Perak : Guide to Ipoh - 22 Must Eat and Visit (V.1)

Ipoh, Malaysia.

Recently with the TV Show by Chapman To on "Pick Me Up to Malaysia" (杜汶泽 - 走佬去马来！) and scenes on Ipoh with a few familiar and recommended spots for local food, inspired me to write my list on "Guide to Ipoh".

What I could say about Ipoh Food? It just original and tasted local, I miss the food from Ipoh, in fact. The smooth textured chicken, the roasted coffee, they are delicious!

During my trip at Ipoh, we stayed at the same hotel for twice and will be staying at the same hotel in the future as well. Convenient and near (by foot) to a list of delicious pastries shop and must eat eateries. Morever, Grab is cheap in Ipoh.

Back to the Guide to Ipoh, every where are packed with people when it comes to food. Just go for it! 

1) Ipoh Yong Tau Fu

Stuffed meat varieties and small eateries are recommended in Ipoh. Usually, this eatery can be found at stalls at coffee shops / restaurants.

2) Restoran Tauge Ayam Lou Wong 老黄
49, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee

The first meal that we had when we reach Ipoh on our first trip. I love Ipoh's Kuey Tew, thin layer and soft when we munch. Chicken meat was tender.

 

 

3) Restoran Tauge Ayam Ong Kee 安记芽菜鸡沙河粉

48, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee

Chicken meat are absolutely delicious in Ipoh, no wonder Ipoh are home of chicken! Lou Wong and Ong Kee serving the same chicken rice and other selection.

4) Lam Fong Biscuit 南方饼家

52, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee

Pastries are well known in Ipoh. One of them would be the freshly baked Kaya puff of this old bakery.

5) Funny Mountain Soya Bean & Tau Fu Fah 奇峰豆腐花

50, Jalan Mustapa Al-bakri, Taman Jubilee

It was my first to have such a silky texture Soya Beancurd. Serving day time and close when their Soy bean curd and Soy bean drinks sold out! Even outsiders just placed their order in bulk for take away.

6) Ayam Garam Aun Kheng Lim 宴琼林盐焗鸡

The most convenient take away outlet for hot seller Salted Chicken. We may bring back home if we wanted too!

7) Ipoh Tuck Kee 怡记保德

61, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, Taman Jubilee

The original fragrance of WOK! Famous for most of their noodles selection! The colours and presentation are not appetizing, but they taste good though.

8) Restoran Xin Quan Fang 新泉芳咖喱面茶餐室

174, Jalan Sultan Iskandar, Taman Jubilee

By foot, we could walk to the nearby Curry Noodle restoran. However, I don't favour much on their noodle and we waited for quite a long time.

9) Paris Restaurant
190, Jalan Sultan Iskandar, Taman Jubilee

Hakka Mee and Stuffed Meat various that recommended to have here.

10) Street Arts

Street art are trending at many places in Malaysia. The fame started from Penang and Ipoh. And it's Instagram frame caption too.

11) Concubine Lane 二奶巷

The old street of Ipoh, lots of snacks and souvenirs to buy!

 

12) Kafe Yoon Wah 元华饮食阁 雪花啤酒

We had one of the special beer here at Ipoh - The Snow Beer! Start from evening and some how we can also have dinner and supper here too.

"Snow Beer" 雪花啤酒

13) Ho Yan Hor 何人可

The history of herbal tea. Located near to Concubine Lane. No entrance fee.

14) Restoran Thean Chun 天津茶室
73, Jalan Bandar Timah

Egg Custard is recommended from this restaurant!

 

15) 新源隆 (Sin Yoon Loong)  

15A, Jalan Bandar Timah

The first white coffee. I had pure white coffee daily when I was at Ipoh. Not express 3 in 1!

16) Nam Heong White Coffee Shop 南香茶餐室

2, Jalan Bandar Timah

Does Old Town White Coffee rings the bell? One of the large franchise chain in Malaysia.

Nam Heong is the origin of Old Town White Coffee. Just like we said, White Coffee is a must try in Ipoh! The origin of roasted coffee.

Other than White Coffee, they do have varieties of eateries, from noodles to fresh egg tarts and other local snacks.

