Hoi Seng Restaurant, Ipoh Garden

Hubby suggested that we invite his brother and wife out to dinner tonight. We decided to try the relatively new Hoi Seng restaurant in Ipoh Garden, just next to the post office.

I had seen the place come up next to the post office on my trips sending out packages and also when the kids and I have roti canai for breakfast. Seemed like a pretty big building for a restaurant. Fellow blogger Motormouth had already tried out the place and posted his review on his blog. So tonight I took some pointers from his blog and ordered 3 of the dishes he had tried - the Shanghai Pork Ribs, Deep-Fried Lotus Roots with Salted Egg and the Hoi Seng Bean Curd.

We got to Hoi Seng pretty early as the restaurant said we couldn't reserve a table for 6 as they had run out of tables that size and only had large tables. We were told to "walk in" preferably before 7pm. Actually, we needn't have worried. There were plenty of tables available. True, there weren't many small tables but no matter, we had our pick of any of the tables for 8. But the place filled up quite quickly after 7.15pm.

The Shanghai Ribs were tender, meaty with plenty of sauce to dunk the plain buns in. Funny thing was, the waitress called it "Wuxi Pork Ribs" in Cantonese. Now, we had been to Wuxi in China last year, where they serve their famed Wuxi Pork Ribs, and Hoi Seng's ribs is nothing like that. Well....maybe the restaurant just wanted it to be mysterious. The deep fried lotus roots were quite nice, but tonight, not as crispy as it could have been. The bean curd was good, and managed to actually suit my fussy 4-year old's palate.

We ordered bean sprouts (good) and black pepper fish slices (not peppery enough). Overall, the food was above average, and we would return to sample the other dishes on the menu. My kids had no problem with the ambience too, which is a plus point.

How much does your maid eat?

Over the recent Deepavali weekend, my parents came to visit and stay over. They came with my brother, his wife and theiry baby boy. My parents had to bring along their maid of 6 months as they did not want to leave her alone in the house - who knows what she might do?

Anway, my Mom has been regaling me with stories of how much her new maid eats. I have seen her in action, whenever I visit KL. She eats about 2 cups of raw rice a day, for lunch and dinner (wait, wait, she cooks the rice of course. Phew! Had to clarify that lest we be accused of maid abuse, given the sensitivities of the time) Maybe a bit of perspective will help here. My family consisting of myself, husband, 2 kids and our maid cook about 2 cups of rice for lunch/ dinner, and we usually don't finish the rice. There is always a bit leftover. So that's about 4 cups of rice a day for 3 adults and 2 kids, compared to my Mom's one maid who gobbles up 2 cups of rice a day.

Oh, and she loves sugar too. She eats (drinks?) 1 kilogram of sugar in about 2 weeks, give or take a couple of days. And of course chillies! My Mom lets her blend a whole kilo of dried chillies with onions, garlic and ginger to make her "sambal" which she can't live without, and she eats all of that in a matter of days. Then she complains of a stomach ache! I wonder why she gets a stomach ache, don't you? Then she has the cheek to let us know that back home in Indonesia, she doesn't get to use onions and garlic for her sambal, so it is extra delicious here! (that's why she can't help stuffing herself!)

My Mom's maid has also told my maid, "Saya mari kerja di Malaysia mesti makan banyak banyak!" (When I come to work in Malaysia, I must eat a lot!)

I asked my maid if they were short of food back home in Indonesia. My maid says no. Back home, they may not have much money, but food is abundant as they grow a lot of their own food and raise livestock. The volcanic soil ensures abundant crops and the Indonesian govt also has a food aid program that distributes rice and cooking oil to needy families every month. My maid says that while they may not eat as much meat as we do, they have plenty in terms of vegetables, potatoes, soya bean products and local fruits. So where does this gluttony come from?

My Mom's maid is obsessed with food and her weight, complaining that she has lost weight since she came here. So when they were all here, I took the maid to my bathroom and weighed her on my digital scale. The scale registered 43.3 kg. She was 41kg when she came - she's put on 2.3 kg in 6 months. Nobody can say she's not been fed well! She is also very short, well under 5 feet.

My former colleague had a maid who also ate a lot. She went through 1kg of sugar a week, mountains of rice and stole condensed milk, as she just loved to eat it. My colleague found empty cans of condensed milk under her bed.

