The big Honchos, Kota Bahru

When one is in Kota Bahru, there's 2 restaurants purportedly so famous that if you didn't try the food there, your trip was deemed incomplete. Or so I was told.
Diha, being the efficient hostess that she was, managed to slot in both Hover and Yati's to ensure we didn't miss the local favourites.
We tried Hover first, for an extremely late lunch..

Hover was buzzing with activities- waiters running about with plates of dishes, rice or drinks. I was interested with the array of dishes placed at the entrance, and wanted to start ordering but the waiter kept insisted that we should Duduk, duduk, duduk! (sit!)

Erm, okay...

And so we sat. It took them about 10 mins to start serving...and serving they did. Hover's style was to place as much dishes they could on our tables until we had to stop them. And they were not bothered if we wanted the dish or not. If we didn't eat it, then it's considered not sold. Hmmm, means I've got recycled dishes brought over from other tables?? ._."

The must try was the ayam kampung while the rest are nasi sumatra dishes. The chicken was too salty and sligthly dry, so it was not fantastic. The daging dendeng was mediocre, while the gulai ikan tongkol was too fishy. The pickled whole garlic was interesting, but not good enough draw to make Hover a fantastic meal. Overall was an average experience.

Yati was our last lunch before we left Kelantan..I only had one aim- to try the ayam percik. Diha can choose whatever she like for me to try :). There's no way you could miss Yati, the whole road looked foggy- came from the smoke while grilling the ayam percik.

We got some ikan sumbat (stuffed fish) and salted eggs..

Really cute way of preparing ikan sumbat, they didnt really stuff the fish- the fish was minced and mixed with desiccated coconut and herbs before reshaping it to fish shape and deep fried. Quite tasty, the flavour reminds me of satar.
The itik serati was a first for meNever had a Malay duck dish before, this dish was a pleasant surprise. Rich in spices, the duck was tender and had soaked in the flavours of the spices; this goes very nicely with white rice.

Diha loved the clams in sweet spicy sauce. It reminds me of typical chinese style cooking, a thick sauce version.

The piece de resistance..

Although the chicken was grilled until it's slightly smoky and dried, but the meat was very juicy, fork tender and well marinated. The creamy, sweetish coconut sauce was a delicious complement to the nicely charred chicken. Yati got my vote :p

Restoran Hover is located at 1963-A, Jalan Dato Pati, Kota Bharu, Kelantan
Yati Ayam Percik is located at 847, Jalan Long Yunus, 15200 Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

Miria Restoran, Kota Bharu

Before our trip to Kelantan, Diha checked out new dining places that we could try when we're there. One particular post caught our eye- he wrote about roti chotek. Diha thought it sounded interesting, I thought it sounded vulgar :p. Anyways, we both agreed to look for this special roti when we reached KB.

It took us a while, but we finally did find Miria. It was dinner time, but relatively quiet. I guess it's more popular for supper instead of dinner? Nonetheless, we settled quickly and ordered our rotis.

We decided to try their mee goreng..

Different from what you get in Klang Valley, this version is wetter, the noodles plump, and there were lots and lots of pepper. Taste wise, it's pretty good.

Some tom yam to warm our belly

Nothing to shout about. Dont need to order this.

And our piece de resistance..the Roti Chotek..

I love the colour and look- the yin yang dhall and curry swirl, the small dollop of sambal next to the peeping moon like egg yolk. The person making this roti must have perfected his skills so well that the egg was wrapped inside the thin layer of dough, but managed to cook it to a gorgeous, still runny yolk. Utterly satisfying, a must order.

There were a couple of rotis I'd like to try, but most unfortunately was not available :(.

Miria Restoran is located at 4161-B, Batu 2 Jalan Kuala Krai ( depan Lee Motor), 15150 Kota Bharu, Kelantan.

Zawanie Nasi Kukus, Kota Bahru

When we were about to set off to Kota Bahru, I was wondering what we would be doing there.. Ok, eating would be the main itinerary :p, but it's just nasi dagang, nasi kerabu and nasi tumpang, no?

Diha was keeping mum on her plans, we were a lucky bunch, she invited us to her kampung for a makan trip...

Our day 1 lunch was at Zawanie, a place serving local dishes with nasi kukus..

The locals here sure like eating rice- one person portion was large!

I let Diha and Elv choose the dishes, since they were the pro :)

The only dish I can confirmed was a must have was their grilled honey chicken..There were loads of it grilling and the entrance and everyone seems to be eating that..

This was gorgeous stuff. The meat was lusciously juicy and springy. The slightly charred, smoky skin was delicious and reminded me of char siew.

Daging Kerutup was a common dish in Kelantan..

Zawanie's version was meltingly tender, the spices was strong and as any typical Kelantanese dish, this skewed towards a sweetish flavour rather than savoury.
The brinjal was the only dish I didnt like..

Way too sweet. Sugary in fact. Dont like.

Gulai Ikan Merah was a hit..

All of us simply lurrve the gulai. It was light, aromatic and goes extremely well with white rice. The fish was fresh, a great combination with this gulai.
Overall a very satisfying meal, will definitely pop by Zawanie if I'm back to KB in the future :)

Zawanie Nasi Kukus is located at 359, Jalan Sultanah Zainab, 15050 Kota Bahru, Kelantan. Only open for lunch.