 

17) "Dessert Street" (Tong Shui Gai) 糖水街

Jalan Sultan Ekram, Taman Jubilee

The local ask us to walk... walk... walk and you can see XXX building and walk until you reach the end, you will see a lot of stalls. And that's Tong Shui Gai, where the youngster hang out during the night. Unlike KK, we go for cafes or milk tea. :D

Personally, perhaps Tong Shui Gai offers varieties of shaved ice and fruits, that's why it was named such. We could have fried noodles and more local Wok fried meals as well. *Street Food*

18) Ming Court Hong Kong Dim Sum 明阁香港点心

36, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Kampung Jawa

Many recommended us to try the Dim Sum by Ming Court. I didn't manage to try it whereby limited selection of Dim Sum if compared with the opposite huge Dim Sum restaurant. 

19) Foh San Dim Sum 富山茶楼

51, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Kampung Jawa

Foh San Dim Sum have the largest outlet of whole building and two floors of place of customers. Creative dim sum served by the restaurant.

20) Temples

Referring to various cave temples in Ipoh

i) Sam Poh Tong (Cave) Temple 三宝洞

ii) Ling Sen (Cave) Temple 灵仙洞

iii) Kek Lok (Cave) Temple 极乐洞

iv) Nam Thean (Cave) Temple 南天洞

I was amaze with the beautiful cave temples in Ipoh that built and designed by the nature. As a Buddhist, the temples calm us quite a lot although it might be a little creepy in some sense. 

By the way, do visit the temples before 5pm, many will be closed that that hour.

21) Gua Tempurung

Pusat Pelancongan Gua Tempurung, 31600 Gopeng, Perak.

Tempurung Cave is popular among spelunkers, or caving enthusiasts. More than 3 km long, it is one of the longest caves in Peninsula Malaysia.

Tempurung Cave might not be in our list if we are heading to Kampar or any other town in Perak.

22) Ipoh Railway Station

Stesen KTM Ipoh.

"The Ipoh railway station is a Malaysian train station located at the south-western side of and named after the capital city of Ipoh, Perak. It serves as the main railway terminal for the state under Keretapi Tanah Melayu offering KTM ETS services, as well as handling freight trains." 

If I'm not mistaken, Ipoh Railway Station has been there for at least 100 years of history.

Now... How to go to Ipoh?

There are two ways.

1) By railway (KTM ETS)

From KL Central to destination.

or 

2) By long distance bus ride

From airport / KL Central.

or

3) Rent a Car

Driving yourself to visit Ipoh!

List of 22 of Guide to Ipoh! Do enjoy when you happen to visit Ipoh!

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An Old Town called Ipoh and Kampar, Perak

Travel Malaysia. Experiencing Journey to IPOH and KAMPAR.

It was a random decision to visit Ipoh during the recent trip to Kuala Lumpur. After all, it is the motto of mine to step on the ground of any parts of Malaysia if possible and whenever convenient.

Ipoh, the city of Perak. Easily arrived there directly from Kuala Lumpur via ETS Train or long distance bus. The first impression about Ipoh from such we read from online is their varieties of food.food. and yet, still food. 

As for my first impression from the moment I reached Ipoh railway station and while we were on our way to the hotel, were the old buildings each time we passes by, the heritage that left behind since 1890s and earlier as well. I was impressed and always love the heritage of a little town or in a city that we are unable to see a lot in our usual day.

Ipoh Railway Station being one of the oldest railway in Malaysia. Honestly, it was a bit spooky, but keeping it running their operation, it's a good job. Out of our expectation, it was Visit Ipoh Year and a lot of tourists and locals visited Ipoh this time of the year and especially during the weekend. We were there during week days, so we were fine with the crowd!

Avoiding us from missing our train on Saturday, the day we planned to reach KL before the wedding dinner, we purchased our return tickets before we left the railway station. And guess what? I have booked our hotel online and surprisingly without being noticed that we were actually staying at one of the recommended and most convenient place to indulge Ipoh food! 

And for the 3 days 2 nights, we ate a lot of Ipoh "must eat", from "Nga Choi Gai" (Tau Geh & steamed Chicken) to the first Ipoh White Coffee kopitiam, even the original coffee shop for famous Old Town Cafe.

We did enjoy our food trail and additional journey to Kampar and sight seeing, we had one of the best woman driver ("Kakak", meaning sister in local dialect) we met in town! She was a kind Malay woman that brought us and introduced us some of the famous Malay Nasi Kanja and she knew where to visit and to eat for Chinese like us.

