Current location:	Ipoh, Malaysia
Current mood:	relaxed
Entry tags:	food, tai chow

Short work trip to Gurun and the food encountered (Part 1)
Recently I was in Gurun, Kedah (town/city, state) for a couple of days for work. Gurun is a small little town that has an infamous-in-Malaysia steel factory, a motorcycle assembly plant and a motorcar assembly plant nearby. Kedah is a state situated north of the Malaysian peninsula. It's known as the rice bowl of Malaysia due to most of the local rice is planted there. Water is generally abundunt in Kedah for rice planting. Incidentally, "Gurun" is the Malay word for "desert" (and no, it's not a typo of "dessert" :P). It's not really dry like a desert there but the afternoon temperature does get really hot - hence, I suspect that is how the town got its name.

Gurun is mostly populated by ethnic Malays. Finding Chinese food there is not as easy compared to my hometown of Ipoh, where there's a large Chinese population. But find it I did. Here's what I had for lunch on the first day there:

Kong Po Chicken Rice (or Rice with Chicken done Kong Po style)


It looks scrumptious, huh? Single portion of rice served with chicken cooked with dried chillies, spring onions, and ginger. There's also a side plate of sliced cili padi (Malay for "bird's eye chilli") in light soya sauce. Look at the picture and take a deep breath - you may just be able to smell it.

Hungry? I'm a bad and evil man XD

Oh.. by the way, it only costs RM3.50 (approx. USD1.10).