Stop 4: Lankawi Island

Lackadaisical Island Living

Taste & See: The only problem with island life is the happily lazy pace makes it hard to work up the constant hunger that comes with frenetic sight-seeing. Get up late, lay by the pool, walk down to the beach, read until I doze off . . . with all this busy laziness, I have so little time to get hungry. This, of course, creates a real difficulty, since ideally I would be consuming (Malaysian) island food in great quantities.

Proximity to the sea obviously makes for fabulous seafood, e.g., shrimp the size of tennis balls, ordered at a Chinese 'pick - your - live - seafood - from - the - tank' style restaurant, across the street from the ocean.


Small convenience stores all along the main road display lovely produce of all shades, like this magically shocking pink Dragonfruit.


Within easy walking distance of our hotel were at least a dozen restaurants, some obviously catering to backpackers & tour group buses, others barely a stand with a couple stools and hastily scrawled menus in Bahasa Malay. You might be able to guess what caught our eye . . .

Some things are the same everywhere, so we were pretty sure what we were getting into when we asked for Samosas:



The rest of the time ordering was kind of a game, picking out words we'd seen (and eaten) in different contexts and trying to make our best guess. Below, Mee Goreng, or fried noodles, a dependable standard:


And a surprise, based on the point - to - a - random - dish - on - the - menu method: lovely fat Mushrooms in Spicy Sauce with Scallions. No complaints here.


On days of excessive lackadaisicality, when walking to the beach & back was about all the activity I could muster up, I was content to eat the happily authentic Malaysian food at the hotel restaurant. For example, Laksa- a fish based soup in a spicy broth with egg noodles.


This was Curry Laksa, or in Penang, Curry Mee, one of several variations of Laksa found in India, Malaysia, Singapore & China. This Laksa has chewy egg noodles, a hard boiled egg & a broth of curry and coconut milk, unlike other variants of Laksa in the region. The soup is chalk full of tofu, fish cakes, and shrimp-- and would usually have cockles, but for the tourist setting. [Well, maybe the hotel was not so authentic.] The soup is accompanied by sambal chili paste and Vietnamese coriander.

Another traditional dish, Nasi Lemak:


Strewn on a banana leaf around rice are various toppings, such as marinated prawns, shredded chicken, spinach, peanuts, cucumber slices, dried anchovies, hard boiled egg, pickled vegetables & sambal, a spicy-sweet sauce. The name means "rice in cream," which refers to the cooking process: soaking & steaming the rice in coconut cream, sometimes with knotted pandan leaves, lemongrass or ginger for extra flavour.

At night we often opted for some of the more upscale restaurants in the area, which tended to set us back a whopping $10-15 per person, twinkly lights, candles and drawbridges inclusive.


A for ambiance:


And attention to decor detail:


The food at this place wasn't bad, but I can't help thinking the dollar samosas and mushrooms from lunch would have been equally enticing. We are clearly paying for the atmosphere. And the English menus.

Mixed Vegetables:


Chicken Rendang:


Rendang is a popular festival dish for Malays. It may look like a curry, but it is actually quite different, at least when it is authentic. It is typically made with beef, though we had chicken, above. Many other kinds of meet, or even jackfruit or cassava, can also be used. The meat is 'marinated' in coconut milk and spices like ginger, galangal, tumeric, lemongrass & chillies for several hours, boiled slowly until the liquid is nearly gone and the meat is coated in flavour. Then the meat is fried as the liquid evaporates. The long slow process makes the meat very tender.

Steamed Fish with Vegetables:


And finally, my favorite meal of the island, and the most egregious example of inactivity leading to inability to fully consume the feast before me, the Nasi Campur Kampung sampler. For a total 69 RM, approx $21, A & I had a full tray of a dozen small dishes of beautifully presented Malay food.


What you see below includes the following, from left to right, back to front:

Row 1

Satay Ayam Dan Daging - Chicken & Beef Satay
Kurma Daging - Beef in Mild Curry
Ayam Gulai Kampung - Spicy Chicken
Rendang Tok - Marinated Beef
Bayam - Stir-fried Spinach

Row 2
Cucumbers & Onions (for Satay)
Ikan Alu-Alu Bercili - Barracuda with Chillies
Nasi Putih - Steamed White Rice
Nasi Kuning - Yellow Rice
Sambal Sotong - Dried Curry Squid
Rice Chips

Row 3
Peanut Sauce
Masak Lemak Labu - Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Curry
Udant Kapitan - Spicy Prawns
Pajeri Nenas Dan Terung - Pineapple & Eggplant Curry
Jelatah - Pickled Vegetables

The Pineapple & Eggplant Curry, simply divine . . . a bit sweet & tart from the pineapple juice, rich, smooth, complex.


And after dinner, home to bed to work up energy for another day of loafing & eating. What a lovely lackadaisical life indeed