Ipoh Food

Leaving Penang meant leaving all the super delicious food behind. The rain seemed to mirror the gloom as we drove across the bridge to the mainland.

                                               Gloomy and rainy weather

However, it was comforting to know that a tasty lunch was in store in Ipoh. Yes! The famous chicken and beansprout dishes touted to be the best in the country are synonymous with Ipoh.

                                       Famous coffee shop for chicken and beansprouts

We soon found our way to the coffee shop and ordered our meal. The shop was packed but we managed to find a small table tucked in a corner.  The food lived up to its reputation.

                                         Steamed chicken, beansprouts & fish balls

It was very tasty and the chicken texture was very smooth.  The bean sprouts were fat and crunchy and the fish balls had the taste of fish, unlike those we usually find in KL and Kota Kinabalu.

Then we nipped over to the shop selling the chicken biscuits that Ipoh is famous for.  I was surprised to find that they have so many flavours now.

                                              Famous Ipoh Chicken biscuits

By the time my shopping was done, my daughter’s car was fully packed with all the goodies to be distributed back home in Kuala Lumpur as well as in Kota Kinabalu.

After lunch, my spouse wanted to see his alma mater so despite the rain and the Friday traffic jam, we drove past it, just to satisfy his curiosity.

                                              Side entrance to St. Michael's Institution

                                                   St. Michael's Institution, Ipoh

Then we hit the highway to return to KL.  Along the way the rain was so heavy that visibility was very poor. At one stretch there was a long queue of vehicles inching slowly forward as there had been a bad accident.

                                                   Slow moving & heavy traffic

It was a relief to reach home before the sunset as we had a dinner appointment to celebrate my daughter’s birthday.

Food Trail (2) Favourite Food in Penang

After last night’s assorted hawker food dinner, we were ready for our noodle breakfast.

Penang’s kway teow soup is different from Ipoh’s.  Our friend took us to this coffee shop which he says serves the best kway teow soup.

We took him at his word since he is a Penang local.  He ordered for us and it was as delicious as he said. The texture of the noodles was slippery smooth, just like silk, and very thin. The kway teow we get in Kota Kinabalu is thick and rough, compared to this.

                                                  Penang Kway Teow Noodles

Come lunch, we went our separate ways, my daughter and her father went off elsewhere while my college alumnus picked me up for a small college reunion lunch at the 747 Restaurant.

                                                 Penang Brinsford Alumni lunch

The dishes they called were interesting and tasty and it was a big lunch. The food was less important than the getting to know you as I had not met them before. They were many years my senior in college, except one who was my junior and we had stayed in the same house in the college.

                                                  Lunch at 747 Restaurant

Lunch ended with photo taking and a suggestion that a reunion should be held in Kota Kinabalu, to visit that part of the country which had not been on their bucket list.

                                                  Garden of 747 Restaurant

                                                       Brinsford Ladies

The following morning, before we left Penang, our friend took us to another shop for the famous Char Kway Teow. This stall goes by the name of Tiger Kway Teow.

                                                              Tiger Cook
When the kway teow was served, there was a generous amount of cockles and two tiger prawns lay atop the plate of noodles. It was very well fried, not oily unlike some stalls and the aroma was mouth watering!

                                                       Super yummy char kway teow

These days, many stalls, especially in Kuala Lumpur, do not offer cockles in their char kway teow but to me, the cockles make the difference to the dish. Without the cockles, it doesn’t taste nice.

After breakfast, our friend took us to shop for Penang’s famous biscuits, nutmeg and sesame oil.

                           Famous Ghee Hiang shop for pastries & biscuits

                                               Buying nutmeg and sesame oil

Then it was time to wish him and Penang goodbye as we wanted to stop at Ipoh for lunch before returning to Kuala Lumpur. 

Food Trail Ipoh and Penang (1)

The recent trip to Penang to meet up with friends, old and new, saw us on the lookout for good food. We made an early start so that we could have breakfast in Ipoh, a 2-hour drive away from Kuala Lumpur.

                                            Morning queue of cars heading into Kuala Lumpur

It was a smooth drive and we soon saw landmarks which indicated that Ipoh was far away.

