chicken from Kota Bahru. But rm20 for the guy's hard effort of standing hours over the grill cooking for us was worth the penny I guess.

Many patrons were seen ordering the chicken cordon bleu, perhaps i'll give it a second try on another trip to Big Joe, since the price is actually affordable.

Round 2 coming up!