Banting-- up to Jugra Hill, down to Gold Coast

     Banting is a principle town in the district of Kuala Langat, Selangor in Malaysia. It is a beautiful place where it consists of beaches, hills, forests and farms. We could concludes that Banting is an agricultural hub. Its main agricultural resources include oil palm plantation, poultry farms, battle leaves and it has a number of industrial areas.

      Let us look around where can you go and what can you eat in Banting.

Jugra Hill

Breathtaking scenery halfway up to the hill.

Behind the lighthouse, there is a secret place waiting for you.

Glory path to the top of the hill.

     Jugra hill is a good place to have ultimate cardio experience. At evening, you will see folk jog all their way up the winding road. Besides, you will cross with the cyclists who have big muscle bulks at their legs. For lazy people like me, I chose to drive and stopped at the lighthouse. From there, I walked up hill. Along the way, you can't miss the spectacular landscape such as various type of trees ; monkeys jump from one tree to another; birds and crickets compose a symphony, Langat River that cleaves the lowlands, winding and curling as it meanders sinuously to converge with the river mouth. 

Restaurant Bukit Jugra 丐帮名菜叫化餐厅

     After you finish the jog, there is a famous dining place waiting for you at the foothill. But I think you need to run few more rounds to burn the calories before you decide to walk in < Restaurant Bukit Jugra 丐帮名菜叫化餐厅>. This restaurant was famous of its "Beggar's chicken" (叫化鸡). There is story for this dish origin. Once upon a time a beggar led a wandering life in poverty. One day, he was very hungry. He lucked into a chicken, but had neither tools nor condiments. He came to the foot of Yu Mountain and roasted it without plucking it. When it was finished, the smell spread over a long distance.There is a special room designed to roast the chicken. Few bricks built up a piles of clays cover the chicken. 

     

Chickens were buried in the clay.

Beggar's chicken (RM48)

     Beggar's chicken wrapped by a paper. When we opened the paper, the aroma of the chicken lingered in the air and the chicken looked tasty. The chicken was stuffed by various Chinese herb and it gave strong herbal taste and smell. The meat was soft and the herbal gravy was so match with the chicken.

     Apart from that, there are other "Beggar's series". "Beggar's Pig leg". I was astonished when I opened the wrapping paper. The pig leg was so enormous! It was definitely 5 people serving! Although the pig leg was oily and sinful, it still taste good as the meat was so teeth bouncing. I don't really dare to try the skin or scientific term 'adipose tissue'. It looked shining but challenging for me.

Beggar's pig leg (RM 58)

      Traditional rice is dish which consist of rice, mushroom, meat and others wrapped in a leaf which provided a natural,green leaf aroma. It was glutinous and easily get full compared to normal rice. So you can order this rice instead of normal plain rice. Personally I felt this rice was normal only.

     Another dish we ordered was traditional fish. The fish was make into paste and remould it into fish shape again. It gained extra marks for its appearance but the plain taste drew it back. Maybe the chef was holding healthy cooking principle: less salt and less oil. I think this dish is not recommended.

     The so called "longevity soup" is merely chicken tonic soup. Despite the soup won't provide you extra lifetime, it provides you extra stimuli for your taste buds. It is good when hot. Other Beggar's series are beggar's duck, beggar's pig's stomach and beggar's mutton. But this restaurant only entertain reservation. You have to call to reserve and order the dish, preferably 2 days before you come. Perhaps, they need time to prepare the beggar's chicken. This restaurant has no luxury design and is an old, wooden house. In addition, it was quite expensive to having meal here.

longevity soup (RM28)

Traditional rice (RM38)

traditional fish (RM 35)

Restaurant Bukit Jugra 丐帮名菜叫化餐厅

Rating:

Address: Bukit Jugra (Permatang Pasir), 42700 Banting, Selangor.

BEACHES

Gold Coast Morib

      Gold Coast Morib is am place to relax, rejuvenate and away from hustle and bustle city. It is free to enjoy the natural embrace. There is a resort nearby and you can stay here. Besides, there is a bar 'floating' on the surface of ocean. During day time, you can walk on the seabed when the tide ebbs. We walked for a distance and reach the sea finally. As the sun goes down, the tide will start to raise and encroaching the beach. The photo was taken during evening time, around 5 or 6pm. At night, we were amazed that the ground that we stood just now was sink under water now! And the bar was on the water! Moreover, the beach has awe-inspiring views. The beautiful, big ocean waves are pounding the shore; the golden sun is sinking at the edge of sky and emitting its golden, warm sun rays. The never ending golden sand stretches out as far as you can see, waiting patiently for people to leave them marks. However, the cruel ocean waves roar and engulf my footprints. A gentle sea breeze rustles through the leaves of nearby coconut trees waking small birds from their slumber.

