road trip lunch stop: sun kong restaurant, lenggong (homemade fish balls, fiddlehead ferns and more!)

Sun Kong Restaurant at Lenggong town in Malaysia.

Ummmmm, picking up where I left off last year in this long-overdue continuation of my Asia travel series. As some of you may know, I quit my job in Melbourne last year, moved all my belongings to Perth, travelled around Asia for several months, and eventually settled back in Perth.

There are so many things to share, and last year's travel posts were only the tip of the iceberg. We were in Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Taiwan, and I'm not even done posting about Malaysia yet! So here we continue on with our Malaysia road trip.

After leaving Kelantan, we drove to Penang, but on the way, we stopped at Sun Kong Restaurant (S-2, Kampung Baru Ayer Kala, 33420 Lenggong, Perak) for lunch.

Sun Kong is known for their homemade fish balls, so we had that as an appetizer. These handmade wolf-herring fish balls are distinctly different to the usual filler-added and MSG-laden stuff you get in sealed packets at the shops. Their gentle savoury flavour and rustic texture had me going back for seconds.

Homemade wolf-herring fishballs.

After devouring all the fish balls, we turned our attention to our rice and main dishes. First up, this vibrantly green fiddlehead fern stir-fry dish. These fiddlehead greens (also known as paku in Malaysia) are treated with a touch of garlic and other seasonings, and they straddled the perfect textural balance of firm and tender.

Stir-fried fiddlehead ferns.

Then we enjoyed slices of pig stomach and assorted vegetables in a tangy pineapple sauce. Definitely not the typical sweet-and-sour dish you see in Westernized restaurants!

Sweet and sour pig stomach with vegetables in pineapple sauce.

We have been eating a lot of fish during our time in Malaysia, and we weren't about to stop. Local wild river-caught fish is a favourite when we can get it, and when it's artfully steamed in the classic manner, the freshness really shines.

Steamed catfish (pak sou gong) with soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, coriander, spring onions.

With full bellies, we hopped back into the car and resumed driving. Later that evening, we arrive in Penang, which is basically a food haven in so many ways. But that's a subject for the next post. Stay tuned!