FLAVOURS OF PAHANG

Savour a fusion of tradition and modernity in a restaurant built within a pre-war shophouse in the heart of Kuantan.

- CRYSTAL WOO

I grew up in a shophouse on Jalan Besar, Kuantan, Pahang. “Jalan Besar” means “big road” in Malay, when in reality, it’s not that big at all. Then again, the shoplots on this street were built in the late ’30s and early ’40s, so it’s safe to say that in those days, this was the biggest road then.

On Jalan Besar, rows of pre-war two-storey shophouses dominate the scene, where families often stay upstairs and run a small business downstairs. Growing up, it was a regular occurrence to walk by the Hock Bee Brothers Building after school or on a casual day, peering into clerks busily typing at their office desks. More recently, this long-standing building received a new lease in life. Enter Ms. Elliot.

Transforming the heritage Hock Bee Brothers Building into a headturning restaurant while preserving many of its original charms, this latest addition in the city of Kuantan, Ms. Elliot at Hock Bee Brothers, has the whole town talking. Chatting with the leading ladies of this project, Kuantanites and good friends, Shen (seasoned restaurateur) and Evelyn Wong (architect from Jujurwork, who was also the brainchild behind the Golong Wormhole exhibition space in China) both agree that restoring the Hock Bee Brothers Building was a dream project. Almost everything fell into place quite fluidly, including chancing upon piles of timeforgotten Onyx tiles from a closing stone yard, and repurposing them into this current space. The past and present reunited by a twist of fate.

A NEW DINING EXPERIENCE