Claypot Chicken Rice in a Vintage Restaurant

Hello everyone! Today I want to share about a wonderful restaurant I went to quite recently. It is a small town restaurant located in Bidor, Perak, Malaysia. Although modernization has aggressively taken place in the west coast of Peninsula Malaysia, Bidor still has the vintage small town vibes. There have been infrastructure developments but some vintage buildings and restaurants remain similar to olden days.

As my family and I were on the way back from Cameron Highlands, we made a pitstop for lunch. We can't stop anywhere once we get on the highway from Cameron Highlands. So our choices were Tapah and Bidor. We chose to stop at Bidor because it is only 10 kilometers away and we get to eat at a restaurant instead of the highway rest area. In the above picture, the restaurant I went to is the one on the left with the white car at the yard area.

The name of the eating outlet is Restoran Xiu Jie. You can't miss it because there's a large board in display. Here's a better look in a cropped version. I could have cropped more but I didn't want to cut my country's flag. This restaurant was in a vintage style. I don't mean it in a fancy way but it was like the old restaurants available 50 years ago. There were red lanterns all around the restaurant with red lights. They are called tanglung.

This is how the inside of the restaurant looks like. We went there way, past lunch time which is why there were no customers except for two people. They left shortly after we arrived. The decorations were that of classic Chinese style as you can see like the large handfan. I remember my friends and I always tried to recreate it using papers in school as we could only use the real fans for performances.

The theme was red because it is considered auspicious in their culture. There was also a prayer altar with the red lights on. There were round, wooden tables arranged for customers to dine in. The plates and cutleries were all arranged neatly in their space. On the right was the space where all the claypots were stored in two different sizes which are small and large pots.

This is the pricing for the claypot chicken rice. The large set costs RM 22.00 which is 5.37 USD while the small set is RN 15 at 3.66 USD. The vegetables were priced as shown in the price chart, ranging from small to large. There were only two types of vegetables available which are taugeh, also known as bean sprouts, and salad. By that, I don't mean a bowl of mixed salad but just the lettuce part. I wish there were more varieties as I am a fan of neither veggies. So we just decided to pass this round.

First, the aunty brought us the plates and cutleries immersed in hot water.

Then she served the beverages which we ordered. We chose iced barley drink as the weather was warm in Bidor and we were quite thirsty due to the long journey. The drink was cold and helped me quench my thirst and leash my hunger for the time being.

The aunty got to cooking right away after preparing the drinks for us. She prepared the claypot chicken rice while we watched once a while as we smelled the cooking aroma. We ordered an extra item which is salted fish. It is more of an add on and the price too will be increased slightly due to it. But the extra flavour it adds to the rice is worth it. Also, usually it is almost customary to include a small piece of salted fish in claypot rice.

While waiting for the aunty to finish cooking, my mother filled in the soy sauce and chillies for everyone.

This is the claypot rice. It was freshly cooked on the spot. I guess she has already marinated the chicken in advance so it's faster otherwise it would have taken much more time. The chicken is usually marinated with a few different condiments and spices beforehand. It has to be marinated for at least 30 minutes in the fridge for all the flavours to blend into the chicken. Then after the rice is cooked, the marinated chicken, a small amount of salted fish and a mixture of drizzling sauce will be added to it. Once it is well cooked, we get the yummy claypot rice.

We first ordered a large serving. When we were not sure whether to order another in case it wasn't enough, the aunty said just eat first and if you feel you need more then let me know. She said that she likes it when her customers finish all their meals so nothing goes to waste. She was right so we agreed. As we had our meal halfway, we knew we need a little more so we ordered another small sized claypot rice and she cooked it for us. As the aunty serves each meal, she herself mixes it for us before we start eating. She also asked if everything is to our liking and we said it was. Great hospitality as I liked that she checked on us.

This is my plate. I took a moderate amount of the claypot rice and a piece of chicken. I also got lucky I guess as I got a small piece of the salted fish hidden in my rice. I did add on a little more rice and chicken as I ate.

This is the landmark of the area as it is the opposite of the restaurant storefront line. It is the Tenaga Nasional Berhad building which is the electricity utility company of Malaysia. Next to it is the Klinik Kesihatan Bidor which is the local government clinic for people which is subsidized so we can get free medicines with the amount of fee at RM 1.00 which is 0.24 USD.

If there's anyone interested in exploring Bidor or would like to rest for the day during their long travels, check this vintage looking homestay in this place. It looks quite new but it was designed in the old fashioned way like a 'kampung' (village) house. If I'm not mistaken, 'maksu' means a closely related aunty in the family.

I can't find a single rice Bitmoji so this will have to do as there's a chicken. Thank you for dropping by and I wish you a wonderful Sunday!