Everything You'd Want To Know Before Going For Your Ipoh Trip (part 1)

It's year end holiday season..  Let's have a short break! A jalan-jalan cari makan trip in Malaysia.

OMG...  It took us almost 6hours to reach Ipoh from KL the day before Xmas. 

Initally plan to reach Ipoh around lunch hour to have famous chicken rice with bean sprout. Due to the bad traffic, it's impossible for us to reach Ipoh for lunch.

End up,  we have to stop at Bidor to look for food. Found this shop (Pun Chun Bidor) with some positive comment about their food. We decided to have a try.

That's a lot of people waiting for table and food. Since it's only two of us,  we just ask around de whether got people willing to share table with us. We are lucky to find one! We ordered dry wantan noodles (rm7+) and the famous duck noodles (rm10+). 

While waiting for our main meals,  we ordered one siew pau (pork pastry-rm2) to temporary fill up our super duper hungry stomach. The taste is good.

Finally,  our food arrived after waited for almost 30min!  The char siew for wantan noodles are a bit dry.  Personally,  I prefer the herbal duck soup. It's tasty! The taste and texture of noodles just taste normal. After the meal, we bought some famous Kai zai beng (chicken biscuits) from the shop.  

We continue our journey after the lunch and finally arrive our hotel at Ipoh town around 3pm. We stay in Hotel Excelsior. A newly renovated hotel with spacious and clean room, easy access (walking distance) to most of the famous food stalls, e.g: Lou Wong chicken rice with bean sprout, Sing Eng Hou (kaya puff), dim sum shop... 

Stay tune for more stories about our Ipoh trip. 

Happy holidays! 

PJ Old Town Food Court

Red Bean Cendol Ice - RM2.80

红豆煎蕊雪

Famous with its 'gula melaka' and rose syrup.  It's red bean was cooked for 2-3 hours until it's soft.  It melted once in your mouth.

They also sell a variety of ice kacang, which includes bubur caca ice. 

Good price with great taste.  Will be back again to try other ice kacang offerings. 

Yong Tow Foo

酿豆腐

Braise pork with black fungus / Hakka Cha York

木耳焖炸肉 / 客家炸肉

Curry Fish Head

咖哩鱼头

Curry fish head,  Yong Tow Foo, braised pork with black fungus and two rice cost RM 44.00. Taste good but a bit pricey. I bet nothing can stop any malaysian from wanting decadently savoury grubs once in a while. Enjoy!

Gerai Seong Kee

祥记客家酿豆腐

K35, Taman Selera,  Jalan Organ,  Petaling Jaya. 

Tel : 03-77810946 / 016-2549454

Operating hours : 12:00-21:00 (closed on Tuesday) 

Gerai Minum Weng Kee

荣记冷藏饮品

K46, Taman Selera, Jalan Othman, Petaling Jaya 

Tel : 016-6115161

Operating hours : 11:00-21:00 

Love from appealing vegetarian meal!

Who says you cant have a visually appealing vegetarian meal? Feast your eyes!

Banana taste corn snacks from Korea

More snack goodies that I procured from Korea. Banana flavoured pop corn snack! More oddities that I find around the world during my travels abroad. Look out for it when you are around the corner!

Sweet Sakuma drops from Hida Mountain in Japan from a dear friend

Sakuma Drops! A type of hard candy from Japan. They always comes in slightly rectangular tins like this! Their designs dictates where they come from! This one came from Hida mountains in Japan! A rather uncommon place to visit. I love collecting these Sakuma drop tins! Always lovely!
Its not something you get to taste everyday! Plus its from a place far far away. That's what makes it special! I thank you dearly for this special gift.

Unique Decadent pancakes! Chocobanana Pancakes! Yummy Days!

Greatest decadent pancakes of the century! Meiji Chocolate syrup on Bananas! Time to enjoy some pancakes and satisfy my sweet tooth. Oh Yummy Days!

South Korean Specialty? Rice + noodles instant cup noodles - oddest you can find

The strangest things can always come from the most common things that we take for granted all the time. Take for example this odd combination for an instant noodle that I stumbled upon during my time in Seoul, South Korea. Swiftly I bought this thing off the shelf in some convenient store, and hurriedly tried it while resting at the hotel. I couldn't recognize any of the wordings on the packing except for the prominent Noodle+Rice. So, what should one wait for? Time to dig in to unearth the differences in cultures!

 

This looks innocent enough. When you open the package you get the usual seasonings pack and the noodles that you suppose to soften with hot water. But!!! In addition to the usual that you would expect with instant noodle packages, there's also RICE in it! I reckon they are par-boiled rice like what they do to pastas in the restaurants. WEIRD combination INDEED! 

 

After a few minutes of soaking the noodles and rice in some hot boiling water which the hotel provides, when you open the heat seal, you find rice and noodles harmoniously mixed together with spicy seasonings that will kick you to heaven and hell! Some how, the combination might look odd and strange in the beginning, the taste and texture of both is actually quite good. Mind you, I'm into everything that's odd and weird, but every time things turns out to be unexpectedly good or great! Never worse. 

