Kuantan half day trip@villaku, kampung beserah, kemaman fish noodle, durian feast and Hai Peng Kopitiam

Where to bring your best friends when they are in town? That's what we did last weekend. After checking out from their villaku retreat at Balok, we headed to Kampung Beserah for some local product shopping.

Great view at villaku swimming pool overlooking the sea

The shop we frequented doesn't even have proper signage. Just turn into the fishing village at the traffic light and drive straight past the Chinese primary school till the end before the T junction. There sits the old quaint wooden house with all the preserved salted fish, anchovies, dried shrimps, dried oysters, dried scallops etc. The freshest and cheapest that we can find. Too bad we forgot to snap a photo of the place.

Lunch was at kemaman fish noodle shop. I have not tried this in kemaman but this kuantan version is so delicious!

The noodles were so springy. The soup so fresh and sweet, not depending on MSG at all. Add in a spoonful of secret sambal, tasted very much like those added in prawn noodles.

Immersed a piece of crunchy fish crackers in the soup and you will feel heavenly.

We ordered a steamed fish each. Even though it's only kembong fish (which is usually quite fishy), the fish served was so fresh that it just didn't need any garnish. Simple ingredients but not easy to make good food with these!

Be a bit patient as the place is run by a family so the service can be slow during lunch hours.

Next stop was the much anticipated durian hunting! Drove to kamdar along Jalan Haji Ahmad and the durian place was just opposite. It wasn't durian season but everyone was impressed by the quality! Prices were reasonable.

Durian so rich in flavor. The best is often the bitter ones. On sale were udang merah, D24 species.

One can never leave kuantan without trying the best coffee from Hai Peng coffee shop. It's along Jalan Haji Abdul Aziz, sandwiched in between a few of my favorite lunch stops. Menu quite limited but please do try their ice coffee!

 Not too strong in caffeine but flavor so smooth that one cup is not enough. Toast, quite famous as well but we thought it's so so.

Great Sunday spent with wonderful people. Try this short food trip and let me know what you think.