Bukit Mertajam Yam Rice

Friend took me to this place in 'Tua-Sua-Kar' or Bukit Mertajam to eat as I was supposed to pick Sis up from Butterworth. This is the famous BM Yam Rice Shop. But this kind of identification; via building recognition is only for the locals and those who frequent it. For those on the look out for it, this won't help much.

Then there is printed method for those who are still with the old way of looking up an address. The calling card has a rudimentary location map. I think I'd have trouble finding the place just based on this though. 8)

Finally, there's always this to refer to too... LOL! Coordinates and GPS. This brings you almost right up to the shop! I supposed I could call it up from Google Map too, the view from above.... Ha! Ha! But if the satellites go kaput, people like me who depend on this method will be as blind as a bat.

It was nearly 3 in the afternoon when we got there and this was the crowd that was there. The crowd speaks volumes for the food here.

We located an empty table right at the back of the shop and proceeded to order. This shop serves the same type of food; everyone had this. Pork belly soup, a mix of all kinds of innards and meat balls. Nothing goes to waste for the Chinese still. I remember how my parents used to tell us that fish head, chicken leg, gizzard, pig's ears, intestines and other parts of the animals which Westerners would discard, as delicacies. But many of our kids snub food like this these days too. For me when I was growing up, our makan table would usually be cleaned up as in only bones would be left or the really non swallow-able parts.... minimal waste cos money was not something we had in abundance. Anyway, back to the soup, it was really nice, soothing and sweet. My gal was game to try everything too....

The stewed eggs. You can't go wrong with stewed eggs. Children love them. I like them too and they're great with rice.

The yam rice or or-puin (black rice) with yam mashed yam on top of it. The kids didn't quite like it and we adults ended up with more than our little portions of yam. The rice goes well with the soup and its goodies. They also served this great tasting chilly with the rice. Mix it into the soup and you get a spicy version. I enjoyed that too!

We wanted to order their tu-kar-chor or Pig's Trotters in Sweet Vinegar cooked in black sauce but they were out of it. Actually we were very lucky to get the yam rice because we were told that they had only white rice left when our kids wanted a second helping. One of the workers there told us that they usually close at 5 p.m. But as we could see, food finishes quite early.

Price was reasonable. With drinks the meal came up to less than RM40. And even the kids enjoyed it as much as I did.

We went and hung around a while in Jusco in Bandar Perda after that. Took the kids to Baskin Robbins for an ice-cream treat and then went to pick my sis up. It was a fun trip for everyone, I think.