There is more to eat in Ipoh than just chicken and beansprout

Ipoh starts really early when it comes to food and breakfast is. 

 I usually prefer not to have to get myself up and out for breakfast if I am travelling for leisure but there is no way you get to eat local breakfast if you don’t wake up before everything is out. It was challenging during the first couple of days trying to catch some worms but it wasn’t overly difficult to quickly adapt to Ipoh lifestyle.People are way to friendly and way too laid back, it is almost surreal and unbelievable to think that we all coexist in the same dimension within the same country. Central city life must have taken a chunk of patience off me, I was so easily impressed with such kindred spirits. Everyone I came in contact offered kindness and generosity it’s no wonder of this saying- “ipoh Mali tidak sombong”. I was able to blend in quickly for most part but it was with plenty of help and perseverance from my girlfriend. Playing the role of both my host and tour guide, Jasmine shared aplenty of Ipoh lifestyle and having the luxury to be staying in Ipoh for a long period of time, it has come to my attention and conclusion that Ipoh has so much more to offer than just chicken and beansprouts, and soya and beancurd. After a good understanding and personal encounterments throughout my stay in Ipoh, I’ve tasted much of the local favourites, along with their version of some of the foods we are all familiar with to be able to slowly understand why tourist only rave about the few mentioned earlier.

Digital age made it easy to plan ahead food stops so the rave pretty much came from earlier inputs with users then continuously repeating the same stops at every visit. Tourists come and go but not many actually really stroll to learn about the local food culture.  My stay was a really long one and I have come to learn that apart from chicken and beansprout, the locals love noodle meals. Thankfully, there is one that is open from evening onwards and without a doubt, I have this place bookmarked for my dinner in Ipoh.

Noodle variation in particular is unique mostly with the type of many stuffed ingredients that accompanied. Locals called this “liu fan”, a direct translation to ingredient noodle – quite similar to Teochew hee kiao combining with Hakka stuffed Yong tofu. I’m guessing this probably evolved from the rich reputation of quality soy, due to the rich natural resource of minerals from the abundance of limestones and caves. From stuffed tofu, it gets super creative with the “liu” and you are gonna be amazed with what these locals can do with it- think stuffed turnip (sorta). Anyway, it is a cleverly made of minced paste with turnip chunks rolled with Beancurd skin and cut into slices before deep frying. It would be wrong to call this yong tau foo, because if you tell the locals yong tau foo, believe me, you get yong tau foo. 

Most bloggers don’t get their facts before publishing and to their defence, it is after all a blog and they are free to say whatever they want. So if you are thinking if they are the same? Not the same despite the similarity. 

 

 

And for some reason, beef tendon soup is available and having tried some of the best one back when I was in Macau means having a high expectations  every time I see a similar serving . Packed with sweetness from the radish and have that cutting through the prevalent gamey from tendons, with collagen packed tenderness from the perfectly cooked tendons, I say it is even worthy to drop by this alone. 

 

 

Watch this appearing on vlog episode from Ipoh:

 

This I had it in a place operating from evening onwards, at where there’s opera singing classes within the approximate, so it really nice to eat and listen to them practice. And because they start in the evening, it’s so awesome (for me since I’m lousy with morning meals). Except, the variation isn’t as much as the one in Gunung Rapat, which of course starting their operations real early to cater the local lifestyle. The one in Gunung Rapat is apparently famous and is crazy massive when it comes to variety, but they’ll be out very quickly so I missed out on the variation but it’s worth highlighting how this is the lifestyle in Ipoh for the locals, and that tourists should be prepared to be accustomed to restaurant operating time.  Here is during when I visited. 

 

Kedai Kopi Kwong Hong 廣豐茶室 looking kinda lonely and empty only because we were super late!

 

Evening stop:

Kedai Makanan Dan Minuman Sri Mahkota

73;75, Jalan Theatre, Taman Jubilee, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak

012-516 5323

Daily 6:15pm- 11 pm, Sunday close

 

Morning stop

Kedai Kopi Kwong Hong 廣豐茶室

692, Jalan Gunung Rapat, Taman Rapat Setia, 31350 Ipoh

 

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