Well, you have to hand it to the koreans to make every instant cup noodles SPICY! You'll be gulping down cold water or yogurt after the burning pain! Enjoy and cheers!! 

More of Japan's unique confectionary - Matcha Chocolate Pocky By Glico

Sweet sensations defined in a stick. Innovation is pervasive in the land of rising sun. They can make everything in to anything. Turning flavors inside out, taking conventional savoury flavors only found in everyday comfort food and inserting it into various forms of confectionery! Take for example this matcha also known as green tea, they extracted the flavors and essence and packed it into sticks of tea flavored biscuits and put it on sale everywhere! You can see this example repeatedly everywhere in Japan. Pocky is a famous household name. Well known throughout the world. This is just a small example of their limitless creativity! They not only come in "just" green tea. They have many types of green tea! Uji cha, sencha, and many more variations! You have to visit Japan to discover the perplexing choices! Be sure your sweet tooth can take it! Because the colors will definitely break your bank! Enjoy!

Pine Bud Drink From Lotte–An Oddity? Or a Novelty?

 

Found this little odd drink somewhere along the aisles of some convenient shop. I’d thought I give it a try since its something you don’t see everyday in my neck of the woods. So pucker up and gulp the sucker down!

Its always my motto to try everything that is odd and unusual to myself! Therefore, I owe it to myself to give this weird little drink a swing! After all, Korean drinks don’t come around in this part of town often.

After taking the first taste, it has a tingling and refreshing sensation on the tongue. A fresh drink for a tiring day! Enjoy and cheers!

Durian in cold country

We probably know that durians are a rarity in many parts of the world, and they probably cost a bomb. Since they don't really grow them in many parts of the world, lots of people just doesn't know how to enjoy the taste. Despite the health warning that is associated with this spiky delicacy, we love them the way you love your spouse, no? That's the remarkable charm of this pungent fruit. This picture I took in one of the supermarkets in Korea, they sell this oddity in the fresh fruit section, I do wonder how fresh it is. Your guess is as good as mine.

Banana milk, Papaya flavoured milk and mango papaya milk from Hong Kong

I wonder why don't we get more variety than just strawberry and chocolate flavoured milk.. Are we lacking in creativity? or just lacking in the drive to make people drink more flavoured dairy products...
Probably we could learn from the neighbors. Infuse some unbelievable flavours like what other people are doing. Perhaps some banana, papaya or some mangoes mixed in with papaya, now that's authentic! Probably. 

Weird burgers lately.. Black buns mixing with red buns...

Weird looking burgers must be in style lately because I have been seeing loads of multi-colored burger buns ranging from the blood red to the rather horrendous charcoal black! They must be running out of ideas for new submissions into the culinary world. Perhaps by injecting some variety of colorings into burger buns would make it taste a whole lot different? You have to be the judge. In my opinion, the only thing I can taste was probably the pain in my wallet.

 

Towering burger with copious amounts of caramelized onions in the middle.

Then it is skewered with an obscenely long wooden stick. Just to make sure it doesn't fall apart before it reaches your mouth.

 

Burger Bar At Kuchai Lama - A Simple Flair

A new location for some original burger enjoyment. They have an uncommon selection of burger and sides on offer.

 

This is one of the weird combinations, XO sauce with pasta and some ham. Hot and spicy spaghetti! Make you wanting to sip your drinks dry and order another one!

 

Simple jasmine tea. Nothing extraordinary

 

 

Time to admire the decor.. Grass Wall.. Romantic

 

 

Pork meat patty stuffed with mozzarella filling in the center, oozes out when you bite into it! Mamma Mia! Gooey and lovely! Exactly the way I like it! 

Its not exactly cheap though. 

Here's the location roughly because I couldn't find the exact spot on google maps:

  

Just another korean food fare - Han Woo Ri Korean BBQ Restaurant at Ampang Korean Village.

 

Another seemingly famous joint for some meat grilling sessions with friends or family. Comes with quite a fantastic choice of meats to wet your taste buds. Marinated pork or beef is available for those of you who likes your meat flavoured before being cooked. For the purists, you can opt for the juicy and fat-laden pork belly (above pic). Truly the tastes of the heavens above! 

The staff will help you to setup the whole meal so you practically do not need to move a muscle if you don't want to. Having people prepare and feed you the food is the height of extravagance and frivolity.

The food here is very well catered to korean and local tastes buds, be sure to bring a bigger party than 3 people because you will be struggling to finish the tasty grilled delicacy.

Besides the meaty fair, other usual korean cuisine are available too, like the ginseng chicken soup (Samgyetang) and Bimbimbap to name a few. You will have to discover for yourself the different variety of food and delicacies.

Bon appetite!

