CNY@Ipoh 2010 – Part 1

This year’s CNY was a special one. I travelled to Ipoh with 星星 to visit his grandma and the rest of the ultra-huge extended family. (His pa has 7 siblings!)

We reached 1 day before the CNY eve and decided to make it a “怡宝吃吃喝喝一日游”. The day started with dim sum @6am. Yes, you didn’t see wrongly… apparently dim sum starts before daybreak. So we had the most delicious dim sum (in my opinion, even better than HK) in a quaint restaurant. It doesn’t look like much from the signboard but the food is…. oh-yi-shii!!

Ming Court Hong Kong Tim Sum

 

Apparently, there was a newly renovated restaurant opposite the place we ate. There was a crowd waiting to get in at 620am! According to 星星, Ming Court is supposed to be better…

Fok San Restoran

 What better than to go back to sleep after packing in a tummy full of dim sum! Behold, our temporary abode – Hotel Regency. The newest hotel in Ipoh. Love their pillows… that’s our golden standard the next time we are to buy our own pillows. 

Hotel Regency

In the afternoon, we journeyed thru the unknown to pay homage to the legendary Old Town White Coffee. To give credit to 星星, he printed the map and even marked out all the famous eating places. Not once did we flag a cab! (Not that we could even if we wanted, I don’t remember seeing any cabs along the roads.) 

It has to be the best coffee I’ve ever drank… the best. Enough said. 

Where it all started...

As we reluctantly plucked our sweaty butts off the kopi tiam chairs to continue on our foodie trail, the relentless sun was awaiting. Along the way, there were some interesting sightings. 

Once upon a time, this was the tallest building in Ipoh. And it was once the favourite place for people to commit suicide at. Spooky!

Spotted schoolkids boarding a retro-looking schoolbus

You may not be able to see from this picture but there were a number of birds flying on top of the shophouses. My wild guess is that people converted these old shophouses to grow swifts for bird nests.

Construction worker directing traffic... Or is he?

Our next destination was the famous 盐炯鸡 – only takeaways allowed. So we had to tabao back to our hotel room. 

CHICKEN!!!

*Slurps*

  Our last stop is at *fill in the blanks* (HELP 星星!!!) 

 ”Ya Choy Gai” – the uber-popular dish in Ipoh. Directly translated into Chinese – 芽菜鸡。For the non-cantonese, 芽菜 is actually 豆芽.

Basically, the chicken and soya bean sprouts are served separately, together with a bowl of kway teow soup. According to reliable sources (星星’s pa), the soya bean sprouts in Ipoh are the best. Extremely crunchy and fresh. It’s supposedly gotta do with the soil in which they grow in. You can trace it back to Ipoh’s tin mining history. Tin mining releases certain minerals into the soil which causes the soya bean sprouts to be of a premium quality.

Sad to say, 豆芽is not exactly my cup of tea. Can’t really appreciate it… Nevertheless, this combo was quite refreshing.

More chicken!!!