CRIZ BON APPETITE

Many people are not aware of the small town of Terong, located between Changkat Jering and Pantai Remis in Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. The quaint township used to be quite active in tin mining until the late 1970s but has now been replaced by rubber and palm estates as well as charcoal factories. Thanks to the snail development pace for decades, Terong is still left untarnished with the pollution of mankind. It still has the old architectural buildings intact, lively mangrove swamps, forest reserves, clean rivers, scenic waterfall such as the Air Terjun Terong and more. Located about 10km away from the Changkat Jering toll plaza and 1.5km into Terong, lies a nice getaway for families and friends. It’s the first duck themed resort in Malaysia with a total area of 70 acres called Trong Leisure Farm & Resort (自農休閒農莊). The place would consist of a resort with recreational activities, a fishing pond, a duck farm (formerly called Soon Hock Duck Farm), a pork-free seafood restaurant and a Halal Malay restaurant.

Since not much information is available online regarding this place, let me brief you part by part on the whole establishment.

RESORT:

There are 12 units of rooms available for booking (2.00pm check-in and 12.00pm check-out) – 2-pax Standard (5 units), 2-pax Superior (4 units), 2-pax Deluxe (2 units) and 4-pax Family (1 unit). Prices can range as LOW SEASON (Sunday – Thursday): RM128-RM358, SHOULDER SEASON (Friday, Saturday & School Holidays): RM158-RM388, PEAK SEASON (Eve of Public Holidays & Public Holidays): RM188-RM438 and SUPER PEAK SEASON (EID, Chinese New Year & Deepavali): RM228-RM488. For more information, please contact +6010-464 0918/+6012-549 8978 or email: tronglesisurefarm@gmail.com

INDOOR & OUTDOOR RECREATIONS:

There will be a small amusement corner next to the restaurant for children such as the Duck Ride Machine and Toy Grabbing Machine. You can change some coins at the cashier counter. Other than that, you can try out the Duck Pedal Boat at RM6 per 15 minutes or feed the duck with duck feeds at RM2.00/100g. You can buy the ticket at a shop lot next to the pond. There’s a passion fruit arch nearby. If you were lucky enough, you might find some fruits intact but I only managed to see some blooms. Do not go about plucking anything in the farm as you will be fined heavily for vandalism.

FISHING POND:

There will be a few species of freshwater fishes in the pond for your angling experiences such as tilapia, lampang, rohu, patin, sultan fish and more. Any fish above 3kg has to be released back into the pond. Other than the tilapia and lampang which you can bring home for free, rohu and patin will be charged at RM5/kg whereas sultan fish will be charged at RM20/kg. There will be a small fee per rod for the number of hours you spent fishing by the pond (9.00am-9.00pm). Price: Full Day (RM50nett), Half Day (6 hours – RM40nett), 1st hour (RM15nett) and subsequent hour at RM10/hour. Baits and hooks will be calculated separately. For more information, please contact +6010-464 0918/+6012-549 8978 or email: tronglesisurefarm@gmail.com

DUCK FARM VISIT:

There will be 6 duck houses with each house able to accommodate around 1200 ducks. In total, there will be around 7000 ducks at one time. You will be able to get upclose and personal with those ducklings, drakes and ducks. You can identify the gender of the drakes by their low and deep sound whereas the ducks with their louder and high pitched sound. Ticket is available at the restaurant count at RM5.00/adult and RM3.00/child. Visiting hours will be from 9.30am until 7.00pm. Resort guests will be at half price. A tractor with passenger seats, will chauffer you to and fro from the duck farm. At the moment, there’s no limitation on how long you can spend at the duck farm. Be warned that there might be strong stench emitting from the duck shit along the way. Please make sure that you close all the gates when you enter each fenced farm to prevent the ducks from running out. If you are lucky, you might find some egrets mingling with the ducks.

RESTAURANTS:

There will be a HALAL Malay restaurant named Naz Tomyam at the dining area. The vendor will operate from 6.00am until 12.00am. They have a combination of dishes from roti canai in the early morning to Thai style dishes throughout the day. For more information, you can contact Encik Khairol at +6017-299 9883/+6016-809 6648 for your special bookings.

There will also be the Trong Seafood Restaurant serving PORK-FREE dishes from 11.00am until 10.30pm. You can make your reservation by contacting +6010-464 0918 or +6012-549 8978 during business hours.