I wonder if the contract should stipulate how much the maid should eat? It wouldn't matter, as the maids break their contract anyway. And there is nothing the Malaysian and Indonesian govts can do about it, despite their countless meetings and MOUs. The fact is, there are very few maids from Indonesia who have a sense of honour, obligation, loyalty or gratitude despite earning more money than they ever could dream of working back home in Indonesia.

Hokkien Mee (Tai Lok Meen)

I took my kids out to lunch in Ipoh Garden South (I know, it's a school day) because yesterday while buying herbs at Soong Kong, I spied 2 ladies eating the black, thick noodles that I love so much at the Sentosa Ria coffee shop next door.

I grew up eating Hokkien Mee or Tai Lok Meen (big fat noodles) in PJ and I so miss Hokkien Mee; however, it is not an Ipoh dish, so there is a dearth of places that sell it here. And even those that do, don't match up.

As I discovered today. It looks good enough, but there was just no "fire" taste to the dish; the black sauce used failed to deliver the salty-sweet taste that is trademark to a good Hokkien Mee; and the fried pieces of lard were not numerous enough nor crispy enough. I took away a packet of the Hokkien Mee for hubby and he too said, "fail".

There is one other place that sells a kinda passable Hokkien Mee - an old uncle and wife who run a stall in a coffee shop (sorry I can't remember the name) opposite Yum Yum Restaurant on Persiaran Greenhill.

Sigh.....I would be glad to find a good Hokkien Mee in Ipoh.

Restoran Makanan Laut Yam Yam, Ipoh Garden South

This restaurant is one of my brother in law's favourite restaurants. So, we've been there several times with them.

The restaurant serves Chinese food, and the taste of its dishes are moderately good. My brother in law and his wife love the sweet and sour crabs, chilly crabs (any crabs) there. Other dishes they like to order are the pork patties....strange, I can't remember any other outstanding dishes there. What I do remember when we paid for dinner there is the outstanding price! Rather expensive for a non-air conditioned place.

My kids are not impressed with their sweet & sour pork.

Old Style eating place, Ming Kee

When I say old style, I mean a place that the kids would complain about going to.....old shop lot, no decorations, no air conditiong, peeling paint, greasy tiles and floor, but reasonably cheap and good food.

Before we moved to Ipoh, one of my family's favourite place to have rice and dishes for dinner is Ming Kee in Paramount/ SEA Park. It is on the same row of shops as the famous Sunrise Duck Rice, but on the opposite end, facing the KFC at the traffic light junction.

The best dish there. for us, is the Crispy Fried Chicken with Onions (yeong choong kai). We have yet to find any other restaurant that makes this dish better than Ming Kee. It is served with lots of chicken pieces battered and fried, and cooked in sauce accompanied with lots of big onion rings. If you are a lover of onions, you can ask for extra onions - we do!

The steamed fish in ginger or bean sauce is good, fish head curry is great (you can also have plain vegetable curry, just as good), all their beancurd dishes are delicious, and vegetables fried in many different styles. Oh, and we always order the sweet & sour pork for our kids. The proprietors are very friendly and they usually give our kids free soup to go with their rice.

Dim Sum in Kao Lee @ Ipoh Garden

We decided to try some place different for dim sum last Sunday. The usual popular restaurants would be crowded, so we trooped off to Kao Lee in Ipoh Garden, near Wooly's. An uncle had recommended this place to us.

It was easy enough to find parking at 10am, and we waited about 5 minutes for a table. It was bustling inside the restaurant but there weren't queues like you would see in Ming Court.

You can get all your favourite dim sum items here. Their specialties are pasted onto a wall, with pictures, so you can pick which one you would like to try. I picked the Chinese-sausage rice (lap-mei fan), my favourite New Year rice, to go with our other dishes. It was rather dry and crumbly, as Kao Lee does not use glutinous rice, just normal rice. The kids liked the char siu pao enough, while the other dishes like siu mai, har kao, chee cheong fun, congee, wu kok .... were passable. Perhaps lacking in a distinctive flavour one would find in the other famous restaurants in town.

Still, if you don't want to jostle with crowds and have people watching you while you eat, you could try this neighbourhood dim sum restaurant.

Noodles at Chee Wah

We had noodles for dinner last night. Usually the kids would be thrilled as it isn't rice, but when I said we were going to a coffee shop-style place, they complained. "Why not 1919?", they wailed. They were set straight about not expecting every meal being in a posh, air-conditioned place, and besides their uncle would be joining us for dinner. That helped to cheer them up a bit.

