The Best

Happy Merdeka Day! This is a sweet post for you.

The best caramelized egg custard in Ipoh according to my sister-in-law.

Served by this Coffee Shop - Sin Yoon Loong.

Mushroom gravy

This is the Ipoh Chee Cheong Fun eaten by someone in our group with the full works - mushroom gravy, green pickled chili, a bit of sweet red sauce, a bit of chili sauce, deep fried shallots and sesame seeds. The thing is I forgot to ask the person how this taste like.

Happy long weekend!

Liew Kee Teluk Intan

From Bidor, we took the winding road to Teluk Intan as my mother has never seen the famous leaning tower. We saw many buildings being used to house swallows for their nests along the way. We did not know that Teluk Intan was that far away from Bidor and we only arrived there at 5.30pm.

Fresh warm authentic Liew Kee (Ah Lek) Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun - MYR4.40 per pack. I must say it tastes really good when it is eaten warm (in the car) albeit a bit on the salty side. This time I can taste the dried shrimps (hay bee) in the black bits. It is not that oily.

By using Google Map, we located the shop easily. The shop is operated from a double storey wooden house.

There I was, taking photos of the cooking process. Many people were there queuing and I had to wait for about 30 minutes before I was asked what I wanted. I thought there was only one kind of Chee Cheong Fun sold because the girl who took my order told me so but the customers behind me were buying packs with shrimp only, meat only and mixed and I don't see the people making it adding in any special processes when packing their orders so I am really confused now.

A tour guide was there collecting her order of 30 packs (ordered earlier over the phone) for the tourists who were all sitting in the big tour bus waiting for their tour guide to bring their food to them to be eaten on the bus. Business must be really good for this Chee Cheong Fun shop.

This "kitchen" is added on to the side of the wooden house and the staff worked like clock work.

We pointed out this famous leaning tower of Teluk Intan to my mother. There was no time for us to climb it so we drove back to Bidor to take the highway back to KL (because the other way takes even longer) and in the end, we did not reach Bidor but somehow (don't know how because we just followed the road signs), we joined the north south highway via Sungkai toll and reached KL at about 8.30pm.

I think it will be another year before any of us have the energy to do a day trip to Ipoh again.

Pun Chun

As we seldom travel locally on day trips with my mother, we decided to make full use of this trip so we made a detour to Bidor to eat the famous Pun Chun duck noodle. It was about 4pm then. Actually we tried this dish once in their Kota Kemuning outlet and were not that impressed with it so we wanted to try the same dish at their original shop in Bidor and we were impressed now.

3 bowls of duck noodle in herbal soup - MYR9 each, iced white coffee - MYR2.2  

My mother loves this herbal soup - not salty but full of herbal taste. Only one of the bowls has a duck drumstick. The other two bowls have duck breast meat and all three bowls cost the same - MYR9. They should let us choose and charge a higher price for the duck drumstick.

Pork trotter noodle - MYR 5.80 - My spouse said this tastes good.

Pun Chun is on facebook

They do serve other types of noodles

Almost KL prices

JJ Lifestyle Cafe

We hung out at JJ Cafe (just opened mid 2013) from 11.30am to 1pm to wait for the two stalls mentioned in my previous post to open. Some people in our party of 6 were hungry so we ordered some food to go with the drinks.

Pulled Pork Charcoal Burger - MYR12 from "Today's Specials" menu.

Chicken Pot Pie - MYR8

MYR12 - I forgot the name of this dish but all of you can tell what it is by looking at it.

4 mini tarts - MYR6, 2 cupcakes - MYR6 from the dessert counter

My drink - ice blended fresh strawberry without any syrup - really sour but I like it because of the fresh strawberry taste - MYR9. They did give me a tiny jug of syrup and refused to take it away when I said I didn't need it because I think they did not think I can stand the sourness but I did not touch the syrup at all.

My spouse's drink - ice blended fresh kiwi without any syrup - sour with a tinge of sweetness and I like this drink too - MYR9.