The first meal in Ipoh. Settled ourselves at the hotel after we reached the hotel at more or less 2.00pm. Waze to direct us to nearby recommendations and we visited "Lou Wong Kei" 老黄记. Tender steamed chicken meat and crunchy "taugeh", Ipoh has been always well known with their "short and fat" taugeh, should be because of their water originated, just to let you know they are proud of it!

In fact, we met a few women from KL driving all the way to Penang and passed by Ipoh just to have a bowl of the oldest waterfall bean curd 泉水豆腐花 and continue their journey again. Had a quick talk with them since two group of us were the earliest standing in front of the shop.

Ipoh is about what again? Famous chicken, taugeh and Hor Fun that we had daily in Ipoh. What else when I was back to KL, I have avoided myself to eat chicken! LOL.

And the list goes on with our food trail exploration. Full list with "Ipoh must eat" from me will be up after sorting. :) 

The breakfast. A typical Malaysian Chinese breakfast. The noodles. Ipoh also well know with the stuffed meat varieties. And we were too early to wake up and we had our breakfast two blocks away from our hotel, in a coffee shop. Out of expectation, we had the bowl of noodles which the stall owner was being interviewed by one of the local newspaper! Recommendation on them and it was really tasty!

新源隆 (Sin Yoon Loong) The first white coffee. We walked near 25 minutes from the place we were staying to the old town of Ipoh, shall I say main town of Ipoh. A busy place during the day and quiet place during the night. 

15 more minutes till the shop close and we were there to taste the original, not the instant one that we had now. It was really good. The one which carried the brand of "Old Town" just located at the opposite of Sin Yoon Loong named "Nam Heong White Coffee" 南香 taste delicious too, far different with the instant pack from the supermarket.

The Old Bar. We took a lot of photos when we saw this old bar. It looks really old and more over an old town. Gosh.

Concubine Lane of Ipoh. 怡保二奶巷。 There were a number of wall art in Ipoh and we also did a street art searching for some of the famous one, all the street arts are any where and the more will be drawn especially at the main town of Ipoh.

 

The Cold. Many of the shop owner, young and old keeps recommending us to have a try with "Snow Beer" 雪花啤酒 at Concubine Lane and we had it during the first evening in Ipoh before we walk back to our hotel. The lady surprised to see you again after we met her earlier in the afternoon and we have not left that area for quit a while, we had a walk nearby and we went back for three mugs (there were three of us). I like Snow Beer and we all likes it! 

Other than Snow Beer, Ipoh night life is totally different from us in KK. Ipoh night life are watching movies and hang out with family and friends at "Dessert Street" (Tong Shui Gai) 糖水街, very simple night life for normal people. There were night clubs too, just to let you know. ;)

Back to the Malay women who drove us all the way from Ipoh to Kampar. 2 and half hours ride. 

We went to the famous restaurant for "Paper Wrap Chicken" 纸包鸡, unfortunately all sold out and we pulled a bit of the person in charge leg to make her introduced us another one around there. So, that's how it looks below. Two type of Paper Wrap Chicken, Curry chicken or Herbs.

The Temple. Perak with majority Chinese, non the less there were a number of temples at the state. We were being told that the temple at Kampar town is a temple that believed by many and miracles happen too. The rain started when we stepped in to the temple, it's like the raining welcoming us there, it's pouring rain. Oh my.

Kellie's Castle. Kakak want us to see more during our trip and she brought us here, a castle. The love to his wife.

 

Ipoh Kek Lok Shi. Back in Ipoh and during the same day we went to Kampar. I begged the security to let us in when the time strike 5.00pm, one that i admire about Ipoh, the people. There are so many kind and friendly people, except for the old man Uber driver that we met at Concubine Lane. 

From a small city of Kota Kinabalu to visit Ipoh, it was such a long journey. We took almost six hours to arrive and when we said we were from Sabah, they were surprised and asked a lot. One Indian that approached us and had a long talk while we were standing nearby his shop and the same person that laughed us when we took our crazy photos with streets art at the lane opposite before the day.

Well, we do enjoy our Ipoh trip and that's #MyTravelAdventure. To see the life of another Malaysian.

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