Ipoh and Cameron Highlands Eats and Buys Part 2

When it comes to Ipoh, I have to admit that other than food and snacks, I did not really explore the city well. There has been a few new scenic places for tourist like Mirror Lake, Perak Cave and Sam Poh Tong Temple but I have not visited them so I cannot include them in the post. I can only recommend the food you should eat and stuff to buy

Ipoh – What to eat?

• Enjoy a plate of beansprouts chicken and Hor Fun. Famous for fat, sweet and juicy beansprouts and silky hor fun because of the water quality in Ipoh, there is no better place to enjoy this dish. While the chicken is similar to the Hainanese chicken in Singapore, the flavours are still slightly different. What really sets them apart is to eat them together with the beansprouts which do not carry the raw muddy flavour. There are many places to eat this dish in Ipoh and some of the more famous ones are either Lou Wong or Oon Kee both located in Ipoh Chinatown. Read the full review here
• Google Link for Lou Wong

• Yum Cha in the morning like the locals. Part of the Cantonese culture which makes up the majority dialect in Ipoh, is to have morning tea with dim sum with the family. It is common to find dim sum restaurants and shops all over Ipoh. Every local will have their own favourite go-to dim sum places but some of the more popular ones include Ming Court, Foh San and Chooi Yue. Read the full review here
• Google link for Foh San / Chooi Yue

• Gorge on wonderful silky soya beancurd and soya milk. Mentioned Funny Mountain and every Ipohians will know which stall you are talking about. Operating since 1952, the recipe has since passed on to 3 generations and their smooth yet flavourful soya milk and soya beancurd is a favourite amongst locals and tourists. Many soya beancurd stalls have opened up around the area but I personally still prefer Funny Mountain as it is comparable to the one sold in KL
• Google Link

• Visit Yong Tau Foo Heaven at Choong Kee ‘Pokok Besar’ or as the locals lovingly call it the Big Tree Foot. Lovers of Yong Tau Foo rejoice as you are spoilt for choices in the variety of items available for selection to be eaten with your meal. Many locals would drive here to just bring the yong tau foo home for their meals. The ingredients are mostly fried but very tasty and not greasy. Not forgetting the dry noodles which are the perfect match for the yong tau foo
• Google Link

Ipoh – What to buy?

• Aun Kheng Lim Salt Baked Chicken has been operating for 37 years offering their famous salt-baked chicken with herbs. With only 1 item on their menu, they honed their expertise in making sure each chicken tasted flavourful yet retained their original juiciness. You can either buy the fresh chicken to be eaten in Ipoh or the frozen version which you can bring home and steam it for a hot meal. Selling at MYR 33 for 1 full chicken, I think the pricing is still acceptable
• Google Link

• Peanut Candy and other traditional confectionery. Traditional peanut candy is a confection consisting of flat broken pieces of hard sugar candy embedded with peanuts. Ming Yue Confectionery is famous for its long queues daily buying bags of peanut candy while its sister brand Sin Weng Fai offers modern packaging of a similar recipe. The Sin Weng Fai uses pure peanuts which makes the candy harder to bite but extremely fragrant while the Ming Yue version includes some rice puffs so the candy is overall crunchier and less sweet. Both are nice so it depends on individual preferences
• Google Link for Ming Yue / Sin Weng Fai

• Heong Peah and Sachima at 362 private confectionery. Located in the Gunung Rapat, 362 resides in a residential housing selling traditional biscuits. Known mainly for their Heong Peah which is a flaky pastry with malt sugar fillings and topped with sesame seeds. Different from other shops, 362 bakes their heong peah by burning coconut husks to give it an extra fragrance. Also delicious is their Sachima; made of fluffy strands of fried batter bound together with a stiff sugar syrup. I tried a few different stalls and I still think the ones at 362 have the nostalgic old-school flavours
• Google Link

• Pork Floss Salted Egg lotus pastry. Salted egg lotus pastry is common throughout Malaysia and Singapore, it is my first time trying one that has pork floss incorporated into the combination. I was sceptical while trying it so I only bought a couple to try along with one of the confectionery in Ipoh Chinatown. I totally regret not buying more as the flavours of the salty pork floss and salted egg totally balanced out the sweet lotus filling and made the pastry very delicious. Seems like one of the favourite brands to buy this pastry is Guan Heong but I have not tried it myself. The ones I tried were from Lam Fong Biscuits which is just opposite the Beansprouts chicken shop
• Google Link to Guan Heong / Lam Fong Biscuits

Bonus: Some other items to buy from Ipoh include the Salted chicken powder marinate for those who cook and dried salted lime which is good for sore throats

Ipoh – What to see?

• Visit the concubine lanes and indulge in old-school snacks. With a history of more than 120 years attached to it, concubine lanes used to be where the rich merchants kept their 2nd and 3rd wives. The are a total of 3 lanes, wife lane, concubine lane and small concubine lane. Today, the concubine lane has changed to a lane full of small shops and instagrammable cafes while the small concubine lane is full of decorative items and murals for tourists to take pictures. Sadly, I walked over to the wife lane and there was absolutely nothing except for a signboard. Personally, other than showing kids the old school snacks like the hand-held ice ball, there is nothing too interesting to see at this lane unless you are really into taking Instagram pictures
• Google Link

Overall, I do think Ipoh is worth visiting for a short break of 2 to 3 days for great food and a slower pace of life away from the Singapore mad rush