                                                    Limestone Hills of Ipoh

Ipoh is renowned for its smooth kuey teow soup too, apart from its steamed chicken and bean sprouts. We located a coffee shop on the outskirts and ordered kway teow soup and a bowl of fishballs to share.

                                                               Fish Balls

                                            Prawn & Meat slices in the Kway Teow Soup

After a satisfying breakfast, we headed for Penang, aiming to make it for lunch. A friend would be meeting us to take us out for lunch.

We made good time despite a queue on the way into Penang. Our hotel was located within the Heritage area so its frontage had to be behind the main road.

Our friend arrived and he whisked us away for lunch at the Penang Club which had a good view of the sea. We had assam fish head, chicken, claypot taufu and a vegetable.

That night we opted for hawker stall food. This is where we landed. There were many stalls selling a variety of food and the coffee shop was packed. These are what we ordered.

                                                        Prawn noodle soup

                                                  Vegetable spring roll (poh piah)

                                                         Oyster omelette

                                                        chicken & beef satay

                                                           Loh Bak

The hawkers were kept very busy fulfilling the orders placed by the never ending round of customers who walk in, hunting for a place to sit.

Desa Dairy Farm

The dairy  farm is situated high up on the slopes and a certain part of it is open to the public each day. Since it was a holiday weekend, there was a very long queue of cars crawling up the narrow road to the farm.

Everyone needs to buy a ticket to enter the farm grounds.

  Visitors go there to see the Freesia cows, the milking process, and to feed the goats and young cows.

 

They also purchase the cheese, the packets of milk and the gelato. The queues for the gelato were long too but we got our cups of gelato in the end. It was super yummy.

We queued to go up and we queued to go down too!!

The Foothills of Mount Kinabalu

It was an extended long weekend holiday and many people, both locals and tourists took to the foothills of Mount Kinabalu. As the vehicles snaked their way up into the hills of the Crocker Range, the air became cooler.

The first pit stop was Pekan Nabalu, with public toilets and a row of stalls selling souvenirs and fresh local fruits to the visitors who thronged the stalls. The toilet queues were very long too!!

 

Welcome to Pekan Nabalu Stalls

                                                   One of the many stalls

We could see a bit of Mt. Kinabalu when the clouds shifted. Mt. Kinabalu is the highest peak in South East Asia and has been granted world heritage status.

                                           The dark hulk of Mt Kinabalu in the background

A few years ago, there was an earthquake which brought down one of the Donkey’s Ears at its summit and lives of climbers and guides were lost.

The old trail was damaged and a new one has been opened. Climbers still come to climb this august mountain which is considered sacred to the locals.

Our guide helped us to purchase the Tarap fruit which belongs to the Jackfruit family

 

Tarap

 

and the Nona which is similar to the soursop but is sweeter and its flesh is more firm.

                                                            Nona Fruit
She gave us a Bambangan which is very fibrous and has a sweet sourish taste, not unlike the mango.

We stopped for lunch at Ranau, a small town and she recommended the Hakka Food Court which accommodates quite a number of stalls selling local food such as various types of noodles and a variety of vegetable, chicken and pork dishes.

 

Enjoying the fruits after our meal

                The stalk is all that's left of the Tarap.  On the right is the Bambangan.

We made this day trip specifically to visit the Dairy Farm and the Poring Hot Springs.

Modern Food Court

Food courts are usually crammed with different kinds of stalls selling various types of food. They are usually arranged against the walls and customers sit in the central area where tables and seats are crammed into the space available.

The mall which we recently visited had a food court unlike the usual run of the mill kind.
It also had a name, Food Nestie!! It was located on a high floor.

                                             Starlings hanging in the void

The stalls were individual and stood apart, each from the other. There were tables and seats in the spaces near them but they were not crammed.

                                              A stall selling Japanese food

We opted for a table which had a good view through the glass panels. Those customers who opted to sit outside the glass enclosure enjoyed the breeze and could smoke there since it was considered to be outside the air-conditioned mall.

                                        Seating area outside the glass panels

We selected our seats which gave us a nice view of the outside and ordered our food, which turned out to be tasty and filling too!! It didn’t burn a hole in my pocket either.

So a thumbs up for this place!