Here's the exact location of this meat-peddling joint on Google maps:

Han Woo Ri Korean BBQ Restaurant @ Jalan Ampang Utama

Jalan Ampang Utama 1/1

Taman Ampang Utama

68000 Ampang, Selangor, Malaysia

Torazou Tonkotsu Ramen Shop at Kuchai Lama

There hasn’t been many authentic tonkotsu ramen shops around town. Torazou tonkotsu ramen sprouted not too long ago at kuchai lama provided a refreshing spot to try out their take on the pork bone soup based ramen. Pork bone soup base ramens don’t come very often so I just had to go and give their offerings a swing. Most of the ramen shops that sprung up lately only offers soy sauce based or miso based soup.. I’m not saying that they aren’t any good, but you know.. you just itching to have some real taste of true japanese ramen with their milky white pork bone based soup complimented with springy handmade noodles. In my humble opinion, tonkotsu ramen are the King of all ramens! Itadakimasu~~!

Here’s a little peak at the menu for you. The first time I was there, I only ordered the signature dish, obviously named Torazou Ramen.


Torazou Ramen


Kushiyaki favourites
Verdict: Satisfying tonkotsu ramen at affordable price.

Blair's Crazy variety of death sauce (Made From World's Hottest Chillies)

History and story of the origin of the hottest sauce on planet earth courtesy of wikipedia:

Blair's Sauces and Snacks is a New Jersey based food company specializing in hot sauces and spicy snacks. Blair has been featured on FoodTV Unwrapped, the History Channel, the Discovery Channel, the premier of QVC Japan, Rolling Stone magazine, The Wall Street Journal, the Daily News, theNew York Post, and more.

Big Nose Restaurant in Kuchai Lama - Soul Food in the Cities

Let me introduce to your another Great Chinese restaurant at Kuchai Lama. This place is called Big Nose Restaurant. A snazzy name for a restaurant. It seems that this particular restaurant is rather well-known in these parts of town. They have a lot of different kinds of soups on sale. Good for nourishing the heart, mind and soul in these stressful parts of the city. A little comfort food that everyone of us could enjoy once in a while.

Puchong Umai-Ya Japanese Restaurant - Lunch Buffet

Umai-ya Buffet !! Lunch Break!!It’s Happy Hour on Your Saturday and Sunday

( Damansara Utama , and IOI Puchong Jaya Branch Only)

Lunch. Eat And Drink all Your Can!

From 11.30am to 2.30pm (kitchen last call @ 2pm)

Adult – RM58.00++

We decided to visit puchong for an all you can consume japanese buffett lunch. Why lunch? Because they don't do dinner. Buffett menu is only offered for lunch sessions. It will be ala carte for dinner.

So, with great anticipation we arrived at IOI Boulevard where this elusive japanese buffett restaurant resides. After searching high and low, we finally found the store. 

Paneer Burger and Paneer Wraps - Courtesy of McD in India

During my trip to India quite some time ago, I couldn't resist heading to the nearest McDonald's Restaurant. As far as I know, McDonald's tends to have different items on the menu in each and every country. India was no different. I just have to go and have a peek at the menu in the McDonald's within the international airport. Guess what I discovered? Indeed they have something authentically local item on offer. Something only available in India, a menu tailored to the local taste buds. The Special Item on the menu was known as McSpicy Paneer! You have no idea what kind stuff is that! I couldn't imagine at the time either. They come in 2 different versions. The faithful burger and the fancy wrap version.

You must be wondering what the heck is this Paneer? For your information, Paneer is a type of cheese whose origins can be traced back to south Asia and the middle east. It is made by adding vinegar or lemon juice into heated milk, then the resulting curd is drained and excess water removed. The resulting paneer is then dipped in chilled water for 2-3 hours to give it some good texture and appearance.

The use of this Paneer is very common in India, they can be turned into fabulous and delicious dishes. Pan fried, deep fried or boiled in sauces, there are endless ways to savour this interesting ingredient.

In this case, McDonald's deep fried the paneer to give it a crispy outer shell with soft and hot inner filling. Coupled with some special sauce and added with some local spice and chillies, you have a local winner!
I jumped at the chance to taste both of the burger and the wrap version. I know I would just regret if I let this golden chance slip by. So I dutifully lined up at the counter and eagerly waiting to bite into McDonald's take on the traditional Paneer.

The first bite, the creamy and cripsy paneer is laden with spices! Its spicy to the taste and very delicious I might add. Aromatic spices overwhelms your senses, nothing like I've ever tasted before! Very nice indeed.

The Burger version has a bigger paneer than the wrapped variant. But the wrapped variant has more iceberg lettuce in it. As you can see, the burger has a lot more creamy sauces on it, at least McDonald's didn't skimp on the sauce. A very flavourful bite from India!

What kind of special menu item do you have in your country? I can't wait to sample them all! 

More bizarre and awfully amazing Kit Kat collection

Just when you thought that nestle Kit Kats around couldn't get anymore amazing, Welcome the fun pack Halloween version! This sassy colored chocolate goodness, covered in orange colored chocolate with the standard wafer in between is everything you need for your next trick or treat session!
How could you resist trying something so divinely delicious? Let's just drop the formality and dig in! Gruesome!