more in terengganu: hawker food and a market

This is part two of our time in Kuala Terengganu - after we returned from our lovely stint in Redang Island.

We drove across the Sultan Mahmud bridge to Duyung island for a saunter. It is a serene and pretty place.

Duyung island.

We enjoyed more street eats.

Such as this pulut lepa, for breakfast - fish floss in sticky rice, wrapped in banana leaf, and grilled over charcoal flames.

Pulut lepa, fish floss in glutinous rice.

ABC (air batu campur), or ais kacang, the popular Malaysian shaved ice dessert with assorted beans, jelly, palm seeds, sweet corn, drizzled with syrup, and in this case also topped with ice cream...

ABC or ais kacang, a shaved ice dessert.

More keropok lekor. Can you tell it's our favourite snack around this parts? They taste different each time, too. At this stall, it's slashed and slightly hollow, which makes for greater crispiness.

Keropok lekor.

We had blood cockles with a chilli dip...

Blood cockles, which we Malaysian Chinese call see-ham, served with a chilli sauce.

And squid slathered in sambal sauce.

Squid with sambal sauce.

We also took a stroll through the big Kuala Terengganu market called Pasar Payang.

It's busy, and colourful with things like these assorted pickles...

Various assorted pickles.

And cute little dodols. This is a sweet, chewy confection made with glutinous rice flour, coconut milk, and palm sugar. The brown ones are the original plain, and the green ones are pandan. You can also get other flavours, such as durian ones.

Little dodol sweets.

Also, in case you were wondering, this is how keropok lekor looks like before they are cooked. You can buy it to boil or fry at home.

Uncooked keropok lekor.

The produce at this market were plentiful and exotic. Some I hadn't even come across before, like the tampoi fruit. This may also be referred to as ngeker.

Baccaurea macrocarpa (known here as Tampoi or Ngeker).

They also have pulasan, which is reminiscent of the rambutan, but instead of a hairy appearance, it has more solid-looking blunt spikes.

Nephelium mutabile (known here as Pulasan).

All in all, Terengganu has been a great experience, and I suspect I shall remember this segment of the trip as one that introduced me to the traditional fish snack, keropok lekor, and subsequently where I fell in love with it, as well as all the fun (and occasionally haphazard) times we had exploring this Malaysian state together - me, Simon, and my parents.