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.

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.

Restoran Hatinie, Shah Alam

Diha wanted to pop over for a swim
Lepas tu, kita makan kat Shah Alam ok?

Makan apa kat situ?
Masakan Kelantan......yang sedap.....

Ok, that make me finished my paddle in the water real fast, I was already hungry just listening to her... :D

We reached early, about 12:15 as it gets rather packed by 1 pm. I walked in and was welcomed by this... So many dishes to choose from and so little stomach space :(.

So I left the mammoth task of choosing dishes on Diha's shoulder, she did grow up in Kelantan, just take your favourite dishes!

So we had some Gulai Kawah The marbled beef chunks was cooked in coconut milk, ketumbar and kunyit. This was very delicious, the meat was tender and the sauce, rich and fragrant, goes well with rice.

Diha's favourite was Masak Daging Kerutup..She told me that this dish is rather hard to prepare as many tend to make this dish taste bitter. The hard part in preparing this dish frying the spices before it's made into powder..over fried it and it's a bitter dish. Hatinie's version is lip smacking, the beef cuts were chunkier and firmer; the sauce was thick and tasted rich in spices. Reminds me of daging masak buah keras, a nyonya dish.

Some kerabu for those fibre that we so needed... This version is light, the vegetables were fresh and I like the fact that the shredded coconut does not over power this dish.

The ayam percik was beckoning me..So I took a piece of it. The sauce was more on the sweet side, dense with coconut milk and spices. The chicken; though I took a piece of chicken breast; was juicy and tender and had a mild smokey flavour from the grill. Pretty good actually.

Before I could say Stop! Diha took the keli bakar..

She was craving for keli..what to do..I rarely take cold ikan bakar (grilled fish) as I like mine hot from the grill. I was pleasantly surprised that the keli was moist and had absorbed the marination wonderfully. Though a tad cold, we cleaned this fish in a jiffy :)

Diha had 2 plates of rice due to her killer sauce concoction with ulam...Budu, with tempoyak (durian with lime and cili padi), more chili padi and lime. I love budu in my nasi kerabu, but this is too pungent for me (really, it's a matter of preference..hehe). Nonetheless, it was a pleasure seeing Diha enjoying this so much.

We were so stuffed and Diha had to ask me about desserts...
Nah, shall give it a miss...
And I had to bite my tongue when I walked past all the kuih muih..
We had some lompat tikam..
Cute name huh?
It's DIY dessert..
So we get this...And we do this..

The green kuih is bland while the rice is slightly savoury..mix with the coconut cream and gula melaka, it's perfect. The combo is tasty, reminds me of seri muka (with sauce).

But my fave would be the pengat pisang..

Banana cooked in santan and gula melaka, this is ultra sweet, hence, do take it in moderation. It's divine taking warm mouthfuls of it, and i love the silky smooth nangka slices in the pengat (which is not so common in pengat pisang)...

Restoran Hatinie is located at Jalan Selendang 10/10, Shah Alam. Located in the middle of a housing area. Turn in from main road Jalan Batik 10/6. Serves Malay Kelantanese (homecook) food.