Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Golden hues of yellow; wobbly and velvety smooth egg custard baked within a layer of crisp pastry. Looks like the average egg tarts sold by the streets. But this was definitely a cut above the rest. Egg Tart @ Tai Tong Dim Sum Restaurant.

Let’s take a break from the monotony of the posts. Let’s travel way up north to Penang; a delightful city where this Motormouth learned the curve in differentiating good food from GREAT food, and street fares extending beyond the “Kai See Hor Fun“, “Hor Hee” and white coffee of Ipoh. (if you can’t wait, then browse through THIS Penang Food List for more droolworthy delights from up north).

Tai Tong Dim Sum was one of my most favourite place to eat during dinner hours when we were around town. A short walk away from Prangin Mall/Komtar, this might be one of the very few places that serve dim sum not only for breakfast, but for dinner as well.

Don’t get distracted by the empty chairs. This was barely 6pm. An hour or so later, guaran-damn-teed this place would be swarmed like the Foh San and Ming Court in Ipoh.

I wrote once on the egg tarts from the cake shop a few doors away; named Ng Kee. The shop’s good for their other biscuits too, especially their signature pepper biscuits. But since they run out of egg tarts pretty fast, don’t fret. Go to Tai Tong, park your fatigued backside and order away.

Just don’t come too early. Dim sum from 6pm and beyond, preferably to come at 6.30pm++. Or you can settle for some noodles, or even rice with dishes if you fancy a little bit of everything.

But for me, ONLY the dim sum here will make the cut.  Nothing else matters. Just reminded me of the good old times we spent in Penang, before Queensbay Mall completely stole the thunder from Prangin Mall (it’s a half dead mall now, sad to say).

Bottom left : The Shanghai style of Xiao Long Bao in a fluffy bun dough was good. Moist, juicy and tasty.

Large morsels of prawn dumplings aka Har Gau; a compulsory order at any dim sum outlets. For myself, of course. I prefer Har Gau to Siew Mai … but that’s just me. However, Tai Tong’s version paled in comparison to the better ones in Ipoh. The skin being slightly too thick and you can actually taste the flour in these plump darlings.

Savoury glutinous rice with chicken and mushroom; Lor Mai Gai. Damn good, with a misleading appearance. I almost wanted to pass this on, judging from the rather mediocre aesthetics. Thank goodness I did not. Separated grains with a toothsome bite; but not to the extent of being sticky and chewy. Just perfect texture.

So I might be biased. Since I honed my dim sum eating skills here more than I actually have eaten in any of the dim sum outlets in Ipoh. Seriously. Told you that I was not much of a food hunter back in those days when I was in Ipoh. Much like how you wouldn’t know most of your hometown delights back in your younger days, unless you or your dad’s a blogger. 🙂

We felt like children here. We couldn’t have been any younger than the staff or the other patrons here. But that’s the charm of this place. Like how the old Foh San was still her old self, in the presence of colonial charm in the former premise.

I still will come back again and again to Tai Tong. Even when I have tasted much better dim sum elsewhere (and I have), or the fact that I have to park a street or two away and walk over. I will even bring friends, out-of-towners (like myself), family or even strangers to Tai Tong for their dim sum. … Yes, strangers like you.

For this place means more to me, more than you could ever imagine …

Foo Heong Restaurant – A stone’s throw away; another one of those classic dim sum eateries along the same street named Cintra Street.

And don’t think that this place serves only old folks (like myself) and the locals ….

*This visit was not from my USM days, no worries. Not that ancient. But instead, this dinner happened about a month ago when I was up north for work, right after the Gold Coast excursion.

De Tai Tong Dim Sum Restaurant
45, Lebuh Cintra,
Georgetown 10100, Penang, Malaysia.
Tel: 04-263 6625
Dim sum only available for breakfast and dinner (after 6pm).
For lunch, they serve noodles/rice and dishes.

** Some other posts on Tai Tong – Penang Food Galore, bear-bee.foodstop,  Babe_KL, Food 4 Thot,