The floating bar is lively at night.

Enjoy the blue sky while standing on the sea bed.

A heart-stirring sunset scene.

 Sepang Gold Coast

          Sepang Gold Coast is less attractive compared to Morib Gold Coast. The sand here is darker and you could see trash at the beach. However, here has less people and still can see beautiful sunset. A lot of Malay came here to fly kites and picnic. Undoubtedly, it is free for entrance. The only upsides for this beach is there are few Malay seafood restaurants opposite it. It is different taste if comparing Malay seafood with Chinese seafood. We will talk about this later.

Sunset in Sepang Gold Coast.

Pantai Morib ( Morib Beach)

     Another Morib beach which just nearby Morib Gold Coast is another totally different place. It is the least attractive beach compared to the previous examples. Here has cement  pathway and some statues. When talk about the beach, it is really not as clean as the morib gold coast. However, there are still couples enjoy the leisurely stroll at evening. Besides, there are few food stalls selling burger and other food. Interestingly, I saw a man stood at the centre of sea where was far from me. This was amazing! I wonder there was still a land to let him to stand on it which made this scene looks magically. Perhaps, he was collecting cockles or crabs.

The shadow of sky falls on the water surface.

Seagull statues but hard to find a real seagull there.

Crabby family.

SEAFOOD

Restaurant Batu Laut （亚三岜都港海鲜饭店）

     This restaurant located not far from Tanjung Sepat. You will noticed its signboard at the road side and then you have to turn in. When you park the car, opposite you will be a lot of fishing boats anchor at the estuary. The restaurant has been divided into 2 parts which are indoor and outdoor. There is seldom people choose to sit indoor because most of the people enjoying sea breeze at the outdoor. Try to come at the evening as you can witness the sunset while having meal.

     When come to the seafood, it is really delicious and fresh. Recommend the asam fish and it is fresh, the asam gravy is a kind of sourish, sweet and fragrant. The baby octopus also very crispy and sweet, really thumb up! The steam clams was nice too.

     Beside seafood, you can order the bean curd. I am not very fond of bean curd but the Minced Meat Bean Curd that we ordered was really change my mind. It tasted like Japanese egg bean curd, smooth and match with its gravy. It was suitable to eat with seafood. Another vegetable that we ordered was  mixed vegetable and it was normal only.

Estuarine view

Asam fish

Steam clams

Baby octopus

Mixed vegetable

Bean curd with minched meat

Rate:

Address: Sungai Mosok, Batu Laut, Kuala Langat, 42800 Tanjung Sepat, Selangor.


Ocean Seafood Restaurant 海洋海鲜餐馆

     There is a lover's bridge beside this restaurant. But you can't go beyond its warning line because the bridge will collapse! I was warned by the local people when I ready to walk on the bridge. So there was only a little distance you can walk on the bridge. I also don't know why it called lover's bridge as I couldn't see any special of it. Just a normal old jetty port...

   

The legendary lover's bridge..

          We ordered the steam fish and it was normal but the fish flesh was tender and fresh. The fried octopus smell good and crispy. You may want to try it as well. The Kangkung (vegetable) was cooked in suitable degree but was little bit plain.

     The star of this meal was Sweet and Sour Crabs. It was delicious but the gravy was not enough. However, the cheap price gave its extra mark.

Fried octopus

Steam fish

Kang Kung

Sweet & Sour Crabs

  Rating:

Address: @101.50434 , 2.67944, Sepang, Selangor


 

Restaurant Sepang Gold Coast

     Now let us see what is Malay's seafood. Usually, their way of cooking is different with the previous two Chinese seafood. This restaurant is just opposite the Sepang Gold Coast. You can go to choose the seafood by yourself as they display it at a corner. 

     The Malay is famous of using spice and most of them like to fry instead of steam when they cook. They like spicy flavour so you must have a try. Let me introduce what you can order here.

     Firstly, choose a fish that you like and ask them to fry it and put a sour and spicy chili gravy. The prawns also suitable to cook in spicy and sweet sauce. And you must order the grill fish! They will stuff the fish with its special spice and wrap the fish with certain leave and then grill on charcoal. It is really saliva drooling. Fried octopus also not bad as well as the fried prawns. There was many type of mussels. But I don't recommend the BBQ cockles.. When you open the cockles, the flesh was shrink and dry. But you can dip it into the sauce they provided.

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Address: opposite Sepang Gold Coast.