After the International Kite Festival in Pasir Gudang (Johor), we drove up to Batu Pahat town, second largest urban area after Johor Bahru. Because we have family there - my Bro AG and his Batu Pahat born-and-bred wife. Batu Pahat is also known as Bandar Penggaram, both conveniently 'BP'. But Batu Pahat is also the district which includes BP and Yong Peng.
Anyway Batu Pahat means "chiselled stone/rock" and local history (or legend more likely) has it that this name was gotten in the 15th century when an invading Siamese army chiseled rocks at the coastal village of Kampung Minyak Beku (another legendary story to this name?), in the hope of finding fresh water. Another story is about the Portuguese building a fortress of granite rocks from quarries near the (Batu Pahat) river mouth.
My Bro AG's late father-in-law was a local historian of sorts but unfortunately I never had the opportunity to find out more about Batu Pahat from him*.
Now on to the food, yum yum. Only quite recently, I had heard and read about the famous 'Mee Racun' (or poison noodles!) in Batu Pahat. So that very evening, we got to taste this uniquely-named noodles cooked in a chili & tomato-based sauce and enhanced with bones. Huge 'gearbox' bones with some meat, and marrow you can suck out with a straw! So, so sedap! (Thank you Bro AG for sportingly going out to buy this especially for us. We were too tired to bother to dress up and leave your beautiful home to get to the Mee Racun eatery.) To be continued...
* Note: My librarian DNA says I have to get on with doing more research about BP. I will update when possible.
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