Since this was my first time here, I only managed to try out some of their signature dishes. The first dish was their Signature Pei Pa Duck (Pipa Duck/琵琶鴨 – RM20nett/half duck). The name derived from the shape of the duck being opened up prior to roasting which resembles the Chinese musical instrument, Pipa. The sauce had all the necessary flavors which may include hoisin sauce, dark soy sauce, ginger juice, sesame oil, sugar and finely chopped garlic. However, the skin was not as crispy as it should be and the meat was rather tough. From my experience having this dish many times, I would think that the kitchen did not spend time truly understand the method of tenderizing the meat. Moreover, the skin won’t be so soft if they had the proper time to sun-dry the duck properly. On top of that, some famous vendors would normally deep fry the roasted duck prior to serving to give it that extra crispiness. Something might have gone wrong in their process or else it would be a perfect dish to my preference.

The next dish was the Chili Salt Deep Fried Squids (椒鹽蘇東 – RM15nett). I was actually expecting this dish to be Pepper Salt Deep Fried Squids since “椒” can mean pepper too but it ended up as diced capsicum salt version. The taste was not bad but it would be better if some coarsely pounded black pepper be added in for that extra earthly flavor.

We also tried out their Signature Deep Fried Homemade Tofu (招牌豆腐 – RM10nett). There are many versions of homemade tofu being served in different restaurants, from silky smooth texture to reprocessed mashed ones with sandy texture aka the Yunnan style tofu. The ones served here was the latter. However, the tofu only had mashed bean curds with only Thai dried shrimps, some chopped scallions and added egg to steam again to make the block. The end product would then be cut into bite sizes, coated with some corn starch and deep fried to golden brown prior to serving. The tofu fell flat to my liking without much flavor and they were rather chewy too. They did not have that bite as some of those I had tasted before. With some added thinly sliced wood ear fungus or finely chopped up shitake mushrooms would have given the dish better justice. I hope the kitchen would improve further on this dish.

The last dish I ordered was their Signature Eggplant with Dried Shrimps (蝦米茄子 – RM10nett). The dish was just some deep fried batter coated eggplant slices stir fried with some onions, curry leaves and dried shrimps. The whole dish practically depended on the flavor from the dried shrimps, nothing else. The chef should at least add in some pounded bird eye chilies or sliced red chilies or even some chopped fermented black beans to pep up more flavors. The dish was rather amateurish and rather one track style of cooking to my liking.

As for beverage, we just ordered a jug of Prunella Herbal Tea (夏穀草涼茶 – RM9.00nett). This was a real thirst quencher with the use of brown sugar to clear the internal body heat from the scorching sun.

If you are in for freshly salted duck eggs, you can always purchase a bag of 12 salted eggs at RM9.00nett at the counter.

Overall, the restaurant could just be a convenient place for visitors to dine in but not one that could provide the right balance of yin and yang in flavors. In short, it’s a place to fill up the stomach but not the place to go for skillfully prepared meals. Maybe as a Penangite, we have been pampered with too many choices to end up with this type of verdict. However, I hope that the kitchen will improve their food quality too. Wouldn’t it be great if the restaurant could attract more outsiders rather than relying just on the visiting crowd?

It’s not really hard to locate Trong Leisure Farm & Resort as it’s just along the main road towards Terong. No matter where you are coming from such as Taiping, Lumut, Pantai Remis or even via Changkat Jering toll using the old trunk road, just look out for the “Terong” signboard. As you turn into the main road via Jalan Kuala Terong, just drive further in for about 1.5km and you can see the venue on your left. No worries as there’s a big signage in front of the property.

Name: TRONG SEAFOOD RESTAURANT @ TRONG LEISURE FARM & RESORT
Address: PT293, Jalan Kuala Trong, 34800 Terong, Perak, Malaysia.
Contact: +6010-464 0918, +6012-549 8978
Business Hours: 11.00am-10.30pm
GPS: 4.711202, 100.708172

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 6/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 6/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 6/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)

Unless you are a hard knocked angler, you might not even be aware that such a seafood restaurant as the Gertak Sanggul Fishing Stage existed at the far south-east end of the Penang island. A paradise amongst anglers who prefer to relax under the shady areas next to the man-made fishing pond rather than heading up the hilly path of the Gertak Sanggul’s secondary jungle to the jackpot angling destination, this place would always be their favorite fishing spot. You can try your angling luck by paying RM40 for 3 hours of hooking up fishes such as the red snapper (ang cho), sea bass (siakap) or mangrove jack (ang ka tia). Presently, there’s an ongoing jackpot of over RM3,000 for whomever that can capture the sole goliath grouper (long tan). An additional RM200 would be given for the return of the prize fish. Business hours would be from 9.00am until 1.00am.

