Happy Travel Log: April 2016

I was born in Penang Island, Malaysia. Ipoh city was the place I lived during my childhood. As my Dad had business with clients in Northern part of Malaysia Peninsula, so those small towns name Taiping, Teluk Intan, Bidor, Tapah and more, they are not strange for me. Early April 2016, I and wife went back to Ipoh as yearly activity to visit families, friends, relatives and also Eat.

This trip we also went to Taiping town for a short trip. This will be covered in next blog. Let's talk about the attraction of Ipoh. Ipoh city, the capital of Perak state, it is about 200km north of Kuala Lumpur. As a land with full of tin, it started flourish a century ago. Thus visitors can find number of architecturally impressive historical buildings from British Colonial era. It includes the Railway Station known as the "Taj Mahal of Malaysia", the Town Hall and Court House. Other attractions are limestone caves, and Lost World Tambun theme park.

Ipoh is also known as food paradise. Especially its hawker fare, it is known throughout the regions. Ipoh white coffee, bean sprouts chicken, dim sum, salted chicken and pomelo are so called some of those Ipoh's "must try" for visitors.
(dim sum: A style of Chinese Canton cuisine prepared as small bite-sized portion of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates.)
(pomelo: A natural citrus fruit, with the appearance of a big grapefruit, native to South and Southeast Asia.)

Ipoh Airport

Sultan Azlan Shah Airport

How to go Ipoh from Singapore

Visitors can choose to take coach or self driving to Ipoh. It takes about 7-8 hours. Another way is by flight. This trip, to save time, we opted for this option. The flight journey takes about 1 hour plus. FireFly and Tiger Airway both have operate this Sin-Ipoh route. After compared the freight, both airlines cost about the same. (FireFly rate come with 20 kgs check in baggage whereas Tiger the passenger needs to buy it separately. Another add-on for FireFly is they provide free snack and drink on plane.)
Considered the departure time in Singapore, we chose FireFly, morning 9.35 departure, it gave us half a day to fun in Ipoh. Ticket was bought 1 and half months in advance, it cost us RM480 for 2 pax.

Weather
The weather in Ipoh usually 1-2 degree C higher than Singapore. Probably the city authority is not playing aggressive role in implementing or promoting tree planting. To avoid the heat, during day time, usually we hid at Air-con Mall or at home, hee...

How to Stay Connect in Ipoh
The prepaid card I used under Digi telco. This telco offered a "super long life" option which I just need to deduct my credit once, it allowed the phone line active for a year even without any reload. This is suitable for me as frequent visitor to Malaysia and would like to keep the same phone number.

How to Go Around in Ipoh
Have a car is essential in Ipoh as the public transport network there is not so good. This trip we decided to rent a car to travel around. After researched, this company offered quite ok offer. With discount, we paid for RM100/day for new model, a local brand small car.

Name: Kereta Sewa Maju Jaya Sdn Bhd / Car Rental Ipoh
Address: No. 93, Tingkat Bawah, Jalan C. M. Yusuff, (Jalan Chamberlain), 30250, Ipoh, Perak
Tel: +60 5 255 5510
Note: They have an office at Ipoh Airport.

Leong See Ming: (H/P) +60 12 520 3588
Leong See Hin: (H/P) +60 12 512 5647
Website: http://www.carrentalipoh.com/
Email: info@carrentalipoh.com

Rented a car: Perodua Axia
A five-door hatchback produced by Malaysian automobile manufacturer, Perodua.

Transmission: 5 Speed Manual

Engine: 1 Liter

The booking process was pretty simple, I sent Whatsapp message to Leong and got it confirmed over the call. Once arrived at the airport, looked for their office, signed the document and paid, then they handed me the car.

Airport Office

Perodua Axia

Where to Stay in Ipoh

So far I have stayed at Hotel Best Western as staycation. Clean and modern unit with 3 bedrooms. Not a bad choice. Our unit able to overview the Tambun area of Ipoh.

Name: Best Western Premier The Haven Ipoh

Address: Jalan Haven (Persiaran Lembah Perpaduan), Tambun, Ipoh, Perak, 31150

Tel: +60 5 220 9000

Email: reservations@bestwesternhaven.com.my

Rank no. 6 in TripAdvisor.com.

