Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

“Lou Mei” – Sounding a tad too vulgar to be a vegetarian dish, this platter of mixed braised ingredients (dominantly soybean-based products with a flour-y finish) appears only ONCE a year. During the Nine Emperor Gods’ Festival (9 Wong Yeh Dan).

From the title alone, I guess you might have a very rough idea on where this is going.

Yup, another one of those infamous Motormouthing sessions. On a sunny Friday peppered with rainfall in certain areas in the Klang Valley. And me here hibernating at home with an almighty MC to approve of this additional/unofficial rest day.

Since started working almost half a century’s ago (hehe, felt like that … really), I have NEVER taken an MC from a private practitioner. Nope, seriously. Zero, zilch, nil.

Not bragging, since I’d rather used up a day of EL (emergency leave), than searching frantically for a clinic in the neighbourhood (and since moving to KL, my directions have all been haywire), register myself at the premise then wait obediently with a mild sickness while observing my surrounding populated by …. equally sick people.

Or worse, terribly sick ones.

Assam ‘Fish’; doused in a very tangy gravy tasted nothing unlike the usual assam fish, but more to the broth for assam laksa. The sheer sourness paired up well with the slightly spicy base, and the abundance of julienned cucumber, bits of finely-chopped shiitake mushrooms, mint leaves and bits of distinctive torch ginger buds (bunga kantan) lent even more weight to the resemblance to assam laksa.

But today was different. Since for some reasons, I am already left with zero AL (annual leave) this year. Thus, no more EL for me since EL means unpaid leave. And I still have to feed this four stomachs of mine. 🙂

Furthermore, left with no medications on my own, I was enticed to grab some (okay, supplied ethically with some) from the clinic nearby.

To cut a potentially 1000 words story short, I was the first patient this morning at the clinic manned by this Indian doctor probably in his late 40’s, and the counter handled by his wife. Registering myself as a 1st time patient was not hard, since she asked close to zero question. Merely copying all details from my IC (identity card) and did not even bother to write the full address.

I could be just another one of those “MC-bidders” for all she cared.

At least, that was what I thought should be playing in her head.

Yam Basket; or ‘Fatt Poot’ is usually the first dish to be served during celebratory dinners in restaurants, though the lure of eating deep-fried yam housing a myriad of stir-fried ingredients (most notably, crunchy water chestnut, carrot, peas and sometimes chicken cubes) has been dwindling in recent years. Not as ‘classy’ to start off a wedding dinner with something so sinful eh?

The session lasted all but … 10 minutes. And that included the wasted minutes of me seated there staring at the bleak darkness of the surroundings.

Yes, there was a power trip just after he took my temperature. Too hot to handle? Nah ….

I requested for my temperature to be taken, albeit his reluctant initiative. I mean, there I was … presented with coughs, sore throat and general malaise, yet he was adamant on NOT taking my temperature.

Either disposable thermometers are priced like premium commodities now, or he believed me when I said I was not feverish this morning. But what if I was carrying a virus that’s far more deadly than the one in Contagion?!

Stir-fried Sweet Potato Leaves – When you’re out of idea on what to order at a vegetarian restaurant, order some VEGETABLES. That’s the main purpose of eating at one, isn’t it?

Anyway, got myself some antibiotics, cough syrup, something for the phlegm, paracetamol for my potential fever and steroid (prednisolone) for the coarse voice/inflamed tonsils.

Yup, I don’t know what’s happening these days, but seemingly steroids have been prescribed and dispensed by healthcare professionals like nobody’s business. GP’s and pharmacists alike.

Geez, you don’t have to take steroids for mild inflammation or sore throat okay?!

Yeah, they work. Like miracle drugs. But just read up on the adverse effects profile of steroids, and the potentially chronic detrimental effects of relying too much on them. There ARE alternatives. Just ask for them.

Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be a REVIEW? More or less. But when Motormouth’s in NO position to pour his passion of eating into the writings, things just don’t come together as cohesively. Sorry.

Oh, in case you’re wondering why the ramblings and how could they be related to Chuk Lum Restaurant; one of the pioneer vegetarian restaurants in Ipoh?

They’re not.

As incoherent as I am in my current state of mind; a woozy swirl after the narcoleptic effect of my cough syrup, I just remembered that this might happened to be most Ipohans’ favourite vegetarian outlet in Ipoh. Aside from Sin Meng Kee, but that’s not in the same league since the latter serves economy rice more than anything else.

Remember the recent post on JJ Cakes & Swiss Rolls? Chuk Lum is a few doors away from that, and if you know where Fairmont Hotel/Honda showroom is, on Jalan Kampar (Jalan Raja Permaisuri Bainun), then you can see Chuk Lum about 30 metres away.

CHUK LUM VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT
42, Jalan Chung Thye Phin,
30250 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Tel No : +605-255 8169
Business hours : 11.45am-3.00pm, 6-10pm.
Closed on Mondays.

*For now … allow me to rest up before the eating starts again this weekend. Damn I could use a long vacation …..