Motormouth From Ipoh – Asian Food & Travel Blog

A breakfast fare that’s very common in Ipoh; fish ball noodles (yue dan fun, or liew fun) is actually an ensemble of plain noodles (served either with soup or dry/tossed with sauces) and a side serving of fish balls, various stuffed fish paste pieces and the very essential garlic chili sauce.

It has become slightly more routine nowadays to eat out during breakfast compared to my growing years in Ipoh; when we would settle for a simpler breakfast of tea and breads. Maybe it’s thanks to this space of mine on the Web (gradually inching towards its 6 years now!), or the fact that Ipoh does offer an astounding array of quality hawker fares.

It boils down to a matter of preference, but one of my favourite choice for breakfast? Fish ball noodles or ‘liew fun’. Simple, hearty and very comforting spread of noodles, yong tau foo and the chili sauce.

Oh ya … let’s not forget the icing on the cake; a cup of white coffee.

If legacy or experience is what you’re seeking for, then this nameless stall at Simee market would be right up your alley. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiger Prawns Aglio-Olio (RM38/USD13) featuring four gargantuan tiger prawns pan-fried to an irresistible crunch; served on top of a bed of pretty sloppy serving of pasta cooked in either carbonara, aglio-olio or tomato concasse (if I am not mistaken) sauce. 

The weather’s burning hot. And we’re still supposed to do 10,000 steps a day. I can’t imagine how our counterparts over in the other countries could manage 20k on a daily basis. That, or they could be plain cheating.

No, not a sore loser … just growing green with envy. I guess we might be able draft a foolproof gameplan of reaching those kind of mileage IF we are not tasked to sit through ordeals of endless meetings all day.

And it doesn’t help that the notebook’s running at an incredibly slow rate today; possibly already in its terminal stage of critical illness; after a good 6 years (!) of surviving the relentless assault. Especially the past 4 years when this foodie/blogger with a penchant for eating on a reckless/continuous basis kept on tapping nonchalantly on the keyboard on an everyday basis.

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog has been a portal for me to channel my views and frustrations, a medium for me to connect with the food loving crowd of Ipoh, surrounding Perak, and anywhere else in the world, as well as a mean to project my passion towards introducing Ipoh as one of the major food hubs in Malaysia.

Since 3rd March 2008, Motormouth From Ipoh has grown from a relatively unknown/unimportant personal blog to what it is today; a Malaysian Food Blog with bits of my travelogue thrown in the mix, and even subsequently moving to its own domain in September 2009.

And naturally, being stationed in my lovely hometown of Ipoh (read up on Ipoh on Wikipedia), with ample chances to travel all around the state of Perak has its advantages. This blog has somehow managed to create slight awareness towards the smaller towns in Perak like Sitiawan, Taiping, Gerik, Kampar and Kuala Kangsar, and what the towns have to offer in terms of good food and accommodation. (Read the compiled Perak Food Guide by J2Kfm for good eats outside of Ipoh)

“But as in life, nothing remains stagnant. And yes, if you had the gut feeling that Motormouth’s not in his elements lately, you’re absolutely right …

After 4 years of selflessly (ahem) serving the people of Ipoh and Perak (I am from the civil service, remember?), Motormouth will be making his move to the Klang Valley in a month or so. Permanently.”

Before you go throwing tantrums, sending Molotov cocktails and launching rockets towards yours truly, don’t for one second think that this was a walk in the park for me. I pooled up an incredible amount of  courage to come up with this decision, a major leap of faith as some said, to be able to finally jolt myself off this comfort zone that is staying in the civil service, and of working/residing in Ipoh.

I cannot promise that I will write so often, given the fact that the transition period may render me incapable of constant food hunts and blogging as much as I am able to now. But don’t fret, since KL-Ipoh’s only two hours apart, weekend getaways should not be a hindrance to my initial purpose of starting up this blog; Exposing Ipoh as one of the worthy town for gourmet hunts in Malaysia.

Hereby, I would like to thank the faithful readers of Motormouth From Ipoh. I know there are people who have been religiously following since day one (when posts on my dog exceeded those on proper food reviews!) and then there are the silent readers whom have never dropped a comment or mail. I don’t blame you.

The recent feature on NY Times (3rd Nov 2010) – Read the online site HERE.

But for the sake of being heard, Motormouth would like to hear from you. Don’t mince your words. If you feel like criticizing this move I made, expressing your shock/horror/disgust or utter joy that I finally can shut up and move on with life (Why Should You?!), then please drop a comment below. Or send me a mail if you’re being shy or don’t want your artillery of profanities filling up this public space. 🙂

* I have about another month or so before finally making the move. And currently in the midst of a major food trail around Ipoh this whole November. So if you ever bump into Motormouth around the streets of Ipoh, just walk over and say Hi. Don’t worry, I don’t bite …. unless I am darn hungry at that point of time!!

## This article was also featured on the May 2nd, 2010 edition of The Star’s Sunday Metro section. Here’s the LINK to the article, “Feast From The Sea” ##

It’s a double whammy for today. Sitiawan food posts back to back. For the sake of it, yeah! After all, weekends don’t always come in a mega-luscious, enticing and enviable THREE days. 🙂

We Perakians have them good, for the next Monday’s a holiday. Long live the Sultan of Perak …. for this translates to another weekend marathon of rejuvenation, and FOOD!

Sa Jui Yee is seemingly known as Garfish. Or so I was told. Garfield-Fish? Nah …..

So we had seafood for lunch on consecutive weeks. Sometimes, we really really do LURVE our job. Last week’s Kampung Cina’s Villa Seafood feast was good enough (and do take note that they’re relocating soon, to a brand new outlet on the same road as Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock’s), we returned to Kampung Cina again today for lunch.

