Motormouth From Ipoh – A Malaysian Food Blog

Very down to earth motto printed on the menu, and the vibrant decor inside of Vnam Kitchen.

A new restaurant serving Vietnamese cuisine opened its door to the public recently in Ipoh, at the same spot occupied by the previous Soon Fatt Restaurant on Jalan Seenivasagam around Greentown. Click on the link for the post on the NEW Soon Fatt Restaurant.

Vnam Kitchen is in fact, owned and run by a couple who had been operating various stalls and outlets serving delectable and authentic Vietnamese cuisine in the Klang Valley, located in several food courts by the name of Vietnamese Cuisine.

Vietnamese Drip Coffee (RM4.50)

Since then, they’ve ’surrendered’ their premises in the Klang Valley to their sons, and subsequently moved to Ipoh and opened up a stall by the name of (what else?) Vietnamese Cuisine in Woolley Food City in Ipoh Garden.

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Banana Leaf Curry Rice – A luscious, complete meal. So is this Malaysian, Singaporean, or true-blue Indian?

Old Andersonian Club & Cafeteria serves authentic Moghul cuisine & Banana Leaf Rice, at the most unassuming location in Ipoh city. This cafeteria/canteen-like restaurant has been operating beside SMK Anderson (Anderson secondary school )on Jalan Hospital Ipoh for a good many years now. Facing the Sultan Iskandar roundabout connecting Jalan Hospital and Jalan Raja Musa Aziz, Old Andersonian Cafeteria is unlike your average spicier and robust South Indian eatery, but instead specializing on Moghul (North Indian) cuisine.

A classic of an outlet serving banana leaf curry rice. Notice the airy environment, with opened windows, shady trees at its own parking lot, and a spacious interior setting.

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You know, sometimes the simplest thing in life turns out to be a gem, something that you would remember all your life and cherish whenever that small mark/gesture of rendezvous sweeps upon you after a long, long hiatus.

Deft hands at work, tattoo-ed and all. And people won’t mind bracing the long wait standing around, admiring his work of art.

My love for food, the perpetual food-hunting excursions and my knack for robust-flavoured, spicy yet immensely satisfying foods probably stemmed from my childhood days. But more prominent was the 4 years I spent in the Pearl of the Orient, Penang island of Malaysia, whereby I developed a very strong affinity to delicious food, and gradually recognizing the myriad of flavours and sharpening my senses to all things gluttony.

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Hoong Tho Restaurant in Ipoh Old Town is a ‘Lau Zhi Hau’‘ (Chinese for traditional/trademark) Chinese diner that has been serving delicious noodle dishes, fish paste (yue wat), fried wantons (dumplings),  and such, for a good 4-5 decades now. Aside from the savouries, Hoong Tho is also famous for its own production of pastries and confectioneries eg. egg tarts, traditional biscuits, and of course, ‘milking the cow dry’ (so to speak); with its current promotion of various types of mooncakes, including some ‘funkier’ versions not found elsewhere. More on that at the end of the post.

Quaintly charming, Hoong Tho is but one of the few eateries in Ipoh that still preserve the pre-war nostalgic ambience, although supposedly, Hoong Tho started sometime in the 60’s. And their pickled green chillies is a good accompaniment to their noodles.

On the evening we patronized the restaurant, the place was packed with people from all over. Probably owing to the long Raya holidays, the locals as well as  the tourists from other states were flocking to the one-shoplot Chinese diner, with most customers eagerly anticipating their servings of the signature noodle dishes. Arriving early is almost compulsory on weekends and public holidays, for the restaurant may not be able to cater to the large capacity crowd. And to add salt to the wounds, the staff might be in a slightly foul mood when the orders run awry (which was evident on that evening, with darkened expressions and mumblings short of curse words!).

Crunchy and delightful fried wantons (dumplings) @ RM10 (BIG) served with Hoong Tho’s selfmade sweet, sour and spicy sauce

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One of the evergreen classic, an “Ipoh-only production” is the famous swiss rolls from JJ Cakes. I’ve wrote about JJ Cakes way back in May last year (JJ Cakes – Sweet Temptations), when they were still operating from the back of a paint shop. Yup, heard that right, a PAINT SHOP, on Jalan Tokong in Ipoh, directly opposite of Tow Boo Keong Temple in Pasir Puteh, Ipoh.

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