Long and baggy clothes

One of the reasons why I always wear long and baggy clothes when we go out. It is Nazran's favourite hiding spot.

Cameron Highland : Homemade evening snack and dinner

I have posted an entry on our homemade breakfast (here) for our Cameron Highland trip (here).

These are our evening snack, Cameron style :

[ Top, left ] Boiled Cameron honey sweet potatoes.

[ Top, right ] Soft boiled Cameron baby potatoes. Some we ate just like that, my mom took a few and mix it with tuna spread, to be eaten with bread and I mashed the rest.

[ Below, right ] Pengat keledek. A traditional Malay dessert - diced sweet potatoes and sago pearls boiled in coconut milk and palm sugar mixture.

And this was our simple dinner - steamboat.

We dipped in fresh Cameron Highland vegetables, mushrooms, rice noodles, fish cakes, fried dried tofu and eggs into the vegetable soup. We also prepared special dipping sauce with Thai chili sauce and tom yam paste.

Cameron Highland : Homemade breakfast

Since we were expecting thunderstorm in Cameron Highland throughout our stay there, I have planned to cook light meal for my family, just in case. So I brought pancake mix, rice noodles, rice, bread, eggs, chocolate milk and a few other cooking ingredients.

These are our breakfast for a couple of days, Cameron Highland style:

We bought Cameron Highland's famous sweet potatoes and honey sweet potatoes from Kea Farm. They came in three colours - white, orange and purple. I soaked them in the batter and deep fried it. Although the purple sweet potatoes looks like a deep fried wooden splint, it does tastes great!  

Hot deep fried sweet potatoes and hot Cameronian Gold Blend tea are the perfect kampung breakfast combination on a chilly morning.

We also bought plenty of strawberries everyday from Kea Farm, S'Corner, Tanah Rata and Brinchang Night Market. I made some fluffy pancakes to go with the strawberries. We ate it with butter, honey, chocolate and of course, a lot of strawberries! I paired it with plain green tea (no sugar added) to balance the sweetness of the food. My kids love green tea so much.

I just love to cook. It was more fun to cook together with my mom, very early in the morning, when everybody else were still sleeping soundly.

Cameron Highland : The journey

YES, we just came back from CAMERON HIGHLAND. With my family of 5ive and my mom. 

I browsed through a few weather forecast websites prior to our departure and it stated that there will be thunderstorm throughout our stay in Cameron. But it turned out Cameron was sunny for three days and not that cold at all. Alhamdulillah.

I have rented a fully-furnished apartment (for Muslim) with 3 bedrooms and 2 toilets at Tanah Rata. It has complete cooking utensils and the most important thing is our rented unit is located at the ground floor. I chose Tanah Rata because it is the biggest town in Cameron Highland and has the most number of facilities and amenities. It is also more relaxing and not too crowded as to compare with Brinchang. Brinchang is only 4km away. 

This is our apartment. Next to Heritage Hotel.

On the first day, we didnt have specific plan on which place to go first.  I have the list of places that we HAVE TO VISIT, but not in particular order. So we just went up to Brinchang and stopped by at any of these places which have available parking space. School break means that there are hundreds of cars on the narrow road all the times and we have to be very observant and quick should we need to park. Our first stop was at the Bee Farm. 

I am a fan of bees and honey :) This is where they keep the bees for educational (and honey production?) purposes. We are free to walk in the farm with bees flying around us. Nazran was freaked out so we kept our visit short.

Then we stopped at Kea Farm and the famous Brinchang Night Market (photos will be added later).

The next day, we went to Sungei Palas Boh Tea Plantation. The  journey up was a bit crazy and scary because the road is too narrow. Then we have to walk up another 200m from the parking lot to reach the visitor centre. We choose to walk between the tea bushes on the way up (not recommended for 7 months pregnant women [me] and warga emas [my mom] - it was so torturing) and we went down via proper road. 

See the housing area down there? We parked the car over there and walk through the tea plantation to reach the visitor centre. This is not even at the top yet.

After enjoying various type of freshly brewed hot tea (we chose passion fruit, mango and vanilla tea) and some freshly baked bread and strawberry tarts at the cantilevered Tea'Ria, we headed to the tea shop and the factory. On the way down, we diverted to Mountain Strawberry Farm, near to the tea centre. 

My mom and my kids were having fun harvesting fresh organic vegetables and play with rabbits, chickens and goats. The farm management has assigned one worker to every group of visitor. It was great to have an experienced guide because the trip will be more structured and you will save more time. He gave advise on how to grow vegetables, which vege is ready to be harvested and how to do it correctly. 

We had strawberry popsicles, strawberry milkshake and fresh strawberry juice near the fish pond. It is not that we are the biggest fan of strawberry but they only have strawberry-based beverages on the menu. The most interesting part is they teach my kids the step-by-step of making the strawberry juice and strawberry milkshake.

Then we stopped at the S'Corner where you can pluck your own mushroom. There are many types of mushrooms ready to be harvested but we just bought the packed mushroom ;p

At night, we went to a couple of souvenir shops at Tanah Rata.

On the last day, we went to *again* souvenir shop at Tanah Rata and Kea Farm.

Then we headed north to Tringkap where we stopped by at another Bee Farm and Cameron Valley Tea Plantation. This plantation is more friendly because it is located at the roadside and the tea bushes is located next to the parking lots. No more tiring climb to the top.

Afterwards, we made an unplanned stop at Avant Chocolate Factory. This is the first time we heard about this gourmet chocolate factory. We bought a pack of strawberry coffee and of course, chocolates.

Since I was already worn out, I had to pass my husband's offer to stop by at flower farm in Blue Valley. I am not a fan of flower so it is ok. We headed back to KL via Simpang Pulai. The road is wider and less winding as via Tapah. 

It was a great journey. I love it more because my husband suggested to bring my mom along :) She enjoyed it very much.

More entry on our Cameron's homemade breakfast (here) and evening snack / dinner (here). Thanks to my friends Reeza, Karimah and Fahimi for sharing some pointers on the trip to Cameron Highland prior to our departure.