Category: Ipoh Road Trip 2011

Ipoh Road Trip 2011: Luen Foong @ Tanjung Tualang

One of the highlights of this trip is travelling into the outskirt villages outside Ipoh. I used to spend my childhood at the Chinese villages around the tin mine lakes of Balakong. Such trips brought back long forgotten memories. I remember the days of running around wooden houses with worn down cement floors. I also remember once that I picked up a vintage one cent coin on the floor.


Video rental shop. Now a sunset business.

In Tanjung Tualang town, there are numerous seafood restaurants – all boasting to have the best prawns. My Dad told me that the seafood restaurants have been around since he was my age!

One of the most well known restaurants is Luen Foong Seafood Restaurant.

Luen Foong consists of two separate shops. It used to be one until it caught fire last year. They are now rebuilding it into 3 storeys building. We were told that it will be ready by next Chinese New Year.


The new building

We ordered their famous steamed drunken prawns. The mid sized prawns arrived very quickly. It was fresh and sweet. The tender prawn meat was fragrant with Chinese wine.

We were told that large prawns are not recommended.

We also ordered chiew pai taufu, assam sotong, cheung ching fei chau yu. I would recommend these dishes.

The prawns were not cheap. It costs us RM150 for 8. That explains why they could build a 3 storeys building from scratch!

Address
No 19, Market Street,
31800 Tanjong Tualang,
Perak, Malaysia.
Tel No : +605-360 9276, +6012-533 6166, +6016-590 0038


Local sundry store – with worn down cement floor and wooden racks


Contributing to the local economy

After dinner, it was time to head home. Our GPS guided us to KL using trunk roads. We had to find a way back to the North South highway. Unfortunately, the highway was jam. So jam that the emergency lanes were open to the public.

We arrived home at 10pm – tired and sticky. It was a great trip in any event. Great times and great company!

Ipoh Road Trip 2011: Ipoh Town – Funny Mountain & Nam Heong

Funny Mountain

Dim sum was enough to fill our stomach throughout lunch. We settled for light meals such as tau fu fah at Funny Mountain and white coffee at Nam Heong.

Funny mountain tau fu fah also had a long queue. We had to line up under the sun to get it. Nevertheless is well worth it as it was smooth.


Lady Boss’ awesome shoes.


There are no proper seats for patrons. Only benches and chairs.

Map

Nam Heong

White coffee at Nam Heong is much better than the ones we drink at Oldtown Coffeeshop. This place is somehow linked to Oldtown Coffeeshop. I was rather excited to try the white coffee until some kid vomited on the table. -_-

Map

Ipoh Road Trip 2011: Ipoh Town

We started Day 2 with dim sum at Foh San. Foh San was crazy. It was packed with people! There is no proper system for people to get a table.

We couldn’t get a table for half an hour. We only got a table after standing by the side of a table waiting for the people sitting there to leave. And we’re not the only ones doing it!

I wonder what’s so good about this place. It’s self service and hence you need to line up to get your food. Most of the time, the good stuff have been snapped. Siew mai is abundant though.

Nevertheless, food is still good but I don’t think it’s worth the hassle of lining up and fighting for seats. Sometimes you just feel like punching the guy who sits there reading newspaper.

I stopped by Poh Wong Thong for some herbal tea. I was feeling “heaty” from the excessive food and fried stuff and slight flu. Poh Wong Thong is a small herbal stall.


Guy on left looks like Obama

I told the boss that I’m about to have sore throat and flu. He gave me some sort of dark concoction to drink. It was rather bland. Fortunately, not bitter.


I was given this sweet after my drink.

I felt better in no time! It works!

Ipoh Road Trip 2011: Xin Kuala Sepetang Seafood

KF’s mum highly recommended that we have dinner at Xin Kuala Sepetang Seafood Restaurant located at Kuala Sepetang (formerly known as Port Weld), a small fishing village 60KM away from Ipoh City.

Thank god for GPS, we managed to maneuver through narrow kampung and village roads.


Kuala Sepetang is formerly known as Port Weld.

This part of Kuala Sepetang is a small tranquil Chinese fisherman village. It’s amazing to see Chinese villagers staying deep inside Malay villages. According to my Dad, this place was the hot bed for Chinese gangsterism during the hay days of tin mining. Gang wars were frequent here.

There are two well known seafood restaurants in Kuala Sepetang. We chose Xin Kuala Sepetang Seafood restaurant because apparently the locals prefer Xin.

As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with loud continuous chirping sound of swiftlets. Bird nest farming is a thriving industry here.


There is no proper entrance to Xin but a small alley to the restaurant. Fat people would to use a different entrance.


The restaurant is build on wooden planks next to a river. It is surrounded by docked fisherman’ boats and mangrove trees.
The best time to be at Xin is during sunset. The sight of the river, estuary, fisherman boats and mangrove trees was picture perfect!


To order dishes, we need to choose our meals over a counter. Fishes were displayed on the counter for people to choose. Loads of flies were flying around. Some seafood is limited hence be early.

We ordered steamed fish, chiew chau style fish, fried mini crab, tomyam soup and a few other dishes. I must say that their fishes were fresh and delicious! Tom yam soup on the other hand wasn’t spicy but sour.


As soon as the sun sets, insects came out to play. They were sticking all over our clothes and hair.

Overall, the bill came up to RM210 for 8 people. It was slightly pricey due to the fishes we ordered.

The shops were all closed when we left around 9pm. Strangely, saloons were open. I guess small town folks have nothing to do but have their hair done at night.

Most of them seem to be contended with life. Corruption and crime may be scarce here. This is probably why it is very difficult for Pakatan Rakyat to get them to vote for them.

Map

Address
Lot 155B, Tepi Sungai, 34650 Kuala Sepetang, Taiping, Perak

Ipoh Road Trip 2011: Pun Chun, Ritz Garden Hotel

After Tanjung Malim, we stopped by Bidor for duck noodles at Pun Chun. As usual, it was packed with people. I’m not a big fan of Pun Chun duck noodles and in fact, I think the duck noodles at Sun Hing Loong, SS2 is much better.


We had some wu kok (yam dumpling). Quite nice.

We stayed in a hotel by the name Ritz Garden Hotel in Ipoh. Although the name sounds grand, the place isn’t. We found cigarette ash next to our bed -_-


However, our room has a nice view and the TV channels were ample.

Ritz Garden Hotel has a cafe by the name Ritz Recipe and a restaurant by the name Goldtown.


Think Ritz Carlton, Secret Recipe and Oldtown.

It also has a very small pond, gym (with an instructor), massage parlour, karaoke outlet and a fengtau bar. Apparently, you can see many “dragon ladies” around the bar.

We had a short rest before driving to Kuala Sepetang for dinner. Poor WK and Elaine waited for hours to check into their room cause it was not ready.

It was RM150 a night for us. When I arrived home, I realised that the reception erroneously keyed in the wrong room number during my check out! Aiyoh!