Ipoh Food Crawl - Day 1

Food crawls are all the rage these days, aren't they? I realise they call it a "crawl" because by the time you have stuffed your face tummy with as much food as possible within a limited timespan, you practically have to carry your overloaded tummies and crawl back to some cosy comfy spot to hibernate, wait for digestion before hitting the next grub store!

On a decadent weekend back to Ipoh, we decided to do just the above.

Upon reaching Ipoh, it was way past lunchtime and of course our tummies were already grumbling & growling. First target was that institution-of-a-kopitiam in Old Town - Kwong Heng. Now, it's been quite some time since we ate at this place... and sighhh... what a disappointment it was! Although it was still packing the crowds, even at 2+pm, the food really left much to be desired. The only thing I can smack my lips over there was the Fruits Rojak.

The pork satay was terrible - cold, hard, tasteless meats with even-worse peanut sauce, the sotong+kangkung was horribly tasteless, the Chicken Kwayteow Soup was just mediocre and the popiah did not make an appearance despite us waiting more than 20 minutes for it.

Note to self: Never go to Kwong Heng ever again!

Feeling unsatiated, we made our way back to Pasir Puteh where I was told there's a shop selling the famous Curry Mee from Ipoh Garden. This was supposed to be that yummy curry mee stall from the "Mushroom Hawker Centre" in Ipoh Garden. Actually, this particular curry mee, before they had that stall in Ipoh Garden, they started off as a small roadside stall in Old Town in front of the well-known textile shop, Kwong Fatt. I had been eating there way back many many years ago - their thick lemak spicy curry gravy with chicken slices, cockles and mint leaves had been my favourite since time immemorial - it was really the best-ever curry mee back then!

Now, back to the present...

When I entered the shop, I was pretty much perked-up when I saw these being displayed...
And they had huge posters of their dishes pasted on the wall! Wow, so impressive! This was how their Curry Mee was supposed to be:
That poster looked yummy, right?

Well... this was what's actually served:

The only thing I liked about that shameful bowl of curry mee was the generous amount of Mint Leaves! The curry gravy was pathetically thin & watered-down with no semblance to the original thick-lemaky version that I was lusting over, there was hardly any chicken slices, a few miserable cockles and worst of all - the ultimate noodle sin - it was served lukewarm!!! I absolutely hate hate hate lukewarm noodles.

The other stuff we ordered were also disappointing. The sa-kot-fupei and fried fishcakes were also cold, hard & chewy, the sotong+kangkung fared slightly better than the Kwong Heng disaster and the rojak was forgettable. We ordered the last 2 items again here because we were not satisfied with the 1st meal and guess it's just not the right day to eat those!

On the way back, we stopped by JJ Cakes to load up our car with 7 pieces of their popular swissrolls. Read more about Motormouth's review of them here. My favourites are the Coffee Walnut, Choc Hazelnut, Fresh Mango and Fresh Chempedak.

For dinner, we went to my brother's favourite restaurant - East Ocean in Ipoh Garden as he has booked a table there for us. I told him not to order too much as we did not want a heavy dinner - we wanted to go for supper later on!

So, this was what he ordered...

Need I say anything about this?!! Ahh.. the piggy was goodddd.


This was the Poon Choy - a huge hotpot of goodies... generous yummy portion...
Since my nieces were there, well... growing kids need their carbs - fried rice & noodles ended the not-so-heavy dinner.

For supper, we first headed to Menglembu... in search of that elusive very-nice honey chicken which Horng mentioned. With no clue as to which corner this stall was located in Menglembu, we just headed in the general direction of their Wai-Sik-Kai... and lo and behold - guess what we found?!

I was so excited to spot the words "Honey Chicken" on their stall that I didn't realise what was actually displayed in their glass case were just fried chicken. Their famous honey chicken had sold off!! Sob sob. It was past 9pm then - no wonder habis lah! The friendly auntie-owner told us that we either have to come earlier or place a booking the next time.
Look out for the bright yellow wall - you can't miss it!
And this is the number to call if you wish to pre-order... oh, they open stall at 6.00pm, ok! Can only try this in next trip :-((

Disappointed with no honey chicken, we tried a couple pieces of their fried chicken which turned out to be just-normal only but their unassuming-looking Burger was really good!
Just diagonally across from the Wonderful Honey Chicken stall was this popular Wantan Mee stall...
There was a continuous queue of people waiting in front of the stall and it took about 20 minutes before we had our order served. We tried with 1 plate first and that was a mistake. The noodles were so good but such small portion that we ended up ordering extra plates and waiting another 15 minutes. Served with just some blanched taugeh & a small bowl of wantans, the noodles were superbly springy and yummy!

