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with just a trusty gps and an empty stomach, we began our journey…..

the plan was to travel all the way up to melaka and take the road less travel. forget about the northsouth expressway, just sticking to the road that passes the sleepy towns and kampungs.

it was revisiting the small towns like ayer hitam and muar that made the drive to melaka enjoyable where we got to experience local food fare first hand while enjoying the scenery.

our first stop was ayer hitam. the town was a huge hit way back in the 90s with singaporeans going to melaka or KL, stopping at the town as a rest stop before the opening of the northsouth expressway which took most of the travellers straight up, bypassing the town totally.

we noticed that there were many food stalls selling putu bambu by the roadside. we tried the delicacy and thoroughly enjoyed the sweet and rich taste with the generous amount of gula melaka in it. all of that for just RM$2 for 6 pieces!

we had our breakfast there and tried the soto since we saw many of the customers there eating it. and boy, were we really surprised at how good the soto was. the soup was not so thick and the taste didn’t have the overpowering spice taste, just nice.

next we checked out the market there, with shops selling an assortment of foodstuff, we bought a couple of kerepoks before proceeding to our next destination, muar.

along the way to muar, we stopped at a nice family-owned snack stall. with their piping hot pisang goreng and crispy kerepok lekor, we could not resist taking a bite before continuing our drive to muar.

lunch at muar was at a little foodstall selling asam pedas. with a side dish of rendang chicken plus the killer sambal belachan, the stingray version of the asam pedas with tehO ice just cost us a princely sum of RM$8 for 2.

we were supposed to check out the famous mee bandung muar stall but because it started to rain suddenly, didn’t really have the chance to venture further. we managed to do a bit of sightseeing around town before moving on.

from muar, we drove on the sultan ismail bridge, crossing over the muar river, from there we took the lebuh AMJ which stands for alor gajah-melaka tengah-jasin expressway and onward towards our destination – melaka!

check the flickr set for more pics

continue in part 2

(or just trying very hard to peer down the streets of KL from a hotel window sill.)

GO!

the boy’s current favourite past-time. (cycling, not lying on cracked pavements at the behest of his daddy.)

How time flies! In just a couple of hours, we will be celebrating Aidilfitri. I remember playing with sparklers during Hari Raya with my cousins when we were small, really enjoyed the gatherings we had at my late grandma’s shophouse at Pahang Street. Raya back then was one of the major highlights of my childhood. I tried to relive it by giving Aniq sparklers to play, he seems to enjoy it, but I bet he will enjoy it more when he plays them with his cousins tomorrow :)

Available during the month of Ramadan, the porridge has always been one of the dishes for buka puasa. Collected just after Asar prayers, the queue may snaked all the way outside the mosque on certain days.

*thanks to FaiQah for pointing me out that Bubur Asyura is NOT Bubur Masjid or Bubur Lambuk as it is called in Malaysia.
Bubur Asyura is porridge that is made to commemorate 10 Muharram which is also known as Hari Asyura.

the mosque that is always photographed during my annual sholat hari raya, this is the first mosque that i set foot on as a boy which has now become my “official” prayer hall.

I will always pass by Auni’s room on the way to the kitchen to prepare for the predawn meal and usually she will be missing from her bed. She will be sprawled somewhere on the floor or under the table in her room. She can’t seems to sleep still. Anyway, its been a routine for us to put her in place :)