In the town of Serendah, there is a tiny shop with a handpainted sign proclaiming its sweet treats within. Palkova, it says in Tamil lettering. Barfi. I grew up eating this, a solidified milk and sugar confection, and so the extreme sweetness doesn’t bother me. The barfi here doesn’t have the anticipated rich buttery softness, but it is still good, and I can see why the shop carries the name of this Indian sweet. The rest of the sweets, however, are a bit of a letdown.
And across the universe, which, in Serendah’s context, is the main road between Rawang and Ulu Yam, there is a coffee shop which sells Chinese mixed rice, but if you so require, food can be prepared upon ordering as well. The hokkien mee is delicious, and despite lacking the desired charred taste, it contains the much coveted crunchy pork lard bits. Wild boar meat is available as well, and the dish is cooked in a thick curry, perfect with rice. The meat is tender, but the curry a little too spicy. The tilapia fish is cooked Thai style in a spicy sour sauce with brinjal, ladies fingers and tomatoes. A road trip always whets our appetite.
Who says dreams are in black and white? I dreamt in green, an hour away from the cacophony of sounds that is KL, where there stands a glass house with windows that open out to a forest awash in green, where in the night time it clothes itself in shimmery moonlight and where the morning after begs an encore from crickets and creatures and a gurgling brook, singing triumphant amidst the slumbering humans.
A perfect setting for nine friends who one day pledged in a drunken stupor, over Prosecco, at one of Fatboybakes’ legendary parties, that Sekeping Serendah would be as good a place as Monaco for a weekend retreat.
Punjabi Sweets Shop
Main Road, Serendah (after police station coming from Rawang)
Restoran Everyday
Main Road, Serendah (next to 7-11, opposite Punjabi Sweets Shop)
Sekeping Serendah (website HERE)