The setting up of the restaurant is simple with just a few tables by the pond and a few more along the patio area. It was amazing that you can’t find any menu here as they would just cook up anything upon your request, even with the fish that you had just landed. Dishes could include any fried rice or noodles, ala carte dishes to preordered course dinner with cold plate (RM80) as starter.

As the few of us just dropped by impromptu, we tried out their ala carte dishes with rice. The first dish that arrived was their Steamed Thai Style Red Snapper (RM28). The fish was barely 500gms, thus we did not get much meat on this skinny fellow. Fortunately, the gravy with traces of onions, chopped garlic, button mushrooms, green pepper, tomatoes, tamarind and lemongrass was quite appetizing. It had the mild sourness and saltiness that could be just as good as the Wong Chau Jun sour fish vermicelli noodles down at Jalan Rangoon, Penang.

The next dish that was presented was the Marmite Chicken (RM10). All the crispy meat pieces were from a drumstick. The yeast extract, a by-product of beer brewing, combined with some sprinkle of sugar, caramelized and stir fried with some chopped onions and curry leaves blended in real well with the deep fried chicken pieces. They were rather tasty except that I would prefer to have deboned ones instead.

Frankly speaking, the next dish which was the Kung Po Mantis Prawns (RM10), tasted quite similar to the Marmite Chicken as it also had some sugar added in rather than having the savory flavors as I had expected it to be. The dish had some chopped onions and dried chilies added in but there was not much spiciness in it as it lacked the more usage of dried chilies. Overall, the dish tasted quite nice with the crispiness from the batter infused mantis prawns but somehow this process drained the juiciness within the mantis prawns. I would recommend that you order either the former or the latter but not both due to the close similarity in taste.

You should try out the Sambal Asparagus (RM10). It was palatable as the dish had that nice fragrance from some toasted prawn paste (belacan). Not only was the dish less oily, the crunch from the asparagus and the freshness from the prawns were just right. I only wished the portion was a bit bigger.

The main highlight of the night was the Spicy Salted Egg Crabs (RM48). We had two huge and really fresh meat crabs stir fried in some curry based concoction together with salted duck eggs. The added curry leaves made the flavors from the dish even more irresistible. It had all the nice flavors but I found something missing from the dish. It was the significant amount of salted egg yolk bits. I guessed the chef would have used his bowl of pre-prepared salted eggs instead of providing one whole duck egg. What a joke! Moreover, the price of the dish had increased tremendously over a few months. It used to be around RM36 sometime last year. I actually don’t mind paying that amount if the crabs were filled with delicious but high cholesterol egg yolk~ 😛

Overall, this restaurant could be quite nice for a family outing after an evening stroll along the beautiful beaches of Gertak Sanggul. Price wise, it could be a bit high considering that I can get quite similar quality dishes nearer to the town area without driving all the way through the dark corners of the beach stretches. Moreover, the brewed beverages here were too diluted for my liking.

If you are coming from the Bayan Lepas FTZ area along Jalan Bayan Lepas towards the Penang International Airport, drive over the overhead bridge towards Teluk Kumbar. Drive on for around 6-7km and watch out for a big “Hai Boey Seafood” direction signboard on your left at a junction. Turn left into the junction which would also lead you towards Gertak Sanggul. Drive on until you see the “Hai Boey Seafood” signboard on your left. Drive all the way until the end of the road and watch out for the old signboard (Pusat Makanan Laut dan Memancing Ikan Gertak Sanggul Fishing Stage) on your right which is just before to a bus stop (Bus Route #308). Turn right into the sandy road and you would see the restaurant on the left. Make sure you visit this restaurant as early as possible (as at 6.00pm) or you might have to drive back under quite dimly lighted stretch of road home.

Name: GERTAK SANGGUL FISHING STAGE
Address: 388, MK 8, Gertak Sanggul, Teluk Kumbar, 11910 Bayan Lepas, Penang, Malaysia.
Business Hours: 6.00pm-12.00am (Closed Wednesday)
Contact: 604-649 1812, 012-494 7322, 012-470 8989, 016-480 9109
GPS: 5.283129, 100.191296

RATING:
Ambience: 6/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 classy)
Food Choices: 7.5/10 (1-4 limited, 5-7 average, 8-10 many choices)
Taste: 7.5/10 (1-4 tasteless, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)
Pricing: 7.5/10 (1-4 cheap, 5-7 average, 8-10 expensive)
Service: 8/10 (1-4 bad, 5-7 average, 8-10 excellent)