If you have been to Ipoh before, you have heard of Big Tree Foot ( direct translation) young tau foo. Tell any Ipohians, that you are going to Dai Shu Geok for yong tau foo, and they will know you are a foodie. In fact, throughout Malaysia, there seems to be much famous food under some hundred-year-old tree and that shop will be lovingly known as Big Tree. I have visited the one in JB ( Read here) and heard about another in KL as well
It was only during this trip that I took notice of the name of the stall; Choong Kee. Dai Shu Geok is more like a hawker centre with a huge historic tree sandwiched between 2 sides built out of zinc roof and multiple smaller hawker food stalls
The famous yong tau foo is on the left side of the hawker centre and you can identify the stall via the huge blue signboard. There is only 1 outlet in the whole of Malaysia and they clearly state this as there is an imitation store in KL. The price list of each item is clearly stated on the boards so you start by picking the ingredients you want into the plastic baskets before bringing your basket to the counter to order the accompaniment dish like dry or soup noodles or even laksa. Remember to let them have your table number as well. The price of your items will be told to you when the food is delivered to your table
The hawker centre is very spacious and airy and relatively clean. It is not too hot as there are many fans. I visited the older market before the renovation and the current state is much better and welcoming. There are also other stalls in the market like rojak, wanton noodles, mixed pork soup, chee cheong fun and others. You can tell the popularity of the stalls when almost all the tables have the yong tau foo. Something interesting about the hawker centre was vendors peddling their homemake cakes, dumplings or local kuehs at each table which you can either bring home or eat on the spot
I failed to take proper pictures as the food was snatched up the moment they were served to our table. Each item is re-fried till crispy before serving to each customer and they are not greasy at all. Most of the items were stuffed with pork meat and some were mixed with fish paste. The fried items were served hot with some chilli and sweet dipping sauce while the steamed items like fresh fish balls were served in soup which I did not manage to get a photo
For the noodles, we ordered 3 kinds; assam laksa, hor fun soup and the dried bee tai mak. Just by pictures, you can tell which was the most popular. The dry bee tai mak was mixed with dark soy sauce pork lard oil and fried shallots. Topped with fresh spring onions and beansprouts, each bite was so delicious on its own that I almost forgot to eat the yong tau foo together. The Hor Fun did not disappoint as it was smooth and silky with the light fragrance soup. The assam laksa was also very flavourful and more on the sourish note. The clear winner was the dry bee tai mak because of the fantastic sauce
I also ordered the rojak from another stall which was filled with prawn paste and peanut shavings. I did not like the fact that all the fruits were shaved down to tiny pieces so they actually got drowned out by the prawn paste flavour which could be slightly bitter when eaten in overdose. Personally, I really didn’t like the rojak that much as they did not get balanced flavours
Overall, if you intend to visit the hawker, you can try all items of the yong tau foo as they are so delicious and they are also very affordable. The dry noodles is the best in my opinion but the rest of the variety is equally good
Address: 1213, Jalan King, Taman Hoover, 31650 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
Opening hours: 8 am to 5 pm
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