My hubby had been telling me about this place for sometime. That they had very good "loh shee fun" (white, short,slippery noodles nicknamed "rat tails") but also that it is quite, erm, a messy and uh, "not so clean" looking coffee shop. Aha, that's not so very inviting. But, in Malaysia, you know and I know that the good food is served in run-down-yet- popular places.

So, Chee Wah is located on Jalan Che Tak in Ipoh, near the Caltex petrol station. The shop sure looks old and dirty. The proprietor wisely does not seat anyone inside the shop, they set up tables outside. Oh and the shop starts serving pretty late, from 7:30pm onwards. We were the first to arrive at 7:25pm.

Our first dish was fried mee hoon/ vermicelli. Quite well done and tasty. Then came the dozen fried chicken wings - another house specialty. Piping hot and well marinated - the chicken wings and drummets disappeared in a jiffy. Then the star arrived, claypot loh shee fun. It comes boiling merrily in the claypot and the proprietor brings along the eggs in his hand to crack them into the pot for you. Then you stir the egg in yourself. At first look, it is soupy, eggy, with lots of bean sprouts and some minced meat but very insipid and pale in colour. Not like the ones you get in KL. I am a KL girl after all. But the proof is in the eating, and it was delicious! Full of flavour, fragrant, with the bean sprouts adding crunch.

Genji @ PJ Hilton

While in KL over the current school holidays, we quickly made a reservation for dinner at Genji Japanese Restaurant, given the scarcity of good Japanese food in Ipoh. We were not disappointed.

We were booked for the buffet dinner on Saturday for the 6-7.45pm slot. The second slot is from 8-10pm. The ambience inside Genji was soothing and calm. The wait staff were attentive and friendly. Our kids were really excited to be able to choose from the array of food displayed.

The sashimi and sushi were fresh, as were the oysters. I had 5 oysters with some lemon squeezed onto them - delicious! The tempuras were very well done as were the deep fried soft shell crabs. The prawn tempura wins top marks for being fresh and crisp. The stir fried beef was tender and tasty, while my little girl had 3 helpings of soupy udon, and 2 cups of chawan mushi. She enjoyed dipping her marshmallow sticks into warm melted chocolate. My boy had his fill of sushi and explored the well-stocked dessert table.

The time just flew, and we left satisfied with the quality of the buffet. We will definitely go back for more, next trip.

Kizuna Japanese Restaurant

Since moving to Ipoh, we have not eaten Japanese here. We had initially planned to go to Kedai Makan Sri Maju for the beef brisket noodles tonight but due to some delay, we could not get there early enough. And on weekends, it is notoriously difficult to get a table there if you don't arrive early enough. So a change of plan was needed - out of the blue, hubby said why not try a Japanese restaurant near Tesco. Wow! A decent Jap restaurant nearby? The kids were excited too.

Before we went, I did a quick check on the blogs. I read 2 blogs by Ipoh-ites who reviewed Kizuna quite well. To be safe, I tried to call ahead for a reservation but they were fully booked! Just walk in...they said.

We had the soft shell crab roll (RM6), which was quite good. But the cheese korokke (a fried cheese ball) was more of a potato ball than cheese ball (RM9). The chicken katsu don (RM12) had generous slices of cripsy fried chicken and seaweed pieces on top of the rice, but the taste was heavy on mushrooms which threw the balance off. I had the fried bento set (RM24.80) which had 4 slices of sashimi, shredded cabbage salad, and several pieces of prawn, squid and vegetables that were crumbed and fried - unfortunately, the batter was much too thick. We also ordered extra chawan mushi (RM5) for the kids. Hubby didn't say much about his gyu shoga bento set (RM24.80).

After reading what the blogs had said, I was quite disappointed with the quality of food at Kizuna. As you can see from the prices, it isn't cheap either.

Cake houses

There are several cake houses in Ipoh. Of course you will see the chain-franchise types like King's, La Manila, Secret Recipe and Baskin Robbins. But I tried 2 family-run bakeries in Ipoh Garden.

The first was Seasons Cake House, which sits along the same row of shop houses in Ipoh Garden as 7 Eleven. The first time, we bought a Power Rangers 3-D helmet cake for my boy. Hmm, can't say that the helmet turned out quite as I would have imagined. The second time this year, we bought a Thomas Tank cake for my son. The rectangular picture was cute enough but for both cakes, much too sweet.

