ON A recent road trip to Taiping, Perak I discovered a little-known kedai kopi that prepares mee udang in Kuala Sepetang, which is also known as Port Weld.
My wife Michelle and I had cycled for a month so I organised a ride from Taiping to Port Weld and back over the weekend .
It was a spontaneous trip that saw us packing our folding bikes and driving from our home in Subang Jaya to Taiping.
It was a long journey, especially because it was a Friday night and traffic was brought to a grinding halt at certain stretches of the North-South Expressway.
Finally, after six hours on the road, we checked into a motel to get some rest before the 40km round trip ride from Taiping to Port Weld.
Along the way, we stopped at the Ngah Ibrahim fort in Matang, which is a national heritage site and a “must see” if you are a history buff.
Down the road, about 6km away, there’s the famous charcoal kilns, and no Port Weld experience would be complete without a stopover at this century-old industrial site.
Finally, after cycling for one-and-a-half hours, we reached the Kuala Sepetang fishing village.
I came to know of a kedai kopi in Kampung Menteri near the famous Mak Jah mee udang after I asked some local fishermen in the area.
One of them told me that there was an unmarked stall along the small road off Jalan Taiping-Kuala Sepetang that was favoured by the locals.
He added that many tourists from out of town usually went to the bigger mee udang stalls.
After a good experience from a previous solo ride along the same route last year, I led Michelle to the kedai kopi known as Mee Udang Warisan (N 04 50.240, E 100 38.050) and ordered a bowl of mee udang.
Now, what I like about this no-frills makan place is that you won’t find any tourists.
Only regular customers would know what to order.
A bowl of mee udang costs RM9.50 and if you want fresh seafood, this is as good as it gets.
The prawns are harvested from the Sepetang River and Kuala Larut and on a good day, you will get a bowl of noodles with large prawns.
So, how did Warisan’s mee udang fare?
I would rate this makan place an 8 out of 10 on the Samo-scale.
The prawns were fresh and crunchy and what made it even more tasty was the beef broth that is used as the gravy base.
This stalll opens daily from 8am to 7pm and if you need to make reservations or get directions, call its owners Azmi (018-466 0221) or Aman (019-500 7101).
