Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: YummY! - Tapah Fish @ Tokyo Restaurant (東京海鮮酒樓) Jerantut

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TAPAH FISH @ TOKYO RESTAURANT (東京海鮮酒樓)

Jerantut, Pahang, Malaysia - June 2014

Returning from a cycling trip to Taman Negara, we stopped by at the Tokyo Restaurant, Jerantut for a late lunch. They serve one of the best, good food in Jerantut.
Now, this region here is well known for it's good and fresh fish. In fact the nearby larger town of Temerloh, is renown for it's Patin Fish (Silver Catfish) and is called Bandar Patin. But we will be more adventurous and try another fish, one that turned out to be much, much nicer than the Patin.

To kick off, we had Angled Loofah fried with strips of tofu and medium sized prawns. Fried until the loofah was soft and absorbing the nice gravy, it was a nice simple dish to start off with. The Tofu was cut into long strips too and the prawns were heavenly fresh. For loofah dishes, the loofah must be well selected; too old and it is too fibrous; too young and there is not enough core meat.

Next came the Kau Yoke, meat to replenish our protein after a previous day of hard cycling.
This one was the Hokkein/Teochew style where deep fried slices of pork belly and yam have been seasoned with five-spice powder and then steamed.

The one here was very well done, with well selected pork belly with good layers of fat - nicely cooked too as it was soft yet crispy. I can just have a meal with this dish and white rice; but then more was to come later. More meaning the piece de resistance, so I held back my greed for this dish and just took a couple of slices.

The soup was an interesting dish - Pig & Fish Stomach Soup. I have had Pig Stomach Soup before, and I have had Fish Stomach Soup before too. But this is the first time I am having both types of stomach cooked in the same soup. Taste wise both stomachs gave a tinge of their unique flavour to the soup. The pig stomach must have been cooked longer as it was bite-able soft. The fish stomach was on of a better quality, the narrow and long type. I seldom say this about soups, but it was SUPERB!

Some stir-fried Paku (Fiddlehead Fern) to balance our meal.

Now for the piece de resistance - the Tapah Fish (Wallago attu). It came excellently steamed with it's toothy jaws staring agape at us like some prehistoric monster from the deep.

This is one of the best fish that I have ever tasted; with nice, tender and sweet flesh with thick fatty skin. With a sweet fish like this, a simple sauce of oil and soy sauce without over embellishing is adequate to make it lovely.
Yes, it tastes better than the Patin but unlike the Patin it is harder to find. You won't find this easily in the Klang Valley, but I hear that Restoran Leung Yun in Kepong serves this fish too.

Even though it is located in a small town, New Tokyo Restaurant serves one of the best food that I have tried. So if you are in Jerantut, do pop in there otherwise you will miss some good eats.

On the walls of the restaurant are photos of many other types of fishes (fishes to temp us to come here again):

Patin Buah

Belida

Ikan Baung

Ikan Ubi

Gahak

Tenggalan

RESTORAN TOKYO (東京海鮮酒樓)
1-12, Taman Intan, Jerantut, Pahang, Malaysia
Tel: 09-266 2307
GPS & Direction Map: 3.93678, 102.3691
(click here for Google Street View)

View New Tokyo Restaurant Jerantut in a larger map

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