Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel

Canning Garden Chee Cheong Fun uncle, now pleasantly serving you at Ipoh Central Cafe on Cowan Street-Leong Sin Nam Street.

After a good 3+ years of writing stories on the good eats from Ipoh, you’d be hard-pressed not to get the impression that I have eaten everything Ipoh had to offer, and then some. The ‘some’ in this case, might bluntly refer to cafes/bistros piloting the resurgence of interest in kopitiams (albeit modernized), hawker stalls that left in a hurried manner reflecting the speed of how they sprouted out of nowhere, and one-hit wonders aka eateries that capitalize on the latest trend, then faded off into oblivion.

Ipoh style of Chee Cheong Fun with a mix of chili and sweet sauce; sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds, and garnished with fried shallots.

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Still reeling from the shocking revelation yesterday, woke up craving instead for something much more substantial; a chunky-loaded pizza with an overflow of ingredients like salami, Italian sausages, olives and an overkill of cheese would be ideal.

This Chicago-style pizza is a remnant of the original version aptly named Deep Dish Pizza, and looking at the shots featured in this article on Wikipedia, it’s hard to ignore why.

Michelangelo’s Pizzeria strives to rework this concept, bringing this gargantuan of a sinful creation to Ipoh with a slight adaptation; they do away with the deep dish concept; of a bowl-like structure ‘stuffed’ with ingredients.

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Lamb Bacon Bruschetta – Crisp and savoury lamb bacon with a briny tinge; with ratatouille and crumbled feta cheese on toasted sourdough bread.

13th Sept 2011 : “If I have to summarize today in three words, let them be …  Hectic. Rambunctious and Beautiful.”

14th Sept 2011 : And then the words stopped flowing. All of a sudden what was supposed to be one of my finest days in ages turned out to be a misplaced hope. Like shattered dreams, my world took a drastic downward spiral … crashing back down to earth. Or maybe 6 feet under.

I paused in the midst of that sentence, and left this draft in the lurch.

Oh sunny skies, endless greens and gentle breeze …. how I missed thee ….

The time spent away from the office was at least … mildly consoling. Like how a child’s pitiful tears might not get him an ice-cream, yet a handful of sweets would do just fine. After all, life’s not always so rosy ….

So happened I will be spending the remainder of my weekdays in a golf resort here in Klang Valley. And no, lest you think this Motormouth has gone all ‘atas’ (premium. high class. snobbish), this is for WORK.

For tonight’s story, I’ll take you back to Meru Valley Golf Resort in Jelapang, Ipoh …. and discover this new and reclusive gourmet deli named Allegra.

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Terrific springy egg noodles without a trace of ‘kan sui’ (lye water/alkaline water); served atop a bed of crunchy ‘choy sum’, and lightly flavoured with a savoury ensemble of sauces.

One glance at the title of this post, and you’d be tempted to think that Motormouth has gone bonkers.

No, seriously, was down and out since Friday, after that disastrous lunch of bak kut teh infused with too much MSG. Either that herbal concoction or the vinegar pork trotters which was splendid flavoursome. But I shall never return again … unless necessary.

Amidst the extremely chaotic environment (running out of wantan by 930am, anyone?), this guy and presumably; his wife were a cool duo. Even catering to silly questions from these new customers of theirs.

There was this morning during the long Raya-Merdeka break, when we decided to have breakfast. But of course, Ipoh being swarmed from all corners of the country; it’s a no-brainer that you shall not go to places that are perennial favourites of tourists (eg. the white coffee outlets, the dim sum street, etc).

Thus, we opted for what we thought was a slightly off-beat choice. Comeson Restaurant (Kam San in Cantonese) opposite of Lou Wong and Onn Kee for their wantan mee. A relatively safe choice? Don’t bet your life on it.

Barely 9.30am, and they have run out of ‘char siew’ (BBQ pork) and wantan (pork dumplings) ….. Read the rest of this entry »

Ipoh famous Hakka-style yong tau foo (also fondly referred to as ‘yong liew’ aka stuffed ingredients), served with hakka mee, curry noodles or even laksa @ Wok With Kim (Yee Tan Kow Fishball Noodles)

You know, it’s funny. When you think about it, there’s no other place that serves ‘liew fun’ (loosely recognized as fishball noodles; though essentially the ensemble comprises of more than just fishballs) just like the version in Ipoh.

You may think that the combination is a no-brainer; noodles with various ingredients (usually vegetables) stuffed fish and/or pork paste as sides, taken usually at the earliest hours of the day.

But then again, I could not find one of similar nature in Penang. Okay, so up north they do have yong tau foo (YTF), but usually served with rice, or yam rice. Initially, I was stunned to find that they don’t have curry mee, ‘kon low lou shu fun’ (silver needle noodles/rat’s tail noodles tossed in a dark, savoury soy sauce-based gravy with minced meat), or even laksa to go along with the boiled/deep-fried pieces of YTF.

In KL, we do have a few good YTF places (Puchong’s being one of my favourite, while the one on Lorong Peel has this very authentic aura to its core), yet nothing that resembles Ipoh’s ‘liew fun’ combination.

Thus for today, let’s drool over this famous outlet on Yang Kalsom Road, that has been there for as long as I can remember …..   Read the rest of this entry »

Ching Han Guan’s one-and-only Teochew Walnut Mooncake; a much healthier option with considerably less sweet

In the blink of an eye, the long Raya-Merdeka break has come to an end. Can’t deny that I am still suffering the post-holiday blues, though mine has ended prematurely last Friday when I managed to drag this carcass of a soulless body to work.

But hey, not all’s gloomy though. We still have Malaysia Day on the 16th this month (a most alluring 3 days weekend again, though I’ll be ‘working’ on that Friday ….), and Deepavali’s right around the corner.

Okay, so it’s more than a month’s away, but still …. there’s hope in wishful thinking ya?

If you have visited the malls lately, there has been an increase in festive decorations; a multitude of confused elements combining Hari Raya, Merdeka and Mid-Autumn Festival all into one.

If you have read last year’s post on the same theme, you would have noticed that I favour the more traditional mooncakes (by that, I don’t mean even the perfectly shaped, glossy lotus paste with salted egg yolk) than the modernized version with funky flavours like durian, cheese and chocolate.

And where else but this 62 year-old establishment named Ching Han Guan; for the best of traditional mooncakes? Read the rest of this entry »

Glistening, caramelized and crispy skin; basked in a honey sauce that’s made from a secret recipe since 1986. The chicken is deep fried instead of grilled or roasted. To my surprise.

And it’s Friday! Haha …. barely set my mind to work and off we go on another two days of deserving rest! Don’t you just LOVE Malaysia and the declared and impromptu public holidays?

Although I was hankering for a few more days of lazing around in good old Ipoh; eating at my favourite food joints, mingling with the legends of Ipoh’s street food and growing horizontally effortlessly from the abundance of caloric-laden fares, work took precedence and here I am recuperating from the long holidays that went by in a flash.

Enough with the temptations already you said? Oh no. We have barely scratched the surface. A teaser of a post to tantalize your well-trained mind/diet into the weekend; let’s hear it for Menglembu’s famous stretch of glutton street aka ‘wai sek kai’.

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