Twin Sisters Food Stall @ Jalan Ali Pitchay, Ipoh – Curry Mee & Fried ‘Liew’
September 25, 2010 | 7,710 views
One half of the famous Twin Sisters curry mee on Jalan Ali Pitchay in Ipoh – Still as elegant and energetic as ever in their golden years …..
Let’s do a breakfast post today. Since tomorrow’s a Sunday, and most (I hope all) of you will be off from work, and seeking to start the day with a brilliant breakfast with family members.
Unsurprisingly, the dim sum restaurants around Ipoh will be swarmed like bees to the honey, shopaholics to a mega sale or even politicians to the allure of money voters. 🙂
Rolls of fish paste covered with beancurd sheets (foo chook) deep fried to a crunchy finish.
If you are around town area and the prospect of waiting for a table AND possibly facing the wrath of the staff at Xin Quan Fang (that legendary “Ma Ta Liu”/police station’s curry mee on Hugh Low Street) sounds unforgiving, no sweat.
A hop and a skip away (though you have to skip backwards, or go one big round for Hugh Low Street /Jalan Sultan Iskandar is a one way street) you will find an equally as long-standing curry mee specialist, yet not as notorious for the attitude and hogged by the media or guide books – Twin Sisters Food Stall on Jalan Ali Pitchay.
The fried “liew’s” are Twin Sisters’ forte, some people even prefer to take away the fried goodies to be consumed at home instead of waiting for their noodles at the premise.
I have heard about this food stall (a cross between a hawker stall and a restaurant, I suppose?) manned by a pair of identical twin sisters since my parents’ era. Back then, they were operating from under the shades of the trees, a street away from the current location. Can anybody confirm this?
The shop is occupied only by this noodle stall; and come weekends you can see hordes of people seated inside the shop slurping on their noodles and crunching on their pieces of stuffed fish paste deep-fried to a greasy yet utterly satisfying finish. But rest assured that you often don’t have to scramble for a vacant seat, nor stand around looming over the others like a hungry vulture. Unless the festivities, maybe.
A bowl of curry mee not laden with ‘santan’ (coconut milk), and loaded with bean sprouts. This IS Ipoh after all …. the home of fat, juicy and crunchy bean sprouts!
How to order your noodles and side dishes? Now at Twin Sisters Food Stall, you don’t do the usual pick your choice of liew‘s and noodles, then sit down and wait to be served. Nor you expect to be attended to the instant you’ve found a vacant table.
Firstly, the people cooking and serving your food are the same people who make your drinks. So you usually have to wait until the man is freed from his duty of serving the food to other patrons, before you can even order your drinks. Generally, this may come to about 5-10 minutes of waiting time.
Secondly, you can go over to the counter in front of the shop and pick up a pair of tongs (not thongs, okay …) to pick your favourite liew’s. And oh yeah, the liew’s here are smaller than the ones from the usual fish ball noodles stalls. Even more so if put side to side with a piece of yong liew from Big Tree Foot.
A plate of dry curry rice vermicelli noodles, but without ample ladles of curry gravy; making this more like a ‘Kon Lou’ version than a dry curry version.
Thirdly, you DO NOT order your noodles at the counter. No. This was a mistake we made, standing around holding our bowls of liew’s. Instead, you’re supposed to sit down and wait for them to come over and ask what noodles you want, when it’s turn for your liew’s to be served.
Notice that even the pieces of stuffed brinjals/aubergines and bitter gourds were fried prior to being dunked in the soup.
Anyway, our order was jumbled up, with dry curry becoming curry soup, and wrong type of noodles was served instead of the type chosen. We did not argue however, as the almost 30 minutes wait was testing enough.
The noodles; be it the curry, dry curry or the usual ‘kon lou’ (tossed with soy sauce and dark soy sauce) were nothing spectacular. Maybe I am used to Nam Chau‘s version of very rich and redolent with spices dry curry paste, that I find it a half-hearted affair when curry noodle stalls serve me with a plate of dominantly soy sauce-based gravy with a mere spoonful of curry.
So small, that one person can down 10-20 pieces of these at one sitting.
But don’t miss their famous fried liew’s, especially the crispy deep-fried rolls of foo chook and the fried meat balls with a toothsome bite. Very addictive, yet so petite in size that you have to order at least 8 pieces of them to be fully satiated. And they don’t come cheap, mind you. 50-60 cents (about USD0.20) each.
Small as they may be, but how can you resist the varieties of fried “liew’s” here?
If you have not read or heard about this place, would you have stepped in?
Anyway, the meal came to about RM7.00/USD2.30 per person, slightly pricier than the average fish ball noodle eateries, but you’re paying for a slice of legacy. And I seriously wonder what will become to this food stall once the twin sisters decide to call it a day.
So people, let’s not forsake the traditional and authentic street foods of Ipoh in exchange for the glitzier and commercialized counterparts. Yes, this type of places may not be able to provide you with the comfort of free Wifi services, air-conditioning or even the simple pleasure of browsing through a menu.
But the sheer delight of eating the same variety of quality hawker fares that your parents, or even grandparents were salivating upon back in the days, makes it all so worthy of a visit.
