MONTHS before I headed up north for a holiday, a Penangite dutifully gave me the GPS co-ordinates for Ng Chin Boon Seafood Restaurant in Pantai Remis, Perak.
I recall my initial reaction was “why do I want to visit a desolate place like that”. The last time I heard the name Pantai Remis was when my dad said he loved the place for its solitude and tranquillity.
Anyway, I was back on the North-South Expressway (NSE) heading back to Kuala Lumpur after a week-long vacation in good old Penang when my thoughts suddenly switched to Pantai Remis.
No harm making a detour, I thought. My family who heard I suggested the place gave it their whole-hearted approval. They all seemed to get hungry every three hours.
I fished out my Garmin GPS unit and logged on to Ng Chin Boon Seafood. What I thought would be a 20-minute detour from the NSE turned out to be a 40-minute drive.
I had forgotten that Perak is a big state. Along the half-forgotten route to Pantai Remis, I came across road signs indicating Kampung Acheh, Kampung Koh, Kampung Tebok Yan, Kampung Mangsa Ribut and Kampung Sungai Batu.
One could easily retire in this place, breathe in the fresh air, eat lots of ulam and live up to 90 years old. But we city slickers prefer to live life on the fast lane, eat recklessly, sleep late and die early half the time.
While I was soaking in the greenery of the surroundings, I kept one eye on the GPS. When the “Finish Flag” popped up on the GPS, I kept driving because I couldn’t believe that little lane was the right turn.
Then I “gostan” (reverse gear) and spotted that little sign that says “Ng Chin Boon”. For heaven’s sake, I thought, why do they put up such a tiny sign. I had forgotten that this is a very small town.
A dirt road led me to almost nowhere as I slowed to a crawl. A man in a singlet gave me that basketball coach’s “time out” sign (horizontal elbow with the other hand forming a T-sign).
Teochew clan
Thirty seconds later, I found out he wasn’t telling me to stop and relax but he was actually indicating that it was a dead-end. But being a dodo from a bigger town I had misinterpreted his signal.
It turned out he was the proprietor of the Ng Chin Boon Seafood Restaurant. Where’s the sign, everybody in the car asked.
Well, in Pantai Remis apparently, they advertised their place on the main road because all the locals can catch the drift except us, not-so-smart city folks.
We found out very quickly that the restaurant owners were from the Teochew clan. My wife knew because she is half Teochew. Teochew food is not exactly nyonya which we preferred but we were literally in the boondocks, so we decided to let it slide.
I also wanted to report back to my KL colleague about his “hot” tip-off. After some half-intelligent verbal sparring, we narrowed it down to four dishes.
While the cook was busy in the kitchen, we were entertained by a loud speaker blaring out music from the early 70s. The songs and music kept reminding me of my hometown and my mum because I have heard it all before from Rediffusion Malaysia, back in those nostalgic days when music CDS and DVDs were non-existent.
Where did they get all those songs, I half-uttered to myself. It was like being pushed back on to memory lane, except I was no longer 10 years old.
The dishes soon came, not to our surprise because we were only the second table of customers. It wasn’t that time of the day when the place was overflowing with clientele.
The prawn fritters looked inviting and scrumptious. The fishball and foo-chuk soup wasn’t appealing but it was different nevertheless.
In contrast to those two dishes was the curry fish which looked absolutely great. The fourth dish was crab meat with slices of cucumber.
A thumb-up
If you are not Teochew, you may not like the food at this seafood restaurant but I wasn’t the only one hungry at 3pm, so we all ate hurriedly and silently.
It was that time of the day when even two dogs present were tired.
There was no proper decorum to observe in a place like this. Regular customers sat with their legs folded in a lotus position and some of them were in singlets.
The food received a one thumb-up from us. It wasn’t the best we had tasted. Perhaps we caught the kitchen chef on the wrong day or at wrong time of the day.
Normally, it was during the evenings that places like this come alive. That was when you will find more than two cooks in the kitchen and maybe four woks ablaze with fresh ingredients on the boil.
Pantai Remis is located not so far away from Sitiawan where the Foochow people hold sway. It is a coastal town. Hence, seafood is expected to be fresh and bountiful.
The town emerged in the 1940s. The town probably got its name from a grayish shell which could be easily crushed. It is called “Remis”.
If you can find Pantai Remis, you will be within viewing distance of the Bruas River. It is said that the ancient Hindu kingdom of Gangga Negara’s port was located nearby. But that’s another story, one that doesn’t involve food.
If you have nothing better to do while driving on the NSE one fine day, you may want to pay a courtesy call on Pantai Remis. You may just catch something that I have missed.
