The Rosy Picture in your Memory...

Continuing the post on my Cherating trip. As you know, the last trip I made to Cherating was more than a decade ago. Back then I stayed at the Legend Cherating and during that trip I was first introduced to the famous 'stuffed crab' dish. It was the dish to order when you are in Chukai, Kemaman. Chukai is about a 20 minutes drive from the Cherating area.

I remember that it was delicious. My wife, then girlfriend, agreed. The 'stuffed crab' was really good. I had forgotten which restaurant we went to but the taste was just fantastic.

This visit, eating 'stuffed crab' was in the agenda from the start. So we drove to Chukai and began hunting for the restaurants there. I remember that there were a few shops there and although the roads have changed to a one way street, we found the shops after a while and looked forward to tasting the delicious crabs again.

We selected a shop at random. So happen that the shop we chose was Tong Juan, the one that all the people agreed served the best stuffed crabs. The restaurant's reputation was only known to us after we left Cherating.

We ordered the crabs and the dish came. My wife dug in and was utterly disappointed! She said that the taste is no longer there. I took a bite and it was confirmed. This 'stuffed crab' tasted nothing like the 'stuffed crab' we had over a decade ago. The taste was flat to be honest and the crab meat even had a little smell, indicating that it was not so fresh. What a letdown!

Apart from the crabs, we also ordered a fried chicked dish for dinner and the fried chicken tasted much better than the crabs. Imagine! A run-of-the-mill dish outdoing the highlight dish of the restaurant! The standard of the crabs had taken a nose dive straight from its high pedestal into the drain. I would not even recommend anyone to order the 'stuffed crabs' after that meal.

My wife was visibly upset over the crabs. She had expected the standard to have suffered but did not expect that it would drop by this much. I suggested that we come back again the next evening and try another restaurant. Eventually, we dropped that idea and did not try the other restaurants. If Tong Juan is the best that Chukai has to offer in terms of 'stuffed crabs' then it truly have very little to offer.

I know that perhaps the rosy picture in my memory may have been spiced up by sentiments over the years but the taste of the crabs we had was really too much of a letdown and the gap from reality and memory was too wide to bridge.

Here are some pics:

The restaurant we went to.

The view from our table looking out. It was quite empty as it was around 9pm. Quite late by a small town's standards I guess.

My drink - 'lo hon guo & longan'. Pic lighted using wireless flash with flash from camera right.

And the famous 'stuffed crabs'... that tasted flat to me... maybe it's just bad luck... I dunno...