The beach in Telaga Papan, Terengganu
Terengganu….it is such a beautiful state located on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia. I love Terengganu because it has beautiful beaches and a serenity you could only get from a beach house. Life in Telaga Papan is quiet and peaceful. But every year, the monsoons leave a shore that is narrower than the year before due to coastal erosion by the high-energy waves. Will the beach house still exist in three years’ time? We hope so!
It has become a monthly routine for us to drive up 500 kilometers in a 30 year-old Land Cruiser to Telaga Papan. It takes close to 10 hours, depending on the traffic and how slow you drive along the highways and coastal roads to absorb local goings-on. Breezy drives along the coastal roads allow us glimpses of the old Terengganu towns like Paka, Kuala Dungun, passing by shops selling “keropok”, vibrant and bright coloured batiks depicting local heritage designs hanging on display by the beach, beautiful mosques and suraus, all reminders of everyday life in peaceful Terengganu.
If there is one thing you can be sure of, is you would not go hungry travelling in the east coast. You can find food available in all corners of the coast. Food in Terengganu is best described as authentic, rustic and aromatic coastal cuisine, heavily influenced by the sea and the local preference for a slightly sweet and spicy flavour. Use of fermented durian paste or “budu” or “tempoyak “is common.
There are many restaurants selling signature dishes like Akuk, Nasi Dagang or Nasi Kerabu along Jalan Merang. But Anjung Seri on Jalan Merang has Nasi Dagang dish that has a delicious rice cooked beautifully with just the right texture and taste. You should try it sometime if you pass that way.
Anjung Seri on Jalan Merang, Terengganu
Anjung Seri is a reflection of a kampong house designed for the hot and humid climate of Malaysia, open air with a high ceiling. The restaurant is located along Jalan Merang. After several visits, I became acquinted with the proud owner of the restaurant, Pn Salmiah bt Hussein. I love her fish curry, probably because her fish are always fresh. She is soft spoken and gentle and originated from Kelantan. Trust me, Kelantanese women are good business entrepreneurs. The business she runs makes her thousands of Ringgit a month. She runs the business with the help of her children. That particular lunch time, I had the pleasure of meeting three of them. Zarifah, has a degree but chose to work with her mother. Zarifah is her third child.
Restaurant Anjung Seri, popular with contractors, office workers and tourists
Zarifah related to me how, in the old days, when they first started the restaurant, they wanted to buy 10 kilogram of rice to cook but did not have enough money. She and the brother, Rizal, did some cleaning job just to make some money so they could buy the rice.
When Salamiah first started the food business in 1998, she was 38 years old. The love for kampong food made Salmiah register for a course on Guru Masakan by an agency called KEMAS in Setiu. She obtained funding from TEKUN as an initial start-up. Now the business is thriving and her food became so popular that she recently won a contract to supply breakfast and lunch to150 staff of McCormick Global Ingredients Sdn Bhd in Setiu.
That lunch time I had the pleasure of asking a customer, En Zaidi and his wife, who was travelling back to Kuala Lumpur, eating lunch at the restaurant for the 3rd time, why he chose to stop at Anjung Seri for lunch. His and his wife’s answers were
En Zaidi: “I like the food here because ‘sedaap’ (delicious) and there is variety in the menu so can easily select”
The wife added: “And the price is reasonable too”.
On Facebook, Trip.com websites, I saw customers of Anjung Seri gave ratings of 3/5. I would give it a 4/5.
One advice Salmiah gives to potential food business owner, is to keep a consistent food quality and a variety and to use only fresh ingredients.
“Never give up” Salmiah added, as an advice to potential business entrepreneur.
Pn Salmiah Hussein with her children.
