langkawi – Love. Food. Asia.

Where to find Street Food in Pentai Cenang (SEA 18)

Read about: Pentai Cenang – The worst stay ever (SEA 17)

After our bad homestay experience we went out in Pentai Cenang to find some good food. But this looks like a problem on this touristy island of Langkawi.

It was a hard search until we found a local place with really good food. At the dusty main street Jalan Pantai Chenang we walked like 30 minutes in one direction until we saw a little booth with some local women selling homemade food. This place has no name and all food seems to be cooked at home and then brought to this place.

There are different kinds of Sambal like Ikan Bilis Sambal or Nasi Lemak served with rice, eggs and other typical side dishes. We just filled our plates ordered Teh Tarik and payed the cheap price the local women told us.

Then we walked down to the beach and placed our filled stomaches on a sun lounger of one of the fancy hotels until a guy came to tell us we should leave.

At night we went out to a reggae party on the beach and looked forward to leave Malaysia the next day.

Pentai Cenang: The worst stay ever (SEA 17)

Read about our first day on Langkawi (SEA 16)

We stayed in a place called Shirin Homestay in Pentai Cenang on Langkawi. What can I say? Normally I don´t write review about the places I slept. But here I have to. The homestay is a place where the owner Ibrahim and his Japanese wife built a few bungalows in the back of their house. To be honest. At first glance the houses look really nice between the plants and blooming flowers. But behind the façade it´s a personal mess.

I can arrange with a dirty place. It´s cheep and that´s okay. But the owner was the angriest man I´ve met on my trip so far. It seems that he is alcoholic and after a few drinks he starts to shout at his tiny Japanese wife. We where sitting together with a guy from Germany , a girl from Italy and the Japanese owner. Then he showed up and forced us to talk about politics and what is going wrong on this planet. We tried to tell him politely that we are not in a mood for a conversation like that but he became angry.

For the first time on this trip I really was afraid. I was afraid that this old Iranian soldier (That’s what he told us) would start to beat us and his wife. She was not able to stand the conversation and so we got up and went away with a bad feeling. I really thought about leaving this place right here and now.

This was the strangest and most frightening situation on my whole trip. The next morning the guy was sober again and I seems like he didn´t know anything about what happened the last night. We already had booked a ferry for the next day so we decided to stay here for one more night. Still with a bad Feeling.

Now I heard that the wife has left her husband and is now living on Penang but I don´t know if it´s true. But I know that the guy is still running his homestay with or without his wife. And so I only can highly warn every backpacker to stay in this place. I know that people can change and that alcohol can be a hard drug but it´s also a mirror of the humans soul. And this man showed us his black and angry soul and I know that I will never stay in this place again.

Welcome to Langkawi (SEA 16)

Read about: In love with Penang (SEA 15)

After a short night in our hostel we took the ferry and set over to Langkawi. Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi the Jewel of Kedah (Malay: Langkawi Permata Kedah) is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea. But we arrived at the largest of the Islands, Langkawi Island with a population of some 64,792, the only other inhabited island being nearby Tuba Island.

We took a taxi and searched for a stay on the island. We found a place located on the Southern Islands were you will read a separate story about it soon. We dropped our backpacks and two beers later (Langkawi is duty-free zone) we where on the white sanded beach. We relaxed the whole day and just went out to have dinner somewhere.

Anchovis Sambal with Cabbage

If you like a strong fish taste this is the perfect meal for you. My flatmate hates this taste but now he´s on vecation so it´s time to cook the Anchovis Sambal. I had this kind of samba in Malaysia on Langkawi in a tiny street food place.

Time to prepare: 1 hour

Time to cook: 15 minutes

Servings: 4

Ingredients:

1 zucchini
4 spring onions
1 cup anchovis
2 tbs oyster sauce
1 cup veggie stock (Recipe by Love.Food.Asia.)
4 tbs shredded cabbage
2 tbs garlic chips
2 tbs sambal paste
2 tbs oyster sauce
4 kaffir lime leaves
1 cup tomato sauce
2 tbs red curry paste
2 star anis
1 cinnamon stick
2 cm ginger (minced)
1 tbs peanut oil
1 tbs soy sauce
1 lime
neutral oil
fresh coriander

Method:

Crush garlic chips and mix with shredded cabbage, ginger, lime juice, oyster sauce, soy sauce and peanut oil
Out in the fridge for 1 hour
Heat neutral oil in a bowl and fry red curry paste, spring onions and palm sugar for 2 minutes
Add anchovies mixture and combine with zucchini
Fry for 2 more minutes
Add tomato paste, sambal paste, cinnamon, star anis and kaffir lime leaves
Simmer for 10 minutes
Fry eggs and serve with samba and fresh coriander leaves