The Spice Shop

Every time we land in Kepala Batas, my Mum would go to this shop without fail. Apparently, this spice shop had been handed down a couple of generations and they now have a shop, being previously selling their wars from home. 

It was more of a one-stop place where all the ingredients were available, including the recipe should you wish for. They were available as printouts. You can get all the materials, from onions, ghee, ginger etc. you name it, hey got it. 

Anita asking for his latest mixAfter sussing out the quantity, he would then start the mixingHis brother would then make sure all we perfectly mixed upAnita started coming here since last year after tasting my Mum's curry. And every time my Mum went back to Kepala Batas she would order some spices. And now, Anita was buying them for her friends as well. 

This is the way!

According to the owner of the shop, they had started supplying their spices to restaurants around KL for the last few years. What you do when you get to the shop was to tell him what you were planning to cook, and he would mix the spices up to your taste. These were all freshly grounded, and the Biryani mix was my particular favorite. 

Full Day

In all honesty, we had only one full day to spend at Penang and Sungai Petani, and Puan Anita started the day off with some kuih raya shopping kampung style. And she went bananas. Not only that the prices were reasonable, the quality was very good. In fact, she had already started to eat them already and she bought with her one whole box of cookies with her.

She did that while I was with the boys in the hotel room. When she was done, it wartime to travel to Kepala Batas. It was for lunch there and the usual trip to the spice shop. She needs all of them spices for the coming Ramadhan. Lunch was next, and we went to an old neighbor's stall in Permatang Bertam for some home-cooked goodness.

After that was all done, it was almost 2 pm. Time to travel to the island.

First stop, as requested by the boys was to visit my Grandmother's grave. It looked like the gravestones had been made, and I noticed that he stones for my Grandfather were also changed. Then it was to Pahang Road, to visit my auntie. After Zohor prayers, we decided to take a drive to Batu Feringghi. Unfortunately it started raining. So, no beach for the boys ......

In Sungai Petani

We went straight to my Aunt's place, just in time for lunch. While there, we received a call from the hotel, informing us that the room for our maid would be on a different floor to ours. Nothing major, just a bit annoying. That did not stop the lunch though.

We scrapped the plan to hit Penang tonight since Idlan looked tired. Dinner would again be at my Aunt's. In fact, Anita and I had already listed what we wanted ...... Some proper Thai food and laksa. That would be smashing. So, Penang would have to wait ....

We just checked into our hotel room, and we decided that we all should take a nap. I had my 15 minutes power nap and now am wide awake. Idlan was still up. Obviously the cough mixture did not do the trick ......

Overnight Stop

After arriving in KL yesterday evening, Puan Anita had hardly had any rest. As for me, I got all the photographs cooked, and everything charged up for today's drive to Sungai Petani.

However, Idlan woke up this morning with a bit of a temperature and cough. A quick trip to our family doctor to pick up the prescriptions and soon we would be setting off.

The drive to Sungai Petani should take just over four hours traffic permitting. We have booked the hotel room yesterday, not that far away from where my Aunt's house is, just by the highway.

Time to Pack

So, the three night stay was coming to an end. And the boys were unexpectedly sad. They seemed to have really enjoyed the trip. Irfan said that he would write about the holidays when he goes back to school. Nerd!

Idlan was still asleep when we took our breakfast. Anita is busy cleaning up the back of the MPV for the journey home. We plan to leave just after 11, and arrive in KL in time for late lunch. We would soon be packing for tomorrow's trip up North. We have yet to book the hotel room. But I suspect it should not be a problem.

The plan was to stay in Sungai Petani, so that we would be near my auntie there. Not to mention the plan to stuff ourselves with the gorgeous food ....

More on the Fraser's Hill stay here.