Looks like I have not start anything on 2016 in my blog space! Time flies and it is now May 1st... oh dear, how can life be that busy?
Ipoh and its surrounding food trip is a yearly event for us. That's the best time to shop for CNY goodies and fresh local made sausages.
Journey to the North started with this simple food mission -- hawkers and local market foodie trip! I super like simple food, and most importantly the feel of humanitarian a.k.a. 人情味.
1. Kampar Market - Medan Selera Kampar
I personally like this lo-mai-kai, filled with char-siew and fried ground nuts, flooded with curry. I couldn't find the stall in the food court, it was actually selling outside the main building, by an aunty.
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| yummy lo mai kai |
Chee Cheong Fun, it was nice too. But the problem is there are many stalls in the food court selling this. Watch out for the longest queue stall or check upon from famous foodie sites like FourSquare.
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| Chee Cheong Fun |
2. Sight Seeing -
Gaharu Tea Valley Gopeng
On the way up north, there's this tourist place which could worth a visit. Nothing much, but a quick 20min trip. We didn't join the guided tour to their plantation area. The selling point here was some useful tree or plant that has good benefit. They produced side products such as tea bag, instant noodle, etc..
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| Gaharu Tea Valley |
3. Gopeng Market -
Pasar Gopeng Food Court
Another highlight on market foodie - Gopeng food court. The moment we reached, the famous noodle stall has wrap up for their day. No worries, the fu-chuk yi-mai was a recommended tong sui too.
We went ahead and tried another stall that's long queue. Steam chicken porridge. It was unexpectedly good. The porridge was smooth and chicken was well cooked. Oh dear, I am hungry while writing now...
We stumble into this road side Laksa stall while heading to our shopping destination. Sounds interesting, but the weather was hot. Many drop by eating at the shop side... again, it was yummy. The laksa comes with fish paste and other yong-tau-fu stuffs.
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| Roadside laksa stall |
4. Shopping for Rattan -
Kedai Rotan Ken
This was the shopping destination. Gems were hidden in this mess.. lol. We searched on and on, and finally spent some money here with a pair of large rattan chair, and another pair of smaller ones. It was made fresh from oven, and the owner needed us to pick up only the next morning, as he needed to finish the final bit of waxing.
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| Kedai Ratan Ken |
5. Our stay in Ipoh -
Weil Hotel
Very nice hotel, which situated at the central Ipoh, right next to Ipoh Parade. We had a good deal at agoda and it was a worth experience. Nice room,, nice room view, modern and clean. Room's comes with complimentary Pagoda nuts. And the highlight is at its infinity pool. Had a evening swim and hang out early in the morning, should had the swim in the quiet morning instead.
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| Room view |
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| Add caption |
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| Hotel lobby |
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| Infinity Pool |
6. Dinner -
Buntong Taugeh Ayam
It was a bad idea to hit this place at 7pm. We waited 2 hours for this simple dish, or should we say supper? The chef and service indeed having some kind of processes issue, serious revamp required. Advice is to hit this place by 6pm, as we did the last time. No doubt, the food is still good compared to the tourist place
hor-fun chicken.
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| Hor-fun Chicken |
7. Supper, or kinda chill session -
新元华饮食阁雪花啤酒
It was such a traditional hangout place, just next to Ipoh Concubine street. From the name of the street, one would imagine what kind of night life area would it be 40-50 years ago. We passed by the place many time years were I still had my second home here, but no intention to stop by.
Very unique and traditional serving and table cloth. That's all I recalled, plus the chilled glass, once pour with beer, it turned into icy snow float.
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| Snowy Beer |
8. Next foodie on the next day... -
新汉商酒楼 Restoran Sun Hon Siong
On our next destination, Sitiawan, we stopped by Ayer Tawar for lunch. Our usual dining place, which my late grandma may occasionally stop here for meal. According to my uncle, the family had patron this shop for 40 over years.
Love their red wine chicken mee sua and O-Chien. Our typical pick for meal of two.
9. Chill afternoon -
James Cendol
We were slightly aimless while in Sitiawan. In fact, nothing much to achieve except chilling around and spend another day before off we back home. Decided to stay a night in this small town. Afternoon coffee was supposed to be our next destination, but the famous pao and bread place only start business at 3pm. Hence, we had a bowl of cendol to share. This famous guy served the king before, and his cendol's highlight is always the gula melaka. The sweet dark brown sugar syrup.
10. New try, afternoon coffee -
Yee Si Restaurant 依西茶室
The multi layer peanut crunch bread was a highlight. Luckily we ordered before headed for Cendol. By the time we came slightly before 3pm, it was all sold out! Phew.. the owner did take our order ( I think we paid ahead, kiasu ) and reserved for us. The
sang-yuk pao was highlight too. They sold out pretty fast.
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| Pao and peanut layered bread |
Headed few steps from the back of the shop, there's another local treasure of bake biscuits. This type of bread/biscuit filled either with onion or minced pork. Taste good, and it could keep for months in freezer.
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| Kom Piang |
11. Evening sunset -
Teluk Senangin Beach
Googled for some to-do recommendation around. Since we were aimless, heading for sunset for nature hunting was the only solution. I was placing quite high hope for a nice beach, since it was a proper build public recreation place.
It was unfortunate, the facilities were nicely built but mentality of users were not. I saw lots of food waste and rubbish were left behind nearby trees. It must be left over from a picnic or so. Sad.
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| Rubbish left behind |
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| My Lego followed me |
12. Dinner at Pantai Remis -
Restoran Makanan Laut Ng Chin Boon
Honestly, my tummy could not fit any more food that evening. Since our very last visit to this shop many years ago, we didn't return due to various reasons. This time, we had some finger specialty foods - fried squid and fried sugar coated yam. The yam was special.
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| Fried squid and sugar coated yam |
13. Place we stayed -
Mornington Hotel Sitiawan
Nice budget hotel. Overall experience wasn't bad, compared to once we 4 cramped into a room above shop house.. lol
14. We left Sitiawan earlier, to avoid traffic jam -
海产茶室
Nothing much we can find in Sg Besar for brunch. We stumble this hawker place and grab some food. The
char kuey teaw with egg was good, pretty traditionally fried with lots of dark soy sauce.
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| Hawker center in Sg Besar |
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| And what we had |
15. Last stop before heading home -
新乐茶餐室
A place named Jeram. A coffee shop famous for their pao and yam puff. We had some and packed some home. That was end of the foodie journey.
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| Nice yam puff and pao |
I wish to visit more market and hawker place for good food. Thanks to some reviews in foursquare, else wouldn't had know much of what to aim for over those common market place. Perhaps follow where the local goes.
