January 14, 2005
This is the first issue of our Newsletter. We would like to wish all our readers a very Happy New Year.
What will this issue of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletters include?
- Pulau Pangkor and the Tsunami
- More Recipes, only in this edition of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletter
- Sitiawan, a nice place to eat? Tips for a breakfast in the nearby town of Sitiawan.
You can read our newsletter in our Blog:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Pulau-Pangkor-blog-1.html
Keep up to date with Pangkor by RSS
Great !
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1. Pulau Pangkor and the Tsunami
On boxing day, the world was shocked, shaken by an earthquake with a level 9 on the Richter Scale. I will tell you how we heard of the news.
I live in Sitiawan. Sitiawan is the biggest town in the area. The nearest real big city is Ipoh, but that is another 70 km from here.
Sitiawan is a nice little town and it is also the gate-away to Lumut. Not that many tourist ever see Sitiawan, but that is another question. Anyway, I cycled a few hours around.
But before I come to that point, what happened to us that day, Boxing Day 2004? Well, it was quite a normal day here in Sitiawan. I went out for my usual Sunday bike ride. It was a nice sunny day here in Sitiawan.
In the evening we heard of an earthquake. Penang, we were toldm had suffered from it. But the real news came on Monday morning when my family from the Netherlands called to see if we were ok. There had been an earthquake and it was close to where we live.
However, we had not felt anything. And then the news came more or less in. Monday morning papers came with more news. Now we started to get an idea of the size of the disaster.
I decided to see what happened at Pangkor. With my bicycle, I took the ferry to the island. Now I was able to find out if and how Pangkor had suffered from the Tsunami.
The water had been higher than normal and the earth had been shaking. However, there was no damage and there was no one wounded.
Later I came home and looked at the maps on the Internet. I realised that we had been very lucky. The epic centre of the Tsunami had been on the West coast of the Indonesian Island, Sumatra. And the shock wave had been moving North and West. Some of the water had gone into the Straits of Malacca but that was by the time it came to Pangkor, already down to levels that did not produce any danger.
I spoke to some people at Pangkor Island. They had felt the earthquake. The water had been higher then normal too but there were no problems.
Soon it became clear how massive the effect of the Tsunami had been. Some of the contacts we have with people at the Thai Island, Phuket made quickly clear that they had not suffered since they lived on the south part of Phuket while the Tsunami mostly had hit the Western areas of Patong Beach.
Check: Phuketwave.com.
Also soon it became clear a lot of help was needed. We were sorting out how we could help in this case. We found two websites we trusted for donating money:
and
People need help. I have traveled to some of the areas affected by the Tsunami and do not want to think what it will look like. The photos and videos I saw were bad enough. All I ask is that all of us to give some. We HAVE to help. If you haven't donate some, do it now.
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2. Recipes
Recently we have added a page in our website with recipes of dishes you will find in the restaurants and stall in and around Pangkor. If you haven't visited this page yet, check it our now:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/Malaysian-recipes.html
However, for this edition of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletter we will introduce two more recipes: Mee Rebus and Curry Kapitan.
Mee rebus, still my favorite breakfast is, as the name suggest, a dish based on mee (noodles) with a thick gravy. Ingredients include (sweet) potato, egg, vegetable, vinegar and soy sauce. In the next issue we will go a bit deeper into the history of mee rebus.
Check out curry Kapitan, a very nice dish of chicken in coconut milk and lemon. Easy to make and tasty to eat.
For both recipes, check here:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/more-recipes.html
They are only available in this issue of our Pulau Pangkor Newsletter.
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3. Sitiawan, a nice place to eat?
Why pay attention to food in Sitiawan? Why not Pangkor? In the following issues of our Pulau Pangkor Newsletter we will introduce you to the best places to eat at Pangkor but also Lumut. However, we will start in Sitiawan.
Since we live ourselves in Sitiawan, a little town about 10 km from Lumut which is your entrance to Pulau Pangkor, we thought it might be nice to give you a few hints in places to eat here if you come here for some shopping or visit the markets.
As a long term backpacker and cyclist, I have always liked the little road side restaurants and stalls. Why? The stalls can offer a real fantastic menu although there's seldom a menu available. I have been very seldom disappointed by these stalls.
Now if you stay at Pangkor but you would like to have a different breakfast, lunch or dinner, here's your chance. In this edition of the newsletter we will give you some ideas for a real great and very cheap breakfast in Sitiawan.
There's a few excellent breakfast places available. As we are in Malaysia, the menu can be Indian, Chinese or Malay. For breakfast on this particular day, we chose Tzien Fatt, a Chinese restaurant on the way to Teluk Intan.
Tzien Fatt
Tzien Fatt is a small roadside restaurant about 1 km from the central crossroad. Tzien Fatt is owned by a very sweet Chinese older couple. The recommended dishes here are laksa, a spicy dish based on chili and shrimp paste. It's a kind of taste you love or hate. It's Eunice's usual choice.
Peter's choice is what they call Three in One. It's a mix of three different curry noodles dishes. It's a little bit spiced. The Three in One (or if you prefer, you can have Two in One) is basically a curry dish with vegetables and meat.
Tzien Fatt offers excellent fruit juices. The best in Peter's view is the quava juice, a thick, ice cold juice. Eunice prefers 'ammo canna' juice. Both are tropical fruits and very nice.
The Curry House
It's not fair, I know. The Indian Curry House is the very best Indian restaurant in Sitiawan and the wide surroundings including Pangkor, Lumut and all the other mentioned towns and cities. And the competition they have ... well ... they are so much better then anyone else.
The Indian Curry House is a great choice for breakfast or lunch. Since we speak here about the breakfasts, we mention only the breakfasts the Curry House offers.
Peter's first choice, always, is the Tosai (or Dosa for those who have traveled India). Tosai is a sort of crispy pancake which has to be eaten with a variety of sauces. The coconut sauce in chili is fantastic. Also dahl and fish sauce are great.
The roti chenai here is of good quality and for a chance Peter takes it every now and then. Eunice however chooses mostly a mee (noodles) dish.
The Indians running this place have their cooks mostly from Chennai (Madras) which guarantees the authenticate of the different dishes.
The ice coffee is good, as is the Teh Tarik, or pulled tea. The Curry House is also one of the few places to get fresh milk.
Can't wait to make your own Indian curry? I have some good news. Read this ebook:
Further we found an excellent Chinese vegetarian restaurant here in Sitiawan. More on this restaurant in the next issue of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletter but if you can't wait for some excellent Chinese vegetarian recipes, check:
quick and easy vegetarian cooking
Have a great meal!
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The Pulau Pangkor Newsletter will be published every 15th of the month. Did you find the first edition of the Pulau Pangkor Newsletter useful, relevant, worth reading? Would you like to see a specific subject mentioned in the next Pulau Pangkor Newsletter? We would like to hear from you, tell us using:
http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/contact-us.html
Have you been to Pulau Pangkor before and you have a story to tell? We'll be happy to publish them in our next issue. http://www.pulau-pangkor.com/contact-us.html
Best regards,
Peter
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