Best Western Premier

The Haven Ipoh

Photo Courtesy: asiawebdirect.com

Another hotel in town which we went for brunch is new and modern as well. Could be a good choice.

Name: Weil Hotel

Address: 292, Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, 30000 Ipoh, Perak

Tel: +60 5 208 2228

Email: enquiries@weilhotel.com

Rank no. 7 in TripAdvisor.com.

Weil Hotel

Photo Courtesy: Hotels.com

The first restaurant of this trip was Sin Hup Kee (新合记). Have been here since childhood, they have expanded to 2 units. The dishes mainly like home cook style, basic, rustic but nice.

Sin Hup Kee Restaurant

No. 17, Jalan Leong Sin Nam,

30300 Ipoh, Perak

+6 05 242 3128

菊堡

Chrysanthemum Flower Tea

Very common drink in Ipoh, Chrysanthemum flower mix with Chinese tea leaf.

干煎鸡 (中）

Fried Chicken with Dark Sweet Source (medium size)

Signature disc of Sin Hup Kee.

清炒杂菜（中）

Stir Fried Mixed Vegetable (medium size)

I liked they added salted vegetable stir fried with fresh vegetable. Very unique and delicious.

西洋菜炖骨汤

Chinese Watercress Soup

Very common soup in Ipoh.

三王蛋（小）

Steamed Triple Eggs (small size)

Another signature dish of Sin Hup Kee. This dish has salted egg, century egg and chicken egg. Home cook style but they did it perfectly.

Photo Courtesy: triphobo.com

This meal cost us RM44.10 for 3 pax. No regret to choose this dinner place. Yeh!

The next day wake up late, decided to go for a nice brunch. Ipoh is famous of dim sum, a style of Chinese Canton cuisine prepared as small bite-sized portion of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. At the cross road area of Jalan Leong Sin Nam and Jalan Raja Ekram, easily can spot plenty of dim sum restaurants. That is why this area also being named as Dim Sum Street (点心街). From the famous Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum (明阁), follow by Fu San (富山), Yoke Fook Moon (玉福满), new comers Chef Fatt (发师父) and Chang Keong Dim Sum (张强), diners have plenty of choice. Another good point is during weekend there are quiet crowded, so if diners do not want to queue at first choice restaurant, then they can proceed to less crowded restaurant.

Most of them we have tried, we decided to go for a better in atmosphere and we liked the chef gave its dim sum a little bit of twist. Yuk Sou Hin (玉寿轩) located at second floor of Weil Hotel, just 5-10 minutes walk from the Dim Sum Street.

Yuk Sou Hin Chinese Restaurant
292 Jalan Sultan Idris Shah, 30000 Ipoh, Perak
+6 05 2082 103
enquiries@weilhotel.com
Facebook: Yuk Sou Hin 玉寿轩 at WEIL

皮蛋鸡丝粥

Chicken Congee

炒菜头糕

Wok Fried Turnip Cake

Stir fried with seafood source, we liked the fragrant, nice.

鲜虾肠粉

Rice Roll with Prawn

秘制流沙包

Egg Yolk Custard Bun

Real custard fell off, yummy.

菠菜饺

Steamed Spinach Dumpling

鱼子串烧卖

Pan Fried Siew Mai

Instead of steam, the chef gave it a twist by pan fried, but taste good.

香芒炸虾筒

Mango Prawn Roll

Saltiness for the prawn and sweetness for the mango, but both combined it gave us a good balance taste.

芋丝脆春卷

Vegetarian Spring Roll with Taro

灌汤饺

Soup Dumpling

I liked the taste of soup. Not commonly found in Singapore.

雪山包

Baked BBQ Chicken Bun

They called it snow mountain bun because the look likes a snow mountain. Instead of steam, they baked it with sweet bun coated. It is unique. I remember Tim Ho Wan in Singapore also have the same dish.

This brunch cost us RM168 for 4 pax. You pay what you get. With quiet and good service, less crowded compare with restaurants at Jalan Leong Sin Nam, so we paid a little higher. Yuk Sou Hin at morning session has dim sum buffet, not all dished available compare to noon session. But it is worth for a big group and more economical.

