Footsteps - Jotaro's Travels: YummY! - Paku-Cuttlefish @ Kampar

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YummY! Jotaro's Food Review

PAKU-CUTTLEFISH @ KAMPAR
Gold Wing Coffee Shop, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia - August 2014

Many of us have tried Kankong-Cuttlefish, a dish of boiled Kangkong (Water Spinach) and Cuttlefish served with some sweet spicy sauce. But how many of you have tried Paku-Cuttlefish? I haven't, so when I saw a stall selling, I could not resist but order a plate to try.

This stall also sells Kangkong-Cuttlefish. The above photo shows Kangkong on the left and Paku on the right. One may wonder why some opt for Paku instead of Kangkong.
Kangkung (Water Spinach) is one of the most versatile vegetables around, versatile in the sense that by itself it does not has much of a taste. It hardly has any bitter taste, unlike most vegetable. Cooking it with sauce, chilli, etc., and it absorbs these to give a good crunchy flavourful dish. But it has one major disadvantage, it is what Chinese term a "cool" vegetable, eating to much of it and one may and up with a lot of "wind" (nope that's not the flatulence wind, but the Chinese Chi wind) that may lead to one being weak kneed for a couple of days after too much Kangkong.

Paku (Fiddlehead Fern) on the other hand seems to be a healthy food. A fern that is often treated like a vegetable, it is often used in cooking and sometimes eaten raw as a salad. It contains anti-oxidants and Omega fatty acids.
Cuttlefish is nightmare food for people watching their diet, it contains a high amount cholesterol. Perhaps because of this, the locals here have opted to eat it with Paku, hopefully the anti-oxidants will counter the cholesterol.

My plate of the dish came with a healthy dose of sauce sprinkle with grounded ground nuts on top. The amount of sauce almost hid all of the vegetable.

Stir up the dish and the Paku can be seen with their twirly shoots. The sauce, which is sweet and slightly chilli hot has mixed well with the ingredients. The powdery groundnut gave some texture to the sauce which blended in well with the main ingredients - the cuttlefish and the Paku.
The cuttlefish flesh was easily bitey but I found the tentacles a bit hard. The fronds of the Paku had "captured" the sauce in between for a good mix of sweet and slight bitter taste. Personally, where this dish is concerned, I prefer Kangkong over the Paku. The Kangkong's hollow stem let it retains more sauce and it's leafiness adds on to mix of crunchy and soft biting. But then the Paku is a good balance for the Cuttlefish, so this is a good alternative when watching one's cholesterol level and yet yearning for a good cuttlefish dish.

This dish is sold by this vendor at the Pusat Makanan Gold Wing.
Pricing is RM2-00, 4-00 & 6-00 for a small, medium & big plate of either the Paku or Kangkong dish.

PUSAT MAKANAN GOLD WING
Jalan Baru/Jalan Post Office, Kampar, Perak, Malaysia.
Hours (for stall): Breakfast till around 3:00pm
GPS: 4.310481,101.150709

View Gold Wing Coffee Shop Kampar in a larger map

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