Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel

“Ngap Kiok Pau” (Duck Feet Wrap) – An aged uncle comes equipped with sharp retaliation and witty remarks; plus those menacing eye brows are enough to send shivers down one’s spine. And what has he got up his sleeve; that has withstood almost a century (!) of legacy?

You must have noticed the discouragingly apparent hiatus between posts. Yup, folks …. I am back to work, after being ridiculously pampered with repeated long weekends and the festive season weighing down on this already crazed mind. I mean, what can a glutton do in Ipoh, aside from eating and subsequently sleeping the sluggishness off?

Before I proceed with elaborately tedious grandfather stories (ad nauseam), allow me to draft this very mindless indulgence of mine; one jaunty street food post for the weekend. Read on, please.

We got a nutritious Green Potion, a refreshing Wobbly Yellow Jelly, and a weird combination that proved to be so delicious yet … takes some courage to sink one’s teeth in.

It has become part of the routine; that whenever I am back in Ipoh, be it due to an extended weekend, public holidays, for work purposes, or even the casual, no-nonsense homecoming saga, I have always made it a point to visit ONE hawker stall at the very least.

Anyway, this blog was born from the good intention of spreading the love for Ipoh street food rather than positioning my beloved hometown as the next hub for fine cuisines. (But I believe that we are in the process of getting there ….. and who knows someday, our humble ‘nga choy’/bean sprouts can be part of haute cuisine!)

Black, tarry and sticky liquid liberally sprinkled with crushed peanuts; coating pieces of juicy, fresh fruits, prawn crackers, etc.

Hawker centres in Ipoh are not few and far in between. I mean, even the common coffee shops have extended their business to include an ‘al fresco’ seating area ala mamak style, or buying up the adjacent lot, AND the lot next to that. Food courts with more than 10 stalls are more common nowadays; lending options to the discerning (read : picky) eaters in Ipoh who’s constantly seeking for new places to try yet conventionally sticking back to the good old stuff.

Tried, tested and proved to be highly tenacious hawker stalls that have stood the test of time and brushed off competitors and the threats of commercialization/modernization.

The BEST spots to hunt for delicious grubs still remain to be those hygiene-compromised corners and under-the-trees establishments, usually manned by grumpy owners who don’t give a damn about paparazzi or pesky bloggers (hehe).

If you feel like having something nutritious for a change, come to this stall. You will start to question why on earth did you make that pledge anyway…..

There are plenty of examples. I daresay that by the time you finished running through THIS LIST, you must have recognized at least a few, or heard about them from friends, peers or even the media.

Yeah, the media … how proud to be viewing these unnamed, under-rated stalls to be featured on mainstream media? Partly.

I still miss the times when I could walk over casually to the Chee Cheong Fun legend in Pasir Pinji, and gotten myself a plate of CCF and finished my serving on the spot within half an hour.

Try achieving that impossible dream now.

Crispy, terrifying creation of fried chicken SKIN without any nutrition whatsoever. Empty calories? You bet. But can you blame us for trying?

And here we are at the end of today’s post. Man ..I tell you, I can REALLY ramble and rant my way; bulldozing through without a care of what the outcome of my post really is.

I  desperately need to collect my thoughts and put them into a politically-correct, grammatically-perfect and poetically-sound review again one of these days.

But then again ….. that’s not really Motormouth, ain’t it?

“Happy Weekend, and Don’t Count Your Calories. You’d Die Trying.”

**Stalls featured in this post are located at Tong Sui Kai (Desserts/Glutton Street) @ Ipoh. Full review with address and map HERE>>>
**I missed Cheong Kee beef noodles (stall no 47), as they were closed on that Sunday, maybe because of CNY. All the other stalls open from evening until late night, with different off-days.