Then later this year for my girl's birthday, I decided to try a different cake house. It sits on the same row as Maybank in Ipoh Garden and is called Yohan, about 2 doors away from KFC. I ordered girls' perennial favourite icon, Barbie, as the theme for the cake. It turned out beautifully and everyone who came for dinner that night ooh and aahed at the cake. And the orange sponge cake was light, tasty and just right in terms of the texture of the cream as well as sweetness. Of course the birthday girl got to keep the Barbie in the cake too!

My choice would be Yohan in Ipoh Garden.

Under the tree, Jalan King

Just got back from lunch with the family. We went to Jalan King, Pasir Pinji, where there is a collection of hawker stalls. The place has seen some improvement as there is now a zinc roof for more cover.

We ate at the fried and wet yong tau foo (char liu and sap liu) stall. It is always busy and the sign says it is open from about 9am to 5pm. There is a big selection of fish paste stuffed into different kinds of vegetables like lady's fingers, brinjal, bitter gourd, even into yau-char-kwai, and then fried. The stuffed yau-char-kwai was quite different, and very cripsy! An interesting fried vegetable done here is the "sa kot" or "sengkuang" or "yam bean". The pricing is very reasonable - 50 sen a piece.

The fried veges are accompanied by noodles from the same stall. You can either have it dry and mixed with black sauce, or with soup, or in asam laksa broth. Yum! The asam laksa is sour and tangy. The meal came to about RM18 for our family of 6. A caveat though - no air cond, not too tidy, old tables and chairs. If you're ok with that, go for it.

Foh Sun Dim Sum Restaurant

We tried to go for a dim sum breakfast a few weeks back on a Sunday at "Dim Sum Street" , but the queues and the wait just proved too much for our young family. First we tried Ming Court; definitely no-go; the lines were snaking out the door. Then we tried Yuk Fook Mun; queues not spilling out the door but it still looked to be a long wait. The new Foh San wasn't opened then. We ended up at the Central coffee shop at the corner of the block, having rice dumplings, hor hee and mee jawa.

So today, a Friday, we decided that it would be a much better day to try Foh San. Hubby took the morning off so we could go. Whoa! The place was packed and we still had to hover around for a table. Don't people in Ipoh work? My mom said there looked to be a lot of retirees eating there. Sigh.....so Ipoh is a town for the old folks? Ipoh-ites, you gotta do something to make this town more vibrant and bring the young blood back here! Wait a minute, there was that change of government, chosen by the people, which could have made a difference to Ipoh, but then something nasty happened...........???

We ordered 2 porridges - fish and pork balls. Smooth and broken, just like how Cantonese porridge should be, and the pork balls were huge. My girl liked the porridge. We had 3 variants of the traditional "siu mai" - alright, but nothing outstanding. Chee cheong fun was passable but didn't quite impress.

There was an interesting "pau" that was all spirals on the outside with a hole cut out at the top and crowned with a mushroom. Inside it was steamed glutinous rice - nice innovation and quite delicious. The "sang chau lo mai fan" however was a pale, bland presentation that disappointed. To finish off, we ordered the fried prawn foo-chuk with mayo sauce. Overall, the food wan't bad but with all the hoo-ha, not that fantastic either.

Honey Cempedak

There is a little place about 37 km north of Ipoh, past Kuala Kangsar, called Liman Kati New Village. Small village, small population. But there is a cempedak grower there whose trees produce "honey cempedak". Apparently the grower has quite a large clientele. Happened to pass by the new village so we bought a fruit back to try.


Its flesh is a deep yellow colour; texture is smooth and soft but not mushy; and its taste - honey sweet, like its name; seeds are small and rounded. Depends whether you like cempedak (or its relation, the nangka or jackfruit) as I know some people who are turned off by its smell. Same phenomenon with durians, I suppose.


We ate it as is and had it fried, as well. By the way, we could eat the seeds too - tastes like a nut. Just bite right through the seed. (I don't know whether you can eat the seeds of all cempedak varieties)

Citrus Wine & Dine

We decided on Citrus for lunch this Sunday. My son had seen the restaurant on one of our drive-abouts and been hankering to try it for some time. Both my kids prefer western food to rice.

We arrived about 12.45, which is my preferred time. I don't like to go at the same time as other diners. We were the first customers - at that time, that is. The waiting staff were very attentive and prompt with their service. The kids were all smiles upon entering the restaurant, indicating that the surroundings were to their liking - air-cond, clean, comfortable, nicely decorated. Rather particular, my kids!

