Went to Raub on a Wednesday and it took us 1.5 hour to reach Raub from KL. Raub is situated just 30 minutes away from its more famous neighbouring town – Bentong. If ever you visiting Bentong, you may take a short day trip to Raub. Both town are famous for its durians especially musang king. My trip to Raub is mainly to experience how handmade soap is produced and also trying out some of the food in town.

The fastest way to Raub from KL is thru Bentong town, 30 minutes drive from Bentong

Arriving on the premise of “Soap Maker Raub” which is in a residential area to get first hand info on how handmade soap is made. I was given a house tour. Surprise… behind the house are vast land area and there are 2 chicken pen with egg-laying hens.

loot of the day: 3 fresh eggs collected for the day

there are many plants next to the chicken pen, ie eggplant, pumpkin etc, spot the small purple aubergine in the above pic

what a beautiful big bunch of banana at the back, and that is the gate leading out to chicken pen behind

nice long papaya as well

that huge bunch of “monster” is a passion fruit plant which climbs from ground flour towards the balcony on top floor of the house

many passion fruits like above, but there are not ripe yet

3 noisy but friendly Belgian Malinois shepherd dog

and they have bees as well, the bees are kept for dual purpose, producing honey and also to increase pollination of fruit plants in the garden. The bees are stingless bees, ie there won’t be accidents of getting stung

the longish plastic-y looking tube thing is entrance for the sting-less bee

whereas to the top of the trunk is a wooden box which the honey are housed, it is deviced such so that the honey can be easily harvested from the box.

My visit to “Soap Maker Raub” is to see first hand how one of their best seller – “Perak Activated Carbon Soap” is made. “Soap Maker Raub” also provide DIY handmade soap courses and sell handmade soaps. For handmade soap lesson, each student can bring back 1kg bar of soap, which can be cut into 10 pieces, each weighing 100g. The DIY handmade soap course may differs in terms of process/ingredients from which you will see in following photos. If you are interested, their contact details are listed in end of this post.

“Perak Activated Carbon Soap” contains extra virgin coconut oil EVCO, palm oil and cocoa butter. It is made using low temperature method of soap-making, ie the above mixture of 3 oils will have to be about 35 Celcius before mixing in the rest of the ingredients.

Soap making may sound fun, but safety precaution is a must, and it is advisable to be performed only by person who has chemical/lab knowledge. The strong alkaline that is used in soap making is very pure and corrosive, in fact alkaline is more corrosive than acid, and will become blind if it alkaline touch the eye, thus eye protective mask is a MUST, respiratory mask is recommended as well to protect from alkaline vapour/fume.

This is the step that all need to be EXTRA careful, put protective google and nose mask on especially for first timers. The alkaline powder is weighed into a non-reactive glass container.

then put in the distilled water. Be VERY CAREFUL as the alkaline will start bubbling and producing much vapour and fume. Open all the windows and door of the room to ensure the room is well ventilated , and fan blowing air away from you, ie to blow the alkaline vapour away from you, as the vapour may cause throat irratation etc. Lift the funnel slightly to let the vapour out from the side else the vapour in the bottle might push the funnel up which will be very dangerous. Once the water are all poured in, put the cap on, and gently shake to melt the alkaline powder in water.

Cool the bottle and mixture down by soaking the whole bottle in water. This is also while waiting for the oil mixture to cool down.

oil and alkaline mixture are both cool enough for mixing

Pour all the alkaline water into oil mixture

Mix using an immersion blender, correct method has to be employed in this step to prevent the mixture which is still very alkaline from splattering. *Reminder: Wear protective eye goggle

Coconut shell activated carbon which has deep cleansing properties is added to the soap mixture

 

Pour soap mixture into mold

We covered and let it solidify before cutting into small soap bars

Normally handmade soap can only be cut after 12 hours. Above is the solidified soap. For people not able to stay till next day for soap cutting, an option of soap being mail ordered to you is available.

beautiful bars

To be cut

wow, so many bars of soap

Soap maker Raub’s “Perak Activated Carbon Soap” can be bought for RM25 each

All the soap produced by them, from left:

Perak Activated Carbon Soap, deep cleansing properties

Bentong Ginger Soap

Sabah Seaweed Soap, moisturizing effect with honey in it

Raub T3 Soap, for whitening

Soap for pets, for anti-bacterial

 

Normally, handmade soap has to be left to cure for 1 month , allowing it to fully dry and harden. All ingredients of their soap are from Malaysia local farm, no artificial perfume, coloring and preservative

 

All the soap contains extra virgin coconut oil which is extracted from fresh coconut without heat treatment.

Besides visiting “Soap Maker Raub”, we went to try a few food, first is curry noodle

It is located in 15, Taman Emas, Sempalit, Raub

Young man cooking the curry chicken which normally ready everyday around 10am – 10:30am

nice huge wok of curry chicken

they also selling local “dao1 ma2 qie4” which is hakka pan mee, this is famous noodle in raub, can be found in many coffee shop here, not bad as well

the curry noodle is nice and piping hot, however i would recommend to order the normal one with chicken pieces, and not with drumstick as the meat inside the drumstick is kinda bland. Actually we didn’t specify to have drumstick, but they gave us drumstick which is more expensive.

Another famous restaurant in Raub, Ah Loong Cafe

wanted to try their dao1 ma2 qie4 as well, but it was sold out, the famous Hong Kong “god of cookery”  Liang Wentao dined here as seen in above pic

My pork noodle, the soup is dosed with slightly a bit too much sugar? Taste just ok, RM5

Wanted to try the famous raub kuih shop in Bukit Koman, Raub as well, but there were not open that day, saying Astro AEC will be coming to film him 2 days later…

Soap Maker Raub: 

Phone/Whatsapp: 011-2913 2234

Email: soapmakerraub [at] yahoo [dot] com

Facebook: Soap Maker Raub

Ah Hen Curry Noodle:

15, Taman Emas Sempalit, 27000 Raub

Business hour: 10:30am – 4pm

Telephone: 013-9508 363    

Ah Loong Cafe Pork noodle:

313-A,Kampung Sempalit,27600Raub,Pahang.

Telephone：017-6686377

Business hour：7am-1：30pm

Raub famous kuih:

4,Bukit Koman,Raub27600,Pahang D.M.

Business hour：10：30am – 3pm

Telephone：012-7276236/017-3716236, call ahead as there are sometimes not open

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www.nanyang.com