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| Courtesy of Flickr |
The Chinese in Pangkor Island have their unique cuisine which makes the best of the island's fresh seafood, especially fish. One of the best ways to experience hyperlocal Pangkor cuisine is to visit Kampung Sungai Pinang Kecil and join friendly locals for breakfast or lunch.
Sungai Pinang Kecil villagers live in large homes perched on a low ridge with views of the sea but many are empty nests. Most of the folks here are seniors. Their children work in Kuala Lumpur, other Malaysian cities or overseas.
View from the highest point of Sungai Pinang Kecil Village with the forest behind us. The village homes spread out below bounded by forest to the north and the minaret of Masjid Sungai Pinang Kecil to the south. The landmass across the sea is the state of Perak.
We were here only for three nights, so we covered only the stretch of main road from 亚江饭店 and Kedai Kopi Lam Ah (in the north) to Masjid Sungai Pinang Kecil in the south.
Let's take a walk down the Sungai Pinang Kecil main road starting from 亚江饭店 (just across the road from Kedai Kopi Lam Ah).
Look out for the wooden yellow house as I didn't see any signage for 亚江饭店. This is a 80 year old vintage shop.
Across the side street from 亚江饭店 is Kedai Kopi Lam Ah, another yellow colour building.
Kedai Kopi Lam Ah has a famous, long established curry noodle stall. Most people come to Kedai Kopi Lam Ah for this curry noodle stall.
We piled our table full of food. As we are here in Pangkor looking for hyperlocal food, that plate of pork chop and fried rice at the bottom seemed oddly out of place.
It turned out to be an expertly done Din Tai Fung style 排骨蛋饭 Fried Rice with Pork Chop.
Fook Kee is over 50 years old - some of their signature dishes are Hainanese stewed pork knuckle, fish head steamed with ginger, spicy fried mantis prawn, etc., all with the Hainanese touch.
One of the dishes we had at Fook Kee was this satay fish. Satay fish is a Pangkor Island signature - a snapper deep fried and served splashed with a thick savoury tangy spicy sauce made with many aromatic spices and herbs.
Folks gather at their favourite haunts for breakfast, coffee and to catch up with kakis (buddies) and on the day's news.
Folks here enjoy their coffee by dunking you char kueh (fried Chinese crullers) into their thick dark bitter sweet brew.
Popular Lao Er Hainanese Seafood Curry stall in Kedai Kopi Yee J. Probably the most famous food stall in Sungai Pinang Kecil but I didn't really eat here. However, I have an interesting and heartwarming experience at Lao Er which I shared here 👈 click
Just around the corner from Kedai Kopi Yee J, aunty's mobile stall serves the most famous fried fritters in Sungai Pinang Kecil. She is here during the morning and at night she is across the road near the famous Portuguese style BBQ seafood stall along Jalan Pasir Bogak (I will write a separate post on this). People here are so hardworking!!
I asked auntie what is the name of her stall but she said her stall never had a name.
I am so stuffed but couldn't resist munching on the freshly fried prawn cracker, fried banana, fried sweet potato, etc.
The handmade chee cheong fun are hand cut on order.
We got a couple of sizzling hot, freshly fried fish from the 杂菜饭 chup cai png stall at Pusat Makanan 888 coffee shop.
So beautifully done, so so so hard to resist. I escaped this by convincing myself that when I am in Pangkor, I shall eat only fresh sea food 😬
It started to rain, so we dashed into Nan Yang 1957 coffee shop which is just across the main road from the chee cheong fun stall and 888 coffee shop.
Our breakfast spread at Nanyang 1957 coffee shop. The chee cheong fun came from the CCF stall across the main road. In Pangkor, they are friendly and flexible but it is still proper to just double check with the coffee shop people first (about bringing in outside food).
The chee cheong fun was quite thick but so soft. Smooth but not silky. The fun had subtle rice sweet fragrance and also aromas from embedded scallion and fried shallot. The blend of sweet and spicy sauce, and earthly savoury taste from home made mushroom sauce make this chee cheong fun stall a must try in Pangkor.
Deep fried, soaked in curry but in Pangkor we can still feel and taste the freshness and sweetness of the fish!
Kopi gu yu or bulletproof coffee. Dark roasted, pitch black bitter brew, smoothened and given a savoury note by a thick slice of butter. Most of the coffee shops here have this. Just ask for it.
This plain rice noodle soup looks homely comforting plain but I was quite blown away by the savoury sweet anchovy taste in the cloudy soup. The taste of the sea is in every dish in Pangkor.
Five minutes walk up a side lane off Jalan Besar took us to the old ferry point and more coffee shops.
The disused Terminal Penumpang Sungai Pinang ferry point which was closed in Jan 2020. During its heyday, the coffee shops around the ferry point enjoyed brisk business from locals and tourists using the ferries (which have now moved to Pangkor Ferry Jetty at Pekan Pangkor).
Kedai Kopi Keng Luan 瓊鑾茶室 so bright, clean and very well kept.
Every coffee shop we went to is Hainanese run and every cup of kopi is nice.
At Keng Luan, they have homemade kaya and butter in steamed bread. It was so good. The bread was soft and moist, the kaya fragrant and not overly sweet, while the butter was thick and rich. Marvellous with my kopi C kosong.
Passing by Kedai Kopi Boon Bak 文柏茶室 (also known as Kedai Kopi Boon Poh) we picked up a couple of nasi lemak packets. This coffee shop is also well known for their kopi.
The rice is flavourful and fragrant enough though coconut milk is used sparingly. They are generous with the fried fish which are also very fresh (this is Pangkor after all). Instead of sambal, in Pangkor the rice and fish bundle is given a splash of fish curry before wrapping in banana leaf. The "sambal" you see is actually residue of chili, spices and herbs used in the curry.
It's similar to Penang style - have egg, small prawn, char siew, bean sprout, chives but no see hum (blood cockle), fish cake or lup cheong (Cantonese sausage). Have lard and wok hei but not much. Savoury sauces were nice but less intense than the most popular ones in Penang.
There are many more coffee shops, food stalls and restaurants which I need to explore at Sungai Pinang Kecil Village. Next time, I shall stay a little longer as my preferred style of travel is slow travel to smell the coffee and really appreciate the beauty of Pangkor Island, its people and cuisine.
Meanwhile, did I missed any of your favourites? Please share with us in the comment so that we can visit them next time.
Thank you 🙏
More food in Pangkor Island 👈 click
Written by Tony Boey on 28 Aug 2022
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ReplyDeleteAm here at Pangkor and been down to this stretch of road at Sungai Pinang Kechil but most shops are closed not sure why. Come morning afternoon past 2 days also closed so sian
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