The proprietor had given some thought to the menu, as there was one for adults, one for little boys and one for little girls. The kids' menu consisted of identical items, just the presentation was different. Sweet. We ordered 2 sets - one with cajun chicken, the other the spaghetty aglio olio - spaghetty bolognese, potato wedges and nuggets with mash for the kids.

The aglio olio was delicious, tasty and fragrant. My cajun chicken, however, could have done with more seasoning, as the taste didn't quite emerge. Kids liked their meals, which came with a Vitagen each - better than offering colas, so that was another thoughtful point by the proprietor. The side of potato wedges was quite large and nicely done. Coffee was a strong brew and the milk was served warm, while the bread and butter pudding that came with our sets was just right in sweetness and softness.

Citrus obviously pays attention to details such as the warm milk, changing the cutlery according to your order, providing boy or girl plates/ cups. The waiter also noticed immediately when my daughter dropped her fork and came to replace it pronto. We will be going back to Citrus.

Rakuzen @ Waterfront, Desa Park City

Ok, ok, I know this post doesn't fit under Food in Ipoh. But since I'm living in Ipoh, I don't think I will be blogging much about food in KL or PJ anymore. So, for now, I'll just slip this little article under the Ipoh Food section.

Ahh - Japanese food. Even my little ones like it. And Ipoh is bereft of any good, high end Japanese restaurant. I know there is a Sushi King in Ipoh Parade, which I have yet to go to.

Back when we were still living in the Klang Valley, we found this little shopping cum dining cul de sac area in Desa Park City, a relatively new and well designed neighbourhood. Prices for the properties there? Expectedly, high. The developers had included a little neighbourhood shopping area which I like very much.

Obviously Australian-inspired with its open-air parking, clustering of shops and eateries. The first time we were there, my son exclaimed, "Hey! This place looks just like the Woolworths in Adelaide near uncle's house!" Hmmm, so much for originality. But, it's still nice. Very open, airy and breezy. You feel relaxed almost immediately. There is a little Jusco supermarket there, a pet shop (which gives those spoilt toy dogs baths and a haircut too!), New Zealand ice cream, a DIY shop, pharmacy, Kluang Station (I think), a steamboat restaurant (which does excellent business) and our fav Jap restaurant, Rakuzen.

We have yet to be disappointed with the food in Rakuzen. My son eats a lot each time we are there, probably helped by the exercise as the kids love the little playground area behind the shops and restaurants. If you have kids who still like playgrounds, I highly recommend you try out this playground. It has some higher-end play equipment not commonly found in the other playgrounds. I'd say it's even better than Lake Gardens' playground, just smaller. So try out this place for a weekend evening stroll followed by dinner. I'm sure you'll like it.

Bee Gaik Dining Place & Buffet Catering

We've seen this restaurant in Ipoh Garden South many times as we drive around the neighbourhood. Name sounds so Hokkien. So we decided to try it.

For dinner, we ordered the Assam Curry Fish Slices (they were out of fish head), Tung Po Yuk (braised fatty pork), bean sprouts fried with salted fish and golden bean curd. Prices of their dishes have all gone up, as can be seen from their menu where the old prices have been pasted over with new ones. Bee Gaik staff said they couldn't keep the prices as before on account of rising pork prices and everything else. Even with falling oil prices, food prices continue to rise and the government can't do anything about that (?).

The curry fish was delicious and I soaked my rice with the curry sauce. My hubby said my plate looked like some Indian rice! The bean sprouts were good and the salted fish fried till crispy - can't go wrong with Ipoh-grown bean sprouts! The braised fatty pork was tender and juicy with lots of gravy to dip the plain white buns that came with the dish.

While the restaurant is rather cramped, and noisy (all the chatter bounces off walls), the food was good and pricing reasonable. My children still like 1919 better, but we'll go back to Bee Gaik to try out their other dishes.

Bee Home Cafe (Sharon's Laksa)

This Saturday, my family and I decided to try out Sharon's Laksa in Taman Ipoh Perdana, which my hubby had read about from another Ipoh blogger. The blogger had rated the Laksa highly. I always enjoy spicy foods, so was looking forward to lunch on Saturday.