This time around, the chosen restaurant was Ah Pek Lee Kou Hock Seafood Restaurant; a restaurant which popularity has since been elevated a few folds after being featured in Taste of Jason – A famous local TV show highlighting food finds all over Malaysia, hosted by Axian.

Read the rest of this entry »

Back then, the four of us devoured everything in sight, from town to town, district to district, and from north, south, east to west of Perak.The sheer delight of travelling, sight-seeing and tasting local food while working was thrilling to say the very least.

At least, back then, work was never mundane, the higher authorities none too controlling nor annoying, and the many pleasant food discoveries along the way imbued us with a sense of pride and satisfaction in our job.

Villa Seafood Restaurant @ Kampung Cina, Sitiawan, Perak – Where Time Stops for Everyone …

And then, one by one, they started to leave. First TallGal, then FCOE. Leaving me and KYT fending for ourselves in this most hostile of environment.  Mr Z joined in the fray soon after, the hand model holding the Ching Han Guan’s irresistible Lotus Paste with Meat Floss Biscuit. Slowly, the Makan Gang grew with the addition of two more members. (No nicks yet, I am too flustered with the state of things as of late).

“Pak Cheok Har” – Plain, steamed prawns with Ginger and Scallions.

Anyway, we were back in Sitiawan for a short stint last week. Initially planned for a meal at Michelin Star Restaurant on Jalan Lumut of Sitiawan, but the grandiose ambience, luxuriously chic-sounding name (yeah, MICHELIN STAR, dear readers!!!), and the eatery resembling more of a Chinese diner than a casual ‘Chu Char’ restaurant had us thinking twice before stepping in. To anybody who had dined there before, please send me your recommendations, the type of cuisine they serve, the prices, and whether it’s worth a visit?

And so, we ventured back to the same old, tried-and-tested Villa Seafood Restaurant in Kampung Cina of Sitiawan. I have written about this place once (click HERE for the review), back when FCOE and TallGal were still with us.

Read the rest of this entry »

I see you wiping your saliva there …….

If you’re an ardent fan of Motormouth From Ipoh (what? I can’t blow my own trumpet for once meh?) you would have noticed that I have always favoured delicious and cheap street food/hawker food over posh/pretentious/fine dining affairs. After all I was brought up in IPOH, the mecca of hawker food (alongside Penang) in Malaysia!!!

Read my article featured on RasaMalaysia.com at the following link :

Ipoh Street Food (Ipoh Hawker Food)

And now, from the hunger-inducing, to the downright obnoxious. Grab a copy of The Star (a leading English newspaper in Malaysia) today (3rd April 2010) and flip all the way over to the Weekender section. Grab a magnifying glass, and scout through every nook and corner of the pages.

Maybe, JUST maybe, you will be able to see J2Kfm in there. 😉

UPDATED : I have received two e-mails of apology, one from the designer of the flyer, and another from a representative of MCA Ipoh Timur. Apologies have been accepted and this issue has been laid to rest.

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and I don’t really wanna project a grumpy image ala The Grinch. But when your pictures are blatantly ripped off from your blog, without prior notifications nor credits given when they’re supposed to, I could not help but feeling somewhat cheated. Plagiarism at this time and age may seems rampant (given the era of social networking and seamless-connectivity),  but this incident had me furious initially, confused the very next, and in the end I was somewhat amused.

Why? Because my photos were stolen and used for a campaign jointly organized by Tourism Malaysia and MCA of Ipoh Timur (both governmental bodies in Malaysia), to promote the recently initiated food portal named Fabulous Food 1Malaysia – With a month long campaign this December, highlighted with food fests all over Malaysia.

This promotional flyer was distributed and reached my hands yesterday night. I was well aware of this event from The Star (read article HERE, dated 22nd December 2009). But never would have imagined the publicity campaign took a most wicked turn on its own, by indulging in shortcuts and plagiarism.

Out of the 15 foods shots above, at least 12 were mine. I was astounded and speechless at the moment I was browsing the A4-sized flyer, for I instantly recognized some of the food pics from my previous posts. Not to say they’re professionally-shot pictures or anything; in fact some of the pictures were taken with my cheapo 3.2megapixel camera phone back then, when I have yet to purchase my Lumix LX3.

No contact numbers, e-mail addresses nor identity of the PR company which printed these was available.

So what would YOU do if you’re in my shoes? On one hand, I’m feeling mighty pissed-off for they took the easy way out and acted like thieves. But on the other hand, this event will no doubt increase awareness and general interest on Ipoh’s most famous Hawker Food, a notion I fully support for this is one of the MAIN reason I’m blogging about Ipoh food anyway.

Details for the Event :

IPOH HAWKERS’ FEST 2009
25-27 DECEMBER 2009
LOCATION : PUSAT MAKANAN RAINBOW CITY
(This is the famous stretch of hawker stalls at Tong Sui Kai aka Dessert Street)

You think J2Kfm’s motormouthing without substantial evidences? Hop over to the following posts, and do simple comparisons …

Mee Kari Ipoh Garden @ Jalan Pasir Puteh

Teluk Intan Famous Glutinous Rice @ New Weng Fatt, Ipoh Garden South

Canning Garden Famous Chee Cheong Fun

Kam Hor Tauge Ayam/Bean Sprouts Chicken @ Ipoh Garden

Ah Leng Char Koay Teow @ Jalan Dato Keramat, PENANG

## And with that, J2Kfm would like to wish all the readers … a MOST Merry X’mas, and a splendid Happy New Year! ##