TWIN SISTERS FOOD STALL
No 12, Jalan Ali Pitchay,
30250 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
Business hours : about 9am until 12pm or when the food runs out.
Off days not fixed.
GPS Coordinates : E101 5′ 8.6″ N4 35′ 28.9″
Google Map to Twin Sisters Food Stall
[…] Twin Sisters Food Stall @ Jalan Ali Pitchay, Ipoh – Curry Mee & Fried "Liew" | Motormouth From I… says: September 25, 2010 at 6:25 pm […]
Go during weekdays, not so many people..but then we are working then, right? i didnt go there for quite a long time already.. maybe almost a year.. everything now is pricey in Ipoh! sigh..
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Oh, you should drag Elin along for a visit then. Since this is her favourite curry mee stall.
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yes, the original stall was located under shady trees at the junction of jalan sultan iskandar and jalan ali pitchay (near xiao wen tang – little genting).. way back in the 70s(?).. have frequented both the present & previous stalls for eons as my working places were near ’em….
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Thanks peter.
So that confirmed their origin.
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James…this is my favourite curry mee stall . I love their fried meatballs…small and crispy..yummy !
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Oh Elin, so you’re a fan of them?
They finish quite early though, about 12pm they would have run out of ‘liew’ to sell …..
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I love curry mee a lot but I cant eat too much as I cant withstand spiciness =/ I’m just wondering where is the another half of the twin sister? haha..
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Not spicy at all, no worries. 🙂
Chinese style of curry mee ain’t that spicy, unless you personally request for your serving to be spicier.
The other sister was frying the ‘liew’ at another lot, constantly topping up the rapidly depleting stock.
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Oooo.. Didn’t know they operate under shady tree those days..
I lurve their curry noodle & fried ‘liew’.. Yummy!! My friends detest
the long waiting period..
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 5:05 pm
Yeah…. that’s why either go early before the others wake up (though they start quite late in comparison), or go on a weekend. So you can afford to wait.
And bring some magazines, newspapers, etc.
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Those meat balls do look delicious. 😀
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Melody Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 4:47 pm
It indeed is delicious!!
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heh good to see this stall featured.
used to eat it almost everyday when i was in kinder garden (wai lei, a stone throw away) and also primary school.
to be honest they WERE really good, but have been getting more and more stingy. for example, their dried noodle used to come with a generous portion of minced meat and now they’ve taken it out. (my mom asked them bout this and they claim that customer prefer plain thou -.-)
also one thing i dun like is that their opening hours are getting shorter and shorter, used to open at 730, then 8 then 830 and now sometimes cud b as late as 9am. but cant help with that as less people are helping out with the preparation.
nevertheless their “liew” is no doubt one of the best in ipoh, especially the pork meatball and some fried stuff is no doubt without equal. definitely worth a visit 😉
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 8:44 pm
The darker version of the deep-fried rolls (in the 2nd pic) was really good. The soft, mushy fillings melted in mouth literally, and the outside layers of foo chook was really crispy.
Pity such a small piece.
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Ed Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 9:36 pm
haha that’s my favourite too!
nice enough just to eat like that or make it soft by soaking into the soup 😀
im not sure if they still sell it, but last time they used to sell some cha siu that’s quite good too.
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btw, i’d suggest u to try out another “Liew Fun” stall along the road, the same road, go further down, opposite the newspaper/book stall at the corner, located right beside a shop selling chinese medicine. not sure if it has been featured before
their noodle and liew is kinda awesome too 😉
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
Same road, is it beside Hin Loong the chicken rice shop?
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Ed Reply:
September 26th, 2010 at 9:40 pm
yup, located in btw a chicken rice shop and a chinese medic shop.
i love their pork meatballs and their chilli sauce, their dried noodle is somewhat differs from ma lui’s, it’s a kind of mushroom sauce with fried pork fat! (ju yao zha)
they have a wider variety of Liew too.
and if you go, dun forget to order their Prawn Biscuit (Ha Bank, what do u call that in eng? =.=), they keep it in a silver box next to the place they cook.
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J2Kfm Reply:
September 28th, 2010 at 8:08 am
Thanks Ed. Har Peng (prawn crackers?) and pork meatballs, and the kon lou noodles. Got that!
Man I love ju yao zha!!!
Ed, i have eat at this stall, too..
Yay, it’s nice..
Me can’t wait till next Tue as a friend have promised to tapau Air Itam laksa from Penang..
yuM2..
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Hey, Teckiee’s mom likes this place. She’s been asking us to come here instead of Big Tree Foot there.
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[…] Leong Sin Nam has earned heaps of praises from similar lunatics in Ipoh. Not to be confused with Ma Lui (Twin Sisters) curry mee on Jalan Ali Pitchay, Majie’s legacy has run deep within the veins of traditional hawker […]
They have closed already right? Went there many times, just dont see them open anymore… 🙁
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J2Kfm Reply:
November 7th, 2012 at 10:42 pm
Really? I was not aware of this. Anyone can comment on whether Twin Sisters are still up and running?
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NKOTB Reply:
November 30th, 2012 at 9:20 am
Hi there… Do let me know where are they now?? I really miss their “yeong liew”
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the stall has moved to the coffee shop that is on top of the slope/hill. same road!!
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