Warning: 1 plate portion is equivalent to about 3 mouthfuls, so do the calculation first before ordering, ok!

With still some space in the corners of our tummies, from Menglembu we headed back to the New Town... for some Nga-Choy Kai (Chicken & Taugeh).

I always prefer the Cowan Street shop because their kwayteow is really super-smooth there... the chicken too was good but they could have put less oil over it.

So... that was our food crawl on Day 1 of that decadent weekend. The crawl was disappointing in the afternoon but progressed well towards the night, haha! Yeah, we really crawled back to our beds that night! Luckily no one had any indigestion complaints, LOL!

Day 2 fared better - stay tuned :-)

Snacking in Shanghai!

On the final day we were in Shanghai, we had the morning free (our flight was in the afternoon) and decided to take a walk in the neighbourhood we were staying in. It was a very pleasant morning with temperature about 12 deg.C - the cool & crisp air made it a very enjoyable walk!

We walked several blocks away from CH's condo and there were interesting sights all around... but let's focus on the FOOD aspect here, haha!

Yu Tiao (yau cha kway here) is a very popular breakfast item and we passed by several spots where this was fried and sold on-the-spot... just like this "fur-clad" girl here... so glamorous hoh?

Walking past some shops, we spied this lady...

On closer look, this was what she was selling... she was making some kinda thin eggy pancake (like our thosai) on a flat pan...

Then she wrapped some fried beancurd skins (fu chook), shredded omelette, chopped springonions, a dash of chilli and folded the pancake...
...and this was the end result! Layers of hot crispy stuff that made a lovely crackling sound as you savour it - It was really yummy! But do note the chilli was really fiery & almost-lethal (even though she put only a tiny bit!)
This lady was selling something similar, I think...but maybe hers were not so nice & crispy - looking at those pancakes piled up there!
Walking along the pavements, we came across some interesting characters... like this "cool dude" lounging against the wall selling bamboo shoots...

... and a barber doing brisk business by the roadside... and a young lass frying eggs not too far away...
Since it was breakfast time, we saw the locals enjoying their food on every corner...
Hehe...just like here in Malaysia, people eating everywhere!
So... what were they eating huh?
Hot fresh soyabean milk and soyacurd (taufu fah)...
...and more Yu Tiao.... and also these interesting flat breads baked in a tandoor-like oven...
See... everyone enjoying their hot soya and breads fresh from the clay oven!
I don't think I have ever seen a more hygienic-looking hawker than this lady here! She's wearing a doctor-like white coat with gloves... she was selling glutinuous rice ball with yu tiao wrapped inside! It was fascinating watching her deft moves as she piled the yu tiao together with some pickled veg and quickly wrapped & rolled everything into a ball with glutinuous rice!
It was very refreshing to be greeted by all these colorful fruits as we continued our walk...


Don't forget Shanghai is the City of Dumplings, hehe! There were several of these stalls all along the roads...Talking about snacks, if you are in Shanghai, you absolutely must go to the biggest Food Store in the Pedestrian Mall on Nanjing Road. Sorry I didn't snap a picture of the store facade (we just dashed in & forgot about it when we exited, haha!)... neither could I take a pic of the interior because it was just too darn crowded & I was practically jostled everywhere! Anyway, it is a very famous store - everyone knows this place - just tell the cab driver to bring you there!

Braised stuff: eggs, duck gizzards, duck wings & feet, chicken feet

There's so much food inside that you can really go beserk gawking at everything! From cooked food, to dried/preserved food, to sweets, savouries, from meats to seafood, from fungus to shark cartilage ... wahlau, the list is endless, I tell you! I was practically like the proverbial saying "kid let loose in a candy store" hahaha!

Preserved every-part-of-the-pig & preserved fish

See these beauties? No, that's not ikan masin, it's the famous Chinese Ham! You pay by weight and they will vacuum-pack for you. Not cheap - a piece weighing 200+g will set you back about RM70 but they are delicious - just drop a few small slices into your soup/stew/porridge and you'll be rewarded by the most delish smokey-porky-hammy flavours - trust me!

Salted preserved pork belly

Fat plump chinese sausages

More waxed delicacies

OooOOooh... these were all sorts of braised/smoked meats, packed neatly in boxes, ready to go! Just grab a few, eat with your fingers as you continue pounding the pavements, hehe!
Glorious roasted fowls and pork hanging everywhere - they had me almost swooning as I was jostled by the crowds - aiyorrr!

