visit to belacan factory at Kuala Gula

Have been taking belacan in our sambal all these years but never come across the way they make it.

Happened to be on a short

vacation

at Kuala Gula somewhere up north after Taiping near to costal site of Parit Buntar. My hubby knws the exact location. Kuala Gula is famous for its Bird sanctuary and reasonably priced seafood. The speciality is the fried meehoon with crab, steam cockles, "haeko bak" (mantis prawn steamed with a bit of chinese cooking wine), baby octopus , etc. Emmm my saliva is drooling.


There are also many others places of interest such as a small little temple ..can't recall it's name. u may see it in this picture. We were told that the owner of Singapore famous Haw Par villa who has closed down the place in Singapore has brought back all the figurines of the lunar 12 animals back to this temple. They also have what u call the Hell and Heaven where the they tried to decorate and make the place to be like "tay yook (hell)with eeeririiiie figurines and tin tong (heaven) with all the statues of God. Pretty deserted place.If not for our friend who stays ther we wouldn't knw this place existed.


my kids enjoyed the boat ride to see fisherman catching carbs with their cages.
Back to Belacan factory. The owner of this factory is a chinese Ah Pek who has been around this industry for ages. During the tour to this factory, he explained to us the process of selecting mini white shrimps and ferment them with salt until they turn brownish. To make quality belacan, they got to ferment the prawns for at l least 6 months. He told us that some of those famous brands of belacan in Penang are manufactured here in Kuala Gula. There come in different grades depending on how long the prawns are fermented.

Now with new technology, the process is easier with machines rather then manual stepping to compress on the fermented dried shrimps.

Not far from the factory we saw some imported storks (imported by the government) by the kuala side.

Take a look at these pics and enjoy the tour to Kuala Gula Belacan factory .My kids had a great time there.


The Belacan blocks looked like "bricks" for building house, right?
Remember the label..so that u watch out for this premium grade belacan the next time u shop for belacan.