vkeong loves good food, travel and photography!
Ipoh
Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant @ Ipoh
May 19th
I only have three words to describe Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant: ‘so damn crowded‘. This is not a complaint ok, just an observation.
Customers queuing outside the restaurant for dim sum before 8am.
The chaos inside the restaurant. Number of customers standing could easily match those being seated. Your seat hogging skills have to be very good to ‘survive’ in here lol. I even saw an uncle hoggingreserving a whole table for his not-yet-arrived-big-family. So, being thick faced is the other requirement.
Look at how the customers were staring at the tables lol. They were hoping for you to finish ASAP and just get up from the table and leave. It was a really unpleasant experience with so many pairs of eyes looking over your shoulder while you eat with their hearts thinking “Oi, faster finish and go away la. Wah still take photos ah? Wah lao once not enough, take twice somemore! Never see dim sum before meh? Wah wah wahhh” lol.
So, no matter how good the dim sum, for me it’s pretty pointless. Because how on earth are you going to enjoy it? Click here to continue reading >
Lou Wong Bean Sprouts Chicken (Nga Choi Gai) @ Ipoh
Mar 4th
During my last trip to Ipoh I finally had the opportunity to try the famous Bean Sprouts Chicken (Nga Choi Gai). It is a fact that whenever Ipoh is mentioned, the first food to come mind would be Bean Sprouts Chicken Rice or Koay Teow. Although I have been to Ipoh a couple of times, I did not try this symbolic food simply because I have always ended up in kopitiam drinking white coffee instead, lol. Besides being the most famous, Lou Wong was also agreed, by many to serve one of the best Bean Sprouts Chicken Rice in Ipoh.
Well I think everyone should know that Bean Sprouts Chicken is similar to Hainanese Steamed Chicken, just that it is eaten together with a plate of bean sprouts. So, it all boils down to the smoothness and tenderness of the steamed chicken to separate itself from the other chicken rice. Lou Wong’s steamed chicken’s skin had this slippery smooth texture and tender yet firm flesh, which was truly terrific.
Bean Sprouts – seasoned with some pepper, light soya sauce and oil. I didn’t find anything special about the taste but their shapes were definitely a bit shorter and fatter than the usual taugeh.
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Technorati Tags: Bean Sprouts Chicken
Toasted Bread @ Sun Yuan Foong Coffee Shop, Ipoh Old Town
Feb 14th
After having Char Koay Teow at Nam Heong, we went to the Sun Yuan Foong coffee shop just opposite for a second round of white coffee as well as some toasts.
Well, we initially wanted to try Sun Yuan Loong which is next to Sun Yuan Foong (are you confused with the names yet? lol) but it was just too packed with customers. OK, to clear up the confusion, actually both coffee shops are located side by side opposite Nam Heong. And they even have similar name with the left one ending with “Loong” and the right one “Foong”.
Sun Yuan Foong is claimed to be the recommended coffee shop to go for the original white coffee, while Sun Yuan Loong is run by a close relative of the former. I hope you get it, lol.
One of the most irresistible toasted breads, served with a half boiled egg and sausage. Among the many toast sets to choose from, I highly recommend this as the first to try. Just sprinkle some pepper and soya sauce for extra flavor and it’s good to eat.
A cup of warm and thick white coffee was the perfect companion to the toast sets. And it sure felt nostalgic eating food that haven’t changed for the past twenty years in an old coffee shop.
Another set we ordered was this cheese and ham sandwich, obviously made from a sandwich maker. Nothing special about it.. in fact it didn’t taste very good. There were four of us and we shared the food to leave room for ‘Nga Choy Gai’ as our dinner later that day.
If you think seeing four people sharing two sets of toasts is weird or funny, you haven’t seen anything yet! There were two tables of people next to us with roughly ten people or so, sharing ONE toast set only, LOL! I bet they were tourists and just wanted a little try before moving on to another spot, where they might share a bowl of noodle?
Actually this is quite a common sight in Old Town, earlier I saw a table of four sharing a plate of Char Koay Teow at Nam Heong lol. By the way, there are three things that you must do if you come to Sun Yuan Foong according to their checklist displayed on the wall:
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1. Enjoy a cup of White Coffee
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2. Enjoy a toast set, and
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3. Buy some White Coffee powder back home (if I remembered correctly)
Thinking back, I should have snapped a photo of the checklist!
Banana Leaf Char Koay Teow @ Nam Heong Coffee Shop, Ipoh
Jan 18th
I have been to Nam Heong coffee shop a couple of times but never had the luck to try their Char Koay Teow, said to be quite good and recommended by many. In my past visits, either I was too late or the stall just didn’t open. I don’t know why, but I tend to reach Nam Heong around 4 to 5pm everytime, which is also the time the stall would close for business.
Just a few weeks ago, I was at Ipoh for a one day trip and went to Nam Heong again. This time, I was lucky and the stall was still open. Do you know how close I was? I was their last customer for the day!
Since I was the last customer for them, they double checked with us whether one plate was enough, lol. Costing RM3.50 a plate, the Char Koay Teow did live up to its reputation, albeit a rather small portion. Prawns were big and juicy, cockles were fresh and it had good wok hei. Basically nothing to complain about the Char Koay Teow.
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Technorati Tags: Nam Heong, Ipoh, Char Koay Teow
Ipoh Sun Yuan Foong White Coffee
Mar 14th
So, I received a comment from J2kfm saying that Nam Heong is not where the original white coffee came from. According to him, Sun Yuan Loong, a coffee shop located directly opposite Nam Heong along Jalan Bijih Timah is white coffee’s origin. Then, I remembered another coffee shop’s name which sounds like this. I went there immediately after my cuppa at Nam Heong. It’s called Sun Yuan Foong. Is there a reason why the coffee shops’ names are so similar here? The competition for the best white coffee is very evident in Ipoh with each claiming to serve the best, lol.
Ipoh Nam Heong Old Town White Coffee
Jan 4th
On the way to Penang from KL, we stopped by in Ipoh Town for some white coffee. This time we were smart, we went earlier and arrived at around 5pm. Finally we managed to sample one of the most famous White Coffee in Malaysia~
Nam Heong White Coffee is actually not that hard to find if you are willing to ask the locals. It’s only around 30 min away from the Ipoh Selatan exit along the North-South Highway. It rained quite heavily not long after we parked our car. A good thing I suppose, the cool weather served better for a cup of hot white coffee lol.
The coffee shop sells quite a lot of hawker food. There are Penang prawn mee, dim sum, curry laksa and some other stuff. We only managed to order 2 baskets of dim sum, Har mai and Har kao because the rest were sold out.
Each basket of dim sum costs RM2.40. They tasted quite good and were still very fresh.
A cup of hot white coffee costs RM1.10. Very aromatic and tasty compared to other normal coffees. I have had people telling me that Old Town white coffee is nothing special, tastes just like normal coffee.. Well I can say that those claims are very inaccurate 
Iced white coffee costs a little more at RM1.30. I felt the iced version tasted sweeter.
When we left at 5.30pm, they were already preparing to close. So it is advised to reach here before 5pm to avoid any disappointment
Technorati Tags: Old Town