7 am - 11 am: dim sum buffet

11 am - 2.30 pm: dim sum a la cart style

After brunch we headed to Taiping, this will be covered at later post. The day before back to Singapore, we headed to Ipoh city centre to hunt for nice food. We were at the area with full of famous food spots and biscuit shops. To name a few, the street names are Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Jalan Theatre, Jalan Dato Tahwil Azar, Jalan Raja Musa Aziz. At this area, diners can have various restaurants to choose. For example the famous Ipoh must eat Lou Wong Chicken and Beansprout (老黄芽菜鸡), Lou Wong's apprentice which now has his own restaurant - Onn Kee Chicken and Beansprout (安记芽菜鸡), Pak Kong Chicken Rice (白宫鸡饭), take away food Aun Kheng Lim Salted Chicken (宴琼林盐焗鸡), Funny Mountain Soya Bean (奇峰豆腐花).
Seems like all are chicken related foods, haha.

Anyway this area still have many other foods to choose. Another good point is there are plenty of biscuit shops there. So tourist can have a meal and then buy some biscuits for friends and families before head back home. Very convenience.

We decided to have stir fried stuffs at famous Tuck Kee Restaurant. (德记炒粉）

Luckily we were their first customer of that day. When we finished, the queue had already formed at their shop front.

Top: Yu Kong Hor 月光河

Stir fried thick rice noodle with raw egg at the centre.

After mixed the noodle and egg, they claimed that the texture get smoother and nice.

Bottom: Fried Low Shu Fun 炒老鼠粉

Stir fried rice noodle (round shape).

Both dishes were nice as it had the important element the 'wok hei'. Good wok hei with lard, no doubt that it is yummy!

(wok hei: The 'essence', 'fragrant' imparted by the wok when stir-frying over very high heat.)

Stir fried low shu fun 炒老鼠粉

Another signature dish is boiled octopus. 川烫八爪鱼

Boiled octopus with short period to retain the crunchiness, mixed with garlic oil and soya source.

Topped with fried garlic and scallion. This dish is nice.

No wonder can be their signature dish.

Give some 'kick' by dipping the octopus in this chili source.

Add point, add point.

The Menu

They stir fried all the Chinese invented noodles. Yellow noodle,

thick rice noodle (kwee tiao), thin rice noodle (mihun),

udon (Japanese style), round shape rice noodle (low shu fun 老鼠粉),

yellow noodle in square shape (dai lok mee 大禄面).

In dry and wet styles.

Very old school feel.

This meal cost us RM31.10 for 2 pax.

Ipoh Tuck Kee

No. 61 Jalan Yau Tet Shin,

30300 Ipoh, Perak.

Tel: +6 05 253 7513

Before head back, we went to Ching Han Guan to grab their signature biscuit, meat floss pandan lotus paste biscuit. (肉鬆班兰莲蓉饼）

Ching Han Guan Biscuit 钟汉元饼铺

(2 streets away from Tuck Kee)

145 Jalan Sultan Iskandar

30000 Ipoh, Perak

Tel: +6 05 254 5126

Photo Courtesy: Ching Han Guan

Of course 1 biscuit was not enough to fulfill my craving of all these stuffs that I had during childhood. We also bought below stuffs at Gunung Rapat New Village.

362 Heong Peng

(362 Charcoal Baked Biscuit)

(362 炭烧香饼)

362, Jalan Gunung Rapat,

Gunung Rapat, 31359 Ipoh, Perak

Tel: +6 05 311 3529 / +6 016 560 9094

**Explanation:

Heong Peng: Heong Peng, Catonese way of pronunciation, it means fragrant pastries in English. These pastries, which resemble slightly flattened balls, contain a sweet sticky filling made from malt and shallots, which is covered by a flaky baked crust and garnished with sesame seeds on the surface.

Heong Peng is popular with the Malaysian Chinese community, especially those in Northern Peninsular Malaysia. In Ipoh easily can find more than 5 brands. Yu Hup is the oldest brand, but I few that it is too commercialized. 362 is located at a village house. They burned dried coconut skin for the oven instead of charcoal. Taste is nice, the filling still soft. With cruncy outer skin, I like it.