Sorry for the delay on Part 3 of the amazing Ipoh trip. I just got back from an 8-day trip in Indonesia and Bangkok for work again, where as usual I suffer severe internet deprivation (I’m seriously wondering if I should invest in a Blackberry now…). Although I did get to spend the weekend in Bangkok and visit a couple of places, as well as come down with another bout of food poisoning where I threw up in somewhere in Chatuchak market. Hmmm, wonderful way to start a post about food, eh? But I’ll save that wonderful experience for another post.
So the one thing famous about Ipoh which every true blue Malaysian Chinese should know is the food. Not, to be discriminatory or anything, it’s just that the only thing my family ever does eat in Ipoh is the Chinese food and far as I know or care, there’s no other type of food in Ipoh. :P And the first place my parents also zeroes into once we reach Ipoh is this really old school place called Restaurant Tuck Kee, along Jalan Yau Tet Shin at New Town, Ipoh. Unfortunately if you were to ask me how to get there I wouldn't have a clue coz' my dad always does all the driving around in Ipoh and I just sit in the car, usually asleep or half asleep. So if you wanna try the place, have plenty of time on your hands and feeling adventurous, you could take a road trip and drive around Ipoh town til you find it. If it makes it easier, the restaurant looks like this:
However, be warned that there is another restaurant along the same road with the same name, apparently a spin-off of this one, but since it’s not the 'original shop', we never go there. Coz' you know... if it ain't original, it ain't good, or at least that's the general consensus. Just remember the original shop is on the left of the unoriginal shop, and you should be fine.
Once here, we only order the same dishes, which are Fried Kuey Teow, Fried Mee Hoon and ‘Wa Tan Hor’ (flat rice noodles in egg soup), and sometimes bean sprouts, but we skipped that this time round.
Hmmm… Just looking at the pics makes me start hankering for this stuff. And if you’re thinking it all looks really greasy and unhealthy, well, IT IS. It’s all fried in a very un-healthy and un-halal amount of pig’s lard to make it taste like no other fried noodles I’ve ever tasted. Yum! Plus the flat rice noodles (kuey teow) are really nice and smooth, which makes it better. Not something you eat on a regular basis unless you don’t mind looking like the State Puff Marshmallow Man. Nevertheless, taste-wise, I think no other fried noodles in KL, Malaysia or the whole world can compare to this. *Drool!* And of course, my whole family loves it, so much that my brother had to give his 'I'm-so-full-of-good-but-unhealthy-food' look.
Somehow or another that also looks like a 'I-really-need-to-use-the-bathroom' look. Ah well, he enjoyed the food, that's the main thing.
Another unavoidable stop on our ‘makan’ trip is Ipoh’s famous Chee Cheong Fun, which in English would be something like flat rice noodles topped with any kind of sauce, although common sauces used are chilli sauce, soy sauce, sweet sauce or mushroom sauce. Now there are several places in Ipoh that sell really good Chee Cheong Fun, one of which is from another old school shop, quite near to Restorant Tuck Kee, sold by this Chinese lady who recognizes my family even after all these years, coz’ we used to visit her stall often. Here she is, chopping up the Chee Cheong Fun, which initially is made as sheets of flat rice, to make the shape of flat noodles (any self-respecting Chinese would know this, of course, but just in case you’re not one. :) ).
My dad also took us to this other Chee Cheong Fun shop, which is actually the owner’s house, where her noodles sell so well, we has to take orders in advance and then the person ordering can only collect it 2 or 3 hours later. Just goes to show how crazy Ipoh people are about their Chee Cheong Fun! Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic of this other place, and even worse, I forgot to take a pic of the Chee Cheong Fun itself before wolfing it down. But Ipoh Chee Cheong Fun is so famous, that pretty much anywhere you find it, I’m sure it’ll be good.
The next place we visited this trip was one we don’t really consider compulsory but of course the food is still good – meatball and fishball noodles. We actually ate this right after we had our Chee Cheong Fun for breakfast (just so we could get a taste of everything!). So here’s the dingy looking shop where we ate:
Another important thing is Ipoh is... never doubt the dingy looking shops. They usually sell the best food. Perhaps not the cleanest, but the best. And here are the owners of the meatball noodle stall doing their thing.
We came a bit late, so the amount of meatballs and fishballs left wasn’t much, but thankfully there was still enough for us.
The meatballs and fishballs are all homemade, so they have a bit of a weird shape as opposed to processed ones, but of course they taste much better than processed ones.
Another place we went to, but again I committed the cardinal sin of forgetting to photograph the food, is this rather famous chicken rice shop called Lou Wong Beansprout and Chicken, which is also just down the street from Restaurant Tuck Kee (everything’s located so conveniently close to each other, you could have a whole day ‘makan trip’ right there in that small part of new Ipoh town. :) ). The shop not only serves chicken rice, but also pork balls, beansprouts and noodles (and God knows some other stuff we didn’t order). And as you would expect, everything there tastes awesome too. As with most chicken rice shops, you can choose between roasted chicken and white chicken… we went for the latter and the white chicken was juicy and tender. The pork balls came in a pretty generous helping, and since I’m totally in love with pork balls, I wasted no time in wolfing that down too. Man, I can’t believe I forgot to take photos!
So after enjoying enough of good Ipoh to last us… a while, my family decided on our last day there that we ought to give our tummies a break and eat something healthy for a change. So while hanging out at Jusco Ipoh, my dad bought some ‘jambu merah’ and ‘lo hong ka’ drinks. Unfortunately I don’t know what the English name for ‘jambu merah’, but the ones we bought tasted kinda like apples, but softer, and were juicy and sweet (even the fruits in Ipoh taste wonderful!)… and they looked like this.
‘Lo Hong Ka’ is a Chinese name for Aloe Vera drink (or at least, that’s my deduction coz’ that’s what it read on the bottle label). I don’t usually drink this kind of traditional stuff, but was pleasantly surprised to find the drink was naturally sweet and refreshing.
And with that, we ended our amazing Ipoh trip, enjoying some healthy food on the drive back home to Subang. I made myself go on a oil-free diet for a few days after that, but it was well worth it.
You 'Lo Hong Ka' makers owe me for free advertising!
The Amazing Ipoh Trip - Part 3 (FOOD Glorious Food!)
Sign says "Littering is prohibited. Fine RM500.00". I saw this in Ipoh during my amazing Ipoh trip, and it goes to show that people in Ipoh don't seem to be able to read Malay very well.... or it could've been opposites day!
Leashes for kids! I'm torn between thinking this is some form of cruelty to kids and that it's a most brilliant idea. Well, I did notice this kid was particularly active and couldn't stop running and jumping around (I'm quite sure she would've jumped over the railing if not for the leash) so to the parents, I can't blame them and I wish them good luck.
If your bananas aren't big or hard enough, you could just always go back to the supermarket and complain to the manager for a refund.... 0 :-)
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