Nice decor

JJ Cafe, Jalan Kampar, Ipoh - a nice place to hang out - prices stated on the menu are nett prices.

Ipoh Food

We reached Ipoh at around 7.30am and headed straight to Kong Heng coffee shop. Not many people were there yet at this early hour.

We ordered two bowls of Ipoh chicken slice Hor Fun at MYR5 each.

My brother claims that the beef slices in this beef noodle are very tasty - MYR6 

I ordered this Teluk Intan style Chee Cheong Fun - MYR2. I was asked whether I wanted mushroom sauce to go with it and I said no. I have not heard of mushroom sauce with Chee Cheong Fun before and I think it is only in Ipoh that they serve Chee Cheong Fun with mushroom sauce.

After that, we walked next door to Plan B but it was not opened yet so we just admired the architecture for Sekeping Kong Heng (which is located just behind Kong Heng coffee shop) and Plan B. We took many photos of the quaint lanes and creeping plants and walked to take a look at Burps and Giggles which is located behind Plan B. The photo above shows the toilets located below Sekeping Kong Heng.

We sat here for a while before we went for our 2nd round of food.

Plan B

I ate this cold caramel egg custard at Thean Chun coffee shop that is next to Kong Heng coffee shop. Tasted fine to me but my sister in law told me that the one served by Sin Yoon Loong coffee shop is tastier.

My spouse ate this hard boiled egg in sweet tea (warm). I am not sure how much the above egg desserts cost because my sister in law paid around MYR6.50 for 2 tea egg tong sui and 1 egg custard.

Then we crossed the road to Sin Lean Lee Coffee Shop and ordered two glasses of iced white coffee (MYR1.7 each) and a bowl of mixed meatballs - pork, fish, beef meat balls (MYR8.7) as we were too full to eat any more noodles.

But I must eat this Char Kway Teow with added eggs - MYR5.5 because this is Sin Lean Lee's ‘Kam Char Fun’ (Golden Fried Kuey Teow) which is quite different from KL's Char Kway Teow as this is the "wet" type. I like the egg more than the noodle.

Then we went to buy Pasir Pinji to buy Ming Yue mooncakes and stopped by JJ Rolls for swiss rolls. I wanted to try the Hong Kee Mah Chee blogged by Claire here (peanut mochi MYR2.5 for a very small pack and peanut sweet soup MYR2.5 for a very small bowl) and "Ais Sagu" (Sek Lau Zhi) - MYR2.2 for a pack but both stalls only opened at 1pm and it was only 11.30am then so we went to JJ Cafe to hang out.

After sitting in JJ Cafe (next post) until 1pm, we went to the two places mentioned above and bought the products to takeaway. Then we started our journey back to KL via the Simpang Pulai toll. Before that we made a pit stop at Yee Hup, Jalan Sri Ampang, Taman Ipoh JayaGunung Rapat to buy their freshly made Hiong Piah (MYR8 per pack).

There were many tourists at their shop who were buying individually packed Hiong Piah and these freshly made Hiong Piah were no where to be seen. Then the staff told me that I must ask for this at the cashier counter. I wonder why they keep these packs hidden behind the cashier counter but I did not ask. I guess it must be because these Hiong Piah is not individually packed and could be easily crushed due to their crunchiness.

Just bought one pack for myself and 2 packs for my family. After eating it, I find that it is really crunchy but no lard taste that some prefer (not me) so I do not know whether it is as good as those Hiong Piah of the old days. We left Ipoh at about 2pm.

Freshly made hiong piah - not individually packed.

Ming Yue Confectionery

One week ago, our family did a day trip to Ipoh on a Sunday to meet up with my youngest brother and my sister-in-law from Penang with detours to Bidor and Teluk Intan on our way back to KL. We left KL at 5.30am and were back at around 8.30pm.

