Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

Hard at work; the ladies of Foo Kwai’s curry mee stall in a buzz of activities in the mornings. Just don’t go in a severely famished state. The wait can be slightly daunting. We waited a good 30 minutes.

Ahhh…. to be back in good old IPOH for the long weekend (thank you PM?). Breakfast in Ipoh is a delightful endeavour; almost the most important meal of the day. If you’re not fond of the humongous crowd at the dim sum restaurants around Ipoh (it’s mad on a weekend’s morning, so be warned), then you can choose from the many other selection of hawker fares.

Dry Curry Mee with Homemade Char Siew (barbecued pork slices) at Foo Kwai @ Bercham

For me, a good breakfast in Ipoh is constituted from either a toast, eggs and WHITE coffee combination, OR a noodles affair with various accompanying sides eg. stuffed fish paste (yong tau foo or yong liew). And the list of GOOD places for ‘yue dan fun’ or fish ball noodles (literally) in Ipoh spans long and far. Scattered all around Ipoh, you can actually find hidden gems in exclusive residential areas unknown to the outside community, but with a strong fanbase formed from the local community and the random epicureans willing to travel far and wide for a gastronomic sensation.

And Foo Kwai in Bercham might just be one of them …. Read the rest of this entry »

A splendid spread of a fish ball noodles and various stuffed items for breakfast at Ah Koong Eating House in Pudu of Kuala Lumpur. Good enough to give some of Ipoh’s better ones a run for their money, really.

And so, let’s backtrack slightly and see what I ate when I was in the process of relocating to KL. We were staying in a fairly new business lodge named Leisure Inn on Jalan Changkat Thambi Dollah somewhere behind of Times Square (more information in a later post), hence naturally the foodie instincts kicked in as soon as we ventured across the same road; laden with eateries bearing the most authentic of Chinese names and cuisines. I actually did a review on Dong Bei; a restaurant that specializes in Beijing-style of cuisine.

Pick your noodles, your seafood (look at those fresh large prawns and even oysters!), fish cakes, stuffed fish paste (yong tau foo) and much more …..

Ah Koong Eating House is only a hop and a skip away from Leisure Inn (though I wouldn’t recommend for you to be hopping around like mad). We had our breakfast there one morning, since the whole Pudu area seemed to be slightly desolated …. maybe you can find good street eats around the corner on Jalan Pudu/Jalan Sayor (or whatever) but we settled for this since the eatery was already half-crowded that early on a Sunday morning.

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Why oh why, was this named “Kam Chau Fun” aka Golden Char Kuey Teow?

Maybe because of the gorgeously wet and creamy egg oozing juices seated on top of the pile of fried noodles? OR the fact that a serving of a minimal handful of noodles with two shrimps cost RM3.50/USD1.20 per plate?

Hard to say, but ask anyone about this famous ‘kam chau fun’ of old town in Ipoh, and chances are people would be torn in between. One might sing praises for the skilfully fried combination of kuey teow (flat rice noodles) and yellow mee, slightly charred from the intense frying process (it’s a skill shared by the presumably-father and son duo) then topped with the signature egg omelette with a brilliant, golden hue.

While the other person might scorn for the pathetic serving of a Char Kuey Teow (CKT) cost that much for two mouthfuls. Read on to find out more …… Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s take a walk down memory lane. This stall, housed in such an inconspicuous manner deep in the middle of Pasir Pinji wet market had always been a family’s favourite haunt back in the 90’s. Or maybe late 80’s? I can’t be sure, for when we were still residents around the Pasir Puteh area, we used to eat the fish ball noodles (also known as ‘kap liew’ or ‘liew fun’ to us Ipohans) here on a weekly basis.

When pigging out like mad won’t cost you a bomb, an arm, or a leg. Every piece of ‘yong liew’ (more popular known as Yong tau Foo in the other states) is priced at 40-45 cents each.

Back then, I never paid much attention to the stray kittens and puppies circling under our table. Nor the slight stench from the day’s offerings sold at the wet market; and the random pest or two.

Only one stall was operating then; this same “Yee Jie” (translated to Second Elder Sister) stall is surprisingly still up and running. And the allure of tucking in into a bowl of soupy goodness with a myriad of stuffed fish paste as sides proves to be evergreen.

The “Yee Jie” hard at work. A family business this one, the third generation of youngsters already knee deep in assisting the operations.

Read on to find out more about this past favourite of Motormouth’s, and how such a simple fare can attract the crowd to a dilapidated wet market at night ….. Read the rest of this entry »

Nam Fatt Fish Ball Noodle House Restaurant has been gracing the Ipoh’s street food scene for a respectable period of 24 years. Almost a quarter of a century’s old, which has since seen their  transformation from a simple fish ball noodle stall to a fully air-conditioned restaurant, while still maintaining the quality of their food.

But of course, don’t go comparing the prices to the usual hawker fares, most notably the famous Big Tree Foot (Dai Shu Geok)‘s Fried Liew (aka Stuffed fish paste) which is ironically, a stone’s throw away.

“Hello, Hello baby you called I can’t hear a thing …..”

But the extensive menu with clear shots of the food, ranging from noodles and rice with beef stews, claypot beef soup, an astonishing array of Yong Tau Foo, or as we used to call them, Yong Liew, and even curry noodles with roast pork, noodles with grouper slices, and so forth. Trust me, if you’re eating here alone or with just another companion, gluttony and greed might just strike and you’d end up with extra servings to be taken away (‘tapau‘). Really.

For we ourselves fell for their trickery, and ended up with more than we could finished off !!!

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