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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Penang Guide : George Town in 24 hours (V.1) 槟城岛 ： 乔治市

George Town, Penang.
 
It was sad when I flip through my gallery, not many food exploration and even places I had visited when I was there sometime last month. I was arrived a day later than the others, and makes it there's only have 24 hours or less (minus sleep) to explore with. 

Arriving a day later due to attending seminar held in KK and cannot be postponed nor replaced. Moreover, my friends were unwell because of the hot weather and cold air-conditioning since the day I arrived (you will die laughing if you knew why).

- Airbnb -

It was my first stay via airbnb, it was interesting and gosh, I love the condominium unit that we stayed, gorgeous Penang bay view from our eyes, feeling so wide from day to night, I couldn't take my eye away from it. :) The day view and the night skyline view.

- 椰脚粿条汤 @ Carnavon Street -

Location : 183, Lebuh Carnarvon, Georgetown, George Town, Penang, Malaysia.

Working Hours : Monday is a rest day. Tuesday to Friday 8.00 am - 4.00 pm. Sunday 8.00 am - 1.00 pm

Contact No. : +60 17-479 3208

鳗鱼肉及肉碎片。 It was not an ordinary bowl of kuey teow soup, it was a bowl of kuey teow soup with homemade eel balls with minced meat slices on top of the broth that non stop boiling as seen outside the shop.

Non halal restaurant from what we could taste. "Ye Jiao Guo Tiao Tang" is a favorable coffee shop by Penang Minister, Mr. Lim Guan Ying. We have yet to meet him in real person.

- 椰脚粿条汤 @ Carnavon Street -

I love that savory taste of their bowl of soup, hardly to taste such now a days. Eel balls were soft, unlike fish balls which is springy (QQ).

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

When time goes by, there are a lot of new wall art attached to Penang. The above, I'm guessing an art piece made of bronze, wire with a historical story of the past in Penang, totally love the concept and meaningful art piece.

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

- Listed building -

Aged building always caught my eye. So many tourists in Penang when we were there, especially from China, loud and noisy.

- Painting artist -

Random snap which we were able to walk passes them, beautiful lively art they have painted passionately.

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

Among the first few wall art by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic. There were so many wall art that we saw in George Town and not all that we captured, too many tourists and moreover, good memories well kept in heart. :)

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

Kung Fu! That's Bruce Lee along the alley. We were guided by a kind elderly that pointing to us there.

- Penang Street/ Wall Art -

Perhaps it was the first friends trip for me for the past living years, exclude university and college away from home.

- We've been "lucky" -

Couldn't agree more on the efficiency of Penang. Two days strikes our rent car was summoned, what a day. And guess what? The men pushed the car because it was out of fuel and luckily passed a short distance with the nearest petrol station. (lol) We could repeatedly talk about our friends story for years.

- Heritage Trail : 姓氏桥 Clan Jetty （Surname Bridge) -

Location : Straight down from Lebuh Chulia (beside the Kapitan Kling Mosque) at Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay).

Clan Jetty formed part of heritage trail of Penang. As explained in Penang.ws, it was used to be 7 jetties, which now only 6 due to demolished by fire back then. Billed as one of the last bastions of old Chinese settled on Penang Island, the waterfront society is home to houses on stilt of various Chinese clan.

There used to be seven jetties until one was demolished by fire and now six remain. Billed as one of the last bastions of old Chinese settlements on the island, this waterfront society is home to houses on stilts of various Chinese clans. Located straight down from Lebuh Chulia (beside the Kapitan Kling Mosque) at Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay), these water villages are over a century old. Each jetty is named after a Chinese clan – the Chew Jetty is the most tourist-friendly with the most stilt-houses, the longest walkway, a temple that is worth stopping by and plenty of places for those Kodak moments.

Read more at: http://www.penang.ws/penang-attractions/clan-jetties.htm?cid=ch:OTH:001

There used to be seven jetties until one was demolished by fire and now six remain. Billed as one of the last bastions of old Chinese settlements on the island, this waterfront society is home to houses on stilts of various Chinese clans. Located straight down from Lebuh Chulia (beside the Kapitan Kling Mosque) at Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay), these water villages are over a century old. Each jetty is named after a Chinese clan – the Chew Jetty is the most tourist-friendly with the most stilt-houses, the longest walkway, a temple that is worth stopping by and plenty of places for those Kodak moments.

Read more at: http://www.penang.ws/penang-attractions/clan-jetties.htm?cid=ch:OTH:001

There used to be seven jetties until one was demolished by fire and now six remain. Billed as one of the last bastions of old Chinese settlements on the island, this waterfront society is home to houses on stilts of various Chinese clans. Located straight down from Lebuh Chulia (beside the Kapitan Kling Mosque) at Pengkalan Weld (Weld Quay), these water villages are over a century old. Each jetty is named after a Chinese clan – the Chew Jetty is the most tourist-friendly with the most stilt-houses, the longest walkway, a temple that is worth stopping by and plenty of places for those Kodak moments.

Read more at: http://www.penang.ws/penang-attractions/clan-jetties.htm?cid=ch:OTH:001

The water village existed for over a century. Each bridge is named after a Chinese clan, the most tourist friendly jetty is Chew Jetty, businesses and houses can be seen at once. And so we were visiting Chew Jetty while having our late lunch before going back to our condominium for rest.

- Fridge Magnet Penang @ Chew Jetty -

- Chew Jetty -

- Chew Jetty -

- Big Bowl Ramen @ Chew Jetty -

Big Bowl Ramen, also known as MY VOICE. Our friend told us that their ramen was good and we went there. Luckily we arrived few minutes earlier, or else we will be standing outside waiting for our seats.

- Big Bowl Ramen @ Chew Jetty -

Both bowl we had non spicy Ramen. 2 person portion for each. I often told others that when we are traveling, always ask for sharing and which is good that we are able to try more meals, instead of one.

- Half way -

That I told you earlier. (lol) A good man help them to push the car. In reality, he was afraid we blocked his tourist bus too!!

- Night skyline of Penang -

Told you that we couldn't keep away our eyes from such scenery. Totally love it. :) Especially captured it with Huawei P9!

Somehow, I believe that everyone have their romantic side. A scenery like this would melt me, especially watching it with someone special.

- Penang Bridge -

The view after departure back to Kota Kinabalu. Not sure whether the bridge is the first or second, but for sure it was longgggggggggggggggg to Butterworth.

- Butterworth from sky -

It was nice traveling with friends, but choose your friends wisely when go for travel. Partner in crime, need to be someone to go along too, it's a teamwork too.

Penang, I will be back.

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