Kuantan Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant • Must Try Zhi Cha in Kuantan 关丹乞丐鸡海鲜饭店

关丹乞丐鸡海鲜饭店 Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant | Lot 7695 & 7696, Jalan Kubang Buaya, Taman Mariana, 25300 Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia ☎ +609 568 0720 🕕 4pm - 11:30pm (Mon off)

Speak to anyone about what to eat in Kuantan and chances are they will mention beggar chicken. What they mean is Alor Akar Seafood Restaurant which has beggar chicken as their signature dish.

Kuantan friends arranged to meet here for early dinner before our evening flight back to Singapore. Yes, Scoot now flies Singapore - Kuantan direct with less than 1 hour flight time. So, Kuantan is a new foodie and wanderlust playground for Singaporeans. Yay 🕺

Alor Akar is a typical Malaysian style zhi cha 煮炒 place or literally "cook and fry" place. To me, zhi cha means restaurant or banquet type dishes at coffee shop setting and prices. Totally utilitarian, zero pretence, everyone understood that they are here to eat well at a good price 😂 That's all 👌

You will find this genre of eatery throughout Malaysia from Johor Bahru, through Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh to Alor Setar. However, in Malaysia, they are known as 大炒 or "big fry".

Alor Akar Seafood has been around since 1985, and has a multi-generational following. The menu highlighting signature dishes are high on the wall. So, ordering is as easy as ~~finger~~ pointing 👉 😝

We didn't order too many dishes. Don't worry, we did order beggar chicken - the star dish was being portioned by a staff at another table 😂

Here it is, the beggar chicken everyone we spoke with was telling us to try.

It's a large bird packed with Chinese medicinal herbs and sauces, wrapped in plastic and aluminium foil, and baked.

It's called beggar's chicken because in the past, beggars would wrap the chicken in clay and then throw it into wood fire to cook. Some places still do it this way but nowadays, most will wrap it in foil and bake it in an oven.

The fall-off-the-bone sweet chicken meat was smooth soft tender, moist with mild savoury and herbal sweet flavours from the sauce and herbs. The smell of dangui herb was lovely (if you like it) and so was the sweet taste of wolf berries.

Note: On the menu it is 富贵药材鸡 which literally means "Luxurious Herbal Chicken" but everyone I know calls it 乞丐鸡 beggar chicken 😝

Fried mantis prawn with egg floss 奶油虾姑.

Savoury chewy tender fried mantis prawn meat encased in salted egg yolk batter and served dressed with delicate eggy, savoury egg floss. A bit of spice and heat from chili and curry leaves.

"Har lok" because prawns are good and plentiful in Kuantan. (On the menu it is called 铁板浦汁虾 or Alor Akar special sauce sizzling plate prawn.)

De-veined, fresh crunchy meaty, oil fried, bathed in thick savoury mildly spiced tangy sauce, served on banana leaf spread on a hot plate.

Signature 梅香豆腐. Thick slab of tofu, oil fried then smothered in sloshy umami savoury sauce with minced pork and salted fish.

Inside the fried slab of tofu, just beneath the browned skin was a jiggly soft smooth, soy bean sweet tasting tofu custard. The overlay of umami savouriness from mui heong 梅香 salted fish is a Kuantan signature, an acquired taste and I love it.

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Stir fried sweet potato leaves and garlic cloves. Garden fresh greens, simply but skilfully done just right are the best. Crunchy, juicy, the raw green taste displaced by searing heat and replaced by savoury flavour and pung pung 香香 (fragrant) aromas. Grease and sloshy sauce wet and smoothen the fibrous greens.