Motormouth From Ipoh – Malaysian Food & Travel

I never hide my slightly biased preference towards foods with an inherent kick; robust flavours playing over this jaded tastebud, laden with strong spices and infused with fragrance from a mix of herbs; possibly indigenous to a certain God-knows-where village.

Hence you won’t usually read about plain soupy noodles or porridge that much on this blog, in comparison to Indian cuisine or even Thai cuisine.

#1 – Thick, almost to a creamy extent Tom Yum with a tapered down spiciness; possibly to suit the local palates. Not the BEST out there, but definitely one of the better ones around. Unless you like your Tom Yum to be not as ‘murky’ and with a killer fiery kick.

And thus, almost immediately after the long CNY break, we ventured to Section 5 of PJ for this hidden gem of a authentic Thai restaurant. Or so I was informed.

The name Khunthai did ring a bell, and a glance over the menu justified my suspicion. This Khunthai and the one in Butterworth (read the post HERE) are one of the same; and they also have another branch in Kepong. So let’s see how this sweaty (we chose to be seated in the non-air conditioned seating area because one of us was too busy contributing to air pollution ….) experience worked out against the more established (and definitely  comes with a better ambience) Khunthai in Butterworth, Penang ….. Read the rest of this entry »

Famous Claypot Crab Tang Hoon (Glass vermicelli noodles/Bean thread noodles) – This pot is supposedly for TWO pax. But definitely more than enough, since the five of us were struggling to finish the two pots.

Rasa Lain Restaurant is definitely one of the most famous Chinese seafood restaurants in Ipoh; renowned for their crabs in claypot (served with either rice or ‘tang hoon‘), claypot cheese prawns (sinful enough?) and homemade fish balls the size of a golf ball.

Then Same Taste came along not long ago, and the storyline got convoluted somehow. Which one was the original “Tung Fun Hai” in Bercham?

And now ….. for the past year or so, Different Taste Restaurant arrived at the scene. A single shoplot located inconspicuously within some residential area a short distance away from the famous Shine Noodles (Bercham famous wan tan mee with prawn dumplings), the owner is the elder brother of Rasa Lain’s owner. And this man’s wife was previously at Same Taste.

Confused and tearing your hair out? Don’t be. For this, my dear readers ….. may just be the BEST among the three. Read on for the full review …. Read the rest of this entry »

Just like stepping into a time warp. Transported back into the late 70′s?

Had enough of Indulgence? Okay, here’s a short post on Hainan Chicken Rice in Ipoh. As awkward as this may sound, I believe this is my FIRST post on chicken rice in Ipoh. This, albeit the fact that Ipoh’s famous for “Nga Choy Kai” (Bean Sprouts Chicken), and there are actually more than a handful of good and popular chicken rice outlets in Ipoh.

On one hand we have the famous Rasa Sayang and Pak Gong on Jalan Theatre in town, next to the famous Eastern Wine. Then a short hop and skip away, you will find the double shoplots named Hainan Chicken Rice near to the perennial starlet of a stall serving Buntong beef noodles named Kedai Makanan dan Minuman Sri Maju.

So how come I have never heard of Hin Loong Hainan Chicken Rice, until DT mentioned about this place over at the All About Ipoh page? Read the rest of this entry »