We arrived at about 12.45 pm, and the restaurant was empty. Service was prompt enough, and Sharon herself was there. When we said we had come to try her laksa, she was pleased. For us, we ordered Sharon's Siamese Laksa and the Sambal Lou Shu Fun. For the kids, we ordered the Chicken Chop and Fried Udon, along with a side of fried won ton. While waiting for our orders to arrive, we went outside to check out their al fresco dining area. Would be pretty pleasant at night.

The Siamese Laksa was tasty and creamy, but not truly the Siamese style we had expected. Perhaps it is Sharon's own interpretation. It was just a bit too sweet. The Sambal Lou Shu Fun, lacked the "fire" or what Chinese call "wok hei", thus tasted rather bland, save for the spiciness of the sambal. My son seemed to enjoy the chicken chop, but for the price of the chicken chop here, I would prefer to have Fantasy Cafe's chicken chop set which consists of soup and bread, the chicken chop with fries and salad, ice cream and tea or coffee. Real value for money and not bad in taste! My little girl enjoyed her Fried Udon, which came with slivers of chicken meat and cabbage. The fried wonton was alright, but there are places that do much better fried won ton, like Hoong Tho in Old Town.

By the time we left, the restaurant had served only one more table of two ladies. Pretty quiet for a Saturday. We probably won't be going back for Sharon's Laksa.

Food in Ipoh

In the few months since we moved to Ipoh, we have tried out a few places and the kids and I have decided which ones they like or don't.

For breakfast there's Hollywood, a coffee shop in Canning Garden. It is probably the only Chinese coffee shop I know of which is pork-free. So there is a good-sized Malay clientele, which I think is great. You know, the muhibbah thing and all. The first time I saw so many Malays eating there, I was rather puzzled. Well onto the food that Hollywood serves. My son likes the Hong Kong style chee cheong fun done with prawns. The beef brisket noodles is quite good, as is the char kuay teow, though there are 2 different vendors of char kuay teow, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. The roti canai vendor there is so-so, and the Ipoh sar hor fun in Hollywood does not do the dish justice. It is much more delicious in other shops in Ipoh. There is a "pisang goreng" vendor there who sells a good variety of fried snacks.

I love roti canai, capati, tose, you name it, and it must go with good dal or fish curry. When we first came to Ipoh, I was quite disappointed as the standard of mamak food just can't compare to KL. The rotis were either too crispy or not brown enough and the dals and curries too weak. But happily I found one to my liking - Bukit Merah Curry House in Ipoh Garden. As for banana leaf rice, we like Kalai's in Ipoh's Little India section.

Of course there is the perennial favourite, Kong Heng, in Old Town, Ipoh. Most of the food there is pretty good. Sotong kangkung, pork satay, sar hor fun, chee cheong fun, laksa (nice and tangy). If it's full out, you could always hop next door to eat in the House of Mirrors or Tien Chun, which serves similar food to Kong Heng. Tien Chun does a great baked caramel custard - it sells out real fast.

For rice dishes at lunch time, do try out Koh Kee which is located just opposite the House of Mirrors in a little non-descript alley. All the food dished up tastes yummy with a homey flavour. We love it! And not too expensive either. Hoong Tho, not too far away from House of Mirrors (nearer to the Kinta Flats) serves up nice tasting noodles, and fried wan ton.

As for dinner, my kids love 1919 Restaurant and Gallery, which is opposite Tesco. Air conditioned, nice ambience and great waiting staff. I must say the training for their waiters is excellent. On Mother's Day, as we were leaving, the waiter wished me Happy Mother's Day. The manager there, Stephen, is real friendly and accommodating. If you are going on a weekend, do call ahead to reserve a table. It's that full.

Long-established Tuck Kee in Pasir Pinji gives great value food, and does not disappoint in taste. It is always used for wedding dinners, so beware. And the queue just outside Tuck Kee for the restaurant's char siu and roast duck snakes around the corridors! Some where near Tuck Kee in Pasir Pinji under a cluster of old trees is a collection of stalls. Locals call it "Tai Su Keok" which literally means "at the foot of the big tree". Lots to choose from and cheap. Fried yong tou foo with noodles, laksa, porridge etc .

Ipoh doesn't have much to offer in terms of Western dining, but there are Italia Mia (Sunway City); Brewster's and Miner's Arm (in town); and Fantasy Cafe for cheap and fast western sets (on the Road where Elim Church and Ave Maria girls' school are). Of course there is the exorbitantly priced Indulgence, which I have not tried. Apparently the price of food in Indulgence is as expensive as 5 star hotels in KL.

More of my accounts of food in Ipoh will come later.