And these are the excellent Shanghainese "mooncakes" - they are actually baked buns with pork fillings! OMG - they were fresh out of the oven when I bought a few and ate on-the-spot >>> unbelieveably SEDAP with crispy crumbly pastry and warm delectable morsels of pork inside!
I bought a box of 10 to bring home but of course, they were not as nice as when eaten-off-the-oven!!

These are some of the hundreds (perhaps even thousands!) of types of snacks available - mostly sold by weight. The mochi were extremely good, I tell you - many choices of flavours & fillings! Just pick your choices into bags - that's what I did and half my luggage back was filled with all these!

Ahhh...food, glorious food in Shanghai - how I miss them now!

Robson Heights of Ecstacy

Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant
10B, Jalan Permai
Off Jalan Syed Putra
50460 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2274 6216


It has been quite some time since I last caught up with my dear friend KL. With her living in Taman Seputeh and just a stonethrow away from the recently-raved-about Robson Heights Seafood restaurant, it just seemed perfectly natural that I made a date with her at that place!

The pictures in this post are from 2 separate visits - each time with KL & LL in tow and with DL on one occasion! On the 1st visit, we pretty much ordered most of the items recommended by the many floggers who have been there.

The Black Pepper Udon scored high marks with us, especially LL who polished off more than half of the single-portion we ordered. The fat succulent udon were done full of "wok-hei" with the black pepper packing in a good punch as well. The squids in this udon dish were also extremely fresh! I took only a few mouthfuls of this - as yummy as it was - because I wanted to save tummy space for the other dishes.

The Thai-style Pork Knuckle was a huge portion for just 3 of us. The skin was very crispy, a perfect foil for the juicy fatty layer underneath which gave way to the tender meat just below. Me - I enjoyed sinking my teeth into the chewy tendons! Dip those in the piquant spicy sauce and we're in for a yummylicious porky time!

As good as the Pork Knuckle was, it couldn't beat the Honey Pork Ribs which scored the most points that night! LL was still drooling about it many days after that dinner! The super-tender meat were practically falling off the ribs - just look at the glistening layer of bliss-honey smothering this out-of-this-world concoction! Indeed, this was sweet porcine heaven! We knew this was definitely a must-reorder dish on every visit to this place.

Next... the crabs! We had 2 types - the Marmite Crabs...

... and the Salted Egg Yolk Crabs! Ahhh... what can I say? Such sinful blissful indulgence! The pictures are telling a thousand words... and my postscript would be: They tasted every bit as yummy as they looked!

Not entirely satiated with the porcine dishes earlier on, we just had to order this Pig's Intestines dish the moment KL mentioned it! There was frantic waving of hands to catch the attention of the captain and very soon, this was placed on our table!

Yayyy - crunchy chewy succulent pig's intestines cooked with dried shrimps and chilli padi! I was still busy with the last piece of crab when this was served and I only managed to grab a few pieces before everything was gone! Talk about lightning-fast eaters!

Robson serves a mean "4 Heavenly Kings" vege dish - you know, the combination of petai, brinjals, ladies' fingers and longbeans in sambal. Dang! The pic I took of this dish was inadvertently deleted...sigh! It was so good that we wanted to order it again on the 2nd visit but unfortunately the jolly captain told us they didn't have petai that day...so no go.

Instead he recommended us a simple vege dish - Shredded Cabbage with Dried Shrimps. Nothing outstanding... certainly could not compete with the exotic 4 Heavenly Kings... this was like the village simpleton - just simple wholesome home-cooked fare.

We had to have the Honey Pork Ribs again and even after devouring a couple of those, we still had room for more pork! And that's when we were recommended this Taiwan Garlic Pork by the same jolly fella. Another simple looking dish but very appetizing. The slices of juicy pork fillet were full of garlicky sweet sour flavours which did not overwhelm the palate and you could actually enjoy these delectable morsels on their own.
Ahhh... here's the star of the meal! Claypot Crab Rice! This came as the last dish as the chef needed time to prepare this. When the claypot cover was lifted, this was what greeted us...

Just look at the mound of crab roe by the side of the claypot... and we were assailed with a spellbinding aroma of saliva-inducing crabby flavours wafting from this magic pot....
The rice had been deliciously infused with the crab flavours, fried shallots and hints of black soya sauce and a dribble of chinese wine... we scraped the pot clean, I tell you! I could eat the rice on its own... and took my time with the succulently-fresh crabs after that.
So if you feel like having some cholesterol ecstacy-inducing seafood, this unassuming restaurant in the quiet neighbourhood of Taman Seputeh is just the place to go.

My rating: 8/10!