When in Ipoh, I insisted that we make a stop at Pasir Pinji to get some mooncakes after reading so much about this place from Claire's blog. I just bought 2 boxes - 4 white lotus with double yolks (MYR8.50 each) and 2 red bean (MYR3 each) mooncakes. I also wanted to buy some assorted nuts mooncakes (MYR7.50 each) but was told that they will only be available in the evening so I bought 2 pandan lotus with double yolks (MYR5.20) mooncakes instead. I spent a total of MYR50.40 only for 8 mooncakes - very good price indeed. I gave 3 mooncakes to my brother - one type each.

As the mooncakes were fresh from the oven, they were not individually packed. The type of mooncake is embossed on the mooncake in words as part of the design mould so there is no way we will mistake a mooncake for another type of mooncake.

Red bean mooncake

I eat 1/8 of the red bean mooncake each time and store the rest in my fridge.

I like the many kuaci (melon seeds) in this red bean mooncake and the authentic taste of red bean. It is a little bit on the sweet side but as I only eat 1/8 at a time, it is fine for me.

As for the white lotus double yolks mooncake, the lotus paste is a little on the coarse side which I also like, not so oily and overly smooth. The yolks are superbly golden orange and full of eggy taste. Due to this I could not taste the lotus seeds in the lotus paste.

Both types of mooncakes are not as oily as some of the mooncakes I have bought in previous years. For this price, I would say that the quality is really good. I will definitely return next year to queue again for these mooncakes.

 Those who like to eat yolks with mooncakes will like this.

The queue - actually this time I did not queue because I could not find the shop. My brother found it and queue for me and he also bought (I paid) the mooncakes for me.

The addresss if you are interested to queue. Perhaps it is better that you give them a call to book your mooncakes to avoid being disappointed if they are sold out. Actually I do not know whether or not they will accept bookings but you can always call and ask.

Ming Yue Confectionery

50, Jalan Peh Kee Koh

Taman Kampar, Ipoh

05-2554128

012-4631862

Vegetarian meal

Rice with 4 dishes - 1) stirfried tonghoon, julienned carrots, cucumber, beancurd sheet; 2) pumpkin 3) stirfried chinese cabbage (wong nga pak) 4) petola with "mian jin/mean kan"  (wheat gluten - 麵筋)  for MYR3.80 only. This vegetarian meal tastes very good to me. Simple soup is also provided. I like the "mian jin" here as it is thick and soft, very nice texture.

This canteen is located in the compound of the chinese temple opposite Corus Hotel in the heart of KL.

Cashier counter - can you spot the nun?

After we have finished eating our food, we stacked our used plates here after throwing away any discarded food into the bins provided.  There is even a bin for leftover soup. I suspect that the food waste in these bins would be used to feed farmed animals.

Burger King

I believe this is a Junior Whopper that I ate sometime ago. Good amount of raw cabbage, tomatoes and onion. Have a great weekend everyone!

生肉包

Barli ginkgo dessert (MYR2.50) with a Sang Yuk Bao (MYR1.70) for breakfast

I was told by my friends to remove the outer layer of "skin" from the bao before eating it. Do you do this too?

The meat filling is very compact and I have to slowly eat it to remove any fatty bits from the filling. I have a photo of all the fatty bits that I removed but I am not going to post it here. I like eating char siew bao (BBQ pork bao) better.

Kaori again

This time at Kaori restaurant I did not order a set meal. A bowl of basic ramen was enough as my lunch. This bowl of ramen is the cheapest ramen on the menu - MYR10 (MYR11.60 after 10% service charge and 6% govt. tax).

It has half a hard boiled egg, a slice of meat (not sure what meat), a small piece of crab stick, some seaweeds, and a slice of naruto (cured fish surimi with a pink spiral pattern - surimi means fish paste). The ramen noodle tastes more like very springy wanton noodle than those ramen noodle you find in specialty ramen restaurants. But this is the only Japanese restaurant within walking distance for lunch so this will do just fine.

The complimentary appetizer served before the main meal. There were a few young men in our lunch group that do not eat this food at all because they did not like to eat okra.