Food In Ipoh: A Backpackers Guide to the best food in Ipoh… Do this in one day!!
When speaking of exotic locales with exotic food, nothing takes the cake quite like Ipoh, and with emphatic style to boot! Ipoh may be the home to the World’s famous Ipoh White Coffee, where popular culture and coffee junkies would have no doubt heard of the mythical and most favoured of breakfast beverages… yes, a big thumbs up for the Ipoh White Coffee.
But wait…
Before we delve into the deep end, lets skip the infamous breakfast beverage and jump right into the backpackers guide to all things savoury in Ipoh Street Food Culture. Here is a guide to the best food in exotic Ipoh:-
1) Chee Cheong Fun at Canning Garden: Normally served as a snack this Cantonese Dish originating from Southern China is the perfect breakfast compliment. In most instances Chee Cheong Fun is served with a variety of Dim Sum with Shrimp, Beef or Vegetables as a filling, but since it made its trek across South East Asia and found its way to Malaya pre-independence it has managed to catch the flavour of the locals in a new and inspiring way. Chee Cheong Fun at Canning Garden is served with one of three sauces, making for a heartier meal worthy of any breakfast enthusiasts. Try the locals champion with mushroom gravy, chili sauce or sweet sauce.
2) Soy Bean Pudding at Funny Mountain — After your hearty breakfast make your way down to Funny Mountain for one of Ipoh’s favourite sweet-tooth delights — Soy Bean Pudding. Douhua is a chinese snack made from a form of very soft tofu. It is often referred to as tofu pudding or soybean pudding. Much like other puddings of the like, it is meant to delight the taste buds with its tantalizing texture and sweet syrup.
It is considered a delicacy in many Southeast Asian countries, and in Ipoh it would be no different. Topped with Brown Sugar Syrup Funny Mountain is the best place in Ipoh to find this melt-in-you-mouth snack or after breakfast treat.
3) Vegan Dim Sum at Veggie Delights Cafe — Veggie Delights Cafe is the perfect example of the wide variety of foodie treats that the City State has to offer, but for hi-tea and for the sake of sticking to the road map we are intending to draw for you, this is the middle of the day where hi-tea is taking precedence and for the love of food itself the mid point to this food trek is fundamental to the fulfillment of the day at hand.
Dim Sum is a style of Chinese Cuisine prepared in small bite-sized portions of food served in small steamers. It is commonly viewed as Cantonese but other varieties do exist and to enshrining glory to boot. The Vegan Delights Cafe is a variety of Dim Sum, which can only be found in Ipoh, for the Cafe serves it up as it speciality. So, for Hi-tea this is appropriate.
4) Beansprout Chicken with Hor Fun at Cowan Street — Do take your time getting there but once hi-tea has been had perhaps take a slow taxi ride ,if not for anything but to let all that you have ingested digest. Next stop Cowan Street for some Bean Sprout Chicken with Ho Fun. Bean Sprout Chicken is similar to Hainanese Chicken Rich with the only difference being that the dish is served with beansprouts, and sure you may order your dinner with a plate of rice but the texture and mixture of flaovurs really do lend itself to the broth and noodles. In my opinion you would have been building up to the whole day for this one delectable meal. Beansprout Chicken with Hor Fun at Cowan Street is dinner flavoured with light soya sauce and oil, where the broth and Hor Fun Noodles are a perfect compliment. Dinner is served!
5) Kaya Puffs at Sin Eng Heong — Kaya Puffs are a great snack but Kaya is also one for the sweet tooth. Kaya is form of coconut jam, stuffed in a flaky pastry, this desert pastry is one of the timeless classics, where kaya on toast is a favourite amongst locals the kaya puff is a favourite tea time snack. Being that you are all such avid readers of GoEureka’s sponsored blog I have taken the liberty of graduating you(the reader) to seasoned veteran of local delicacies. So… to best take in the flavours of Ipoh City do take into consideration all that I have suggested to you and in the same order as well, for all this can be done in a day and should be. One last thing… and the final stop.
6) Ipoh White Coffee at Sin Yoong Long — To finish off your evening a Classic Ipoh White Coffee for a Night Cap, where again most of the locals prefer to start the day with a piping hot local java I am recommending you take in the coffee classic as a night cap, just before you hit up the clubs or sample the night life. It should do the trick, to keep you up all night is the trick here, and it should work wonders as well.
But, fret not if coffee is just your thing nothing places an exclamation mark on your day quite like a shot of espresso, really just the same effect. The Ipoh White Coffee is not just a classic and a legend it is also potent and should ease you into the evening quite nicely, especially as you have had so much to eat up until this point.
