When it comes to home craving, nothing beats a comfort food.
Before we departed back to hometown for house cleansing, my parents, especially my dad, has always been craving for hometown comfort food.
Often times we tried so many variations in the city center for that closest authenticity, but always kind of fall short from the original taste.
Apparently this restaurant, according to the ads my friend sent me, guarantees a "taste from home".
As Ipoh-rians, those who come from the North of Peninsular, the taste buds are very particular; and the moment the satisfaction of authenticity is not reached, they will shy away; and to make it worse, if the food is bad, they will (kind of) boycott the foodie joint altogether but will (sort of) never tell people the reason.
However, this restaurant is so confident, even the wall display is decorated with IPOH PRIDE landmarks with creative illustrations.
Actually they are just mungbean sprouts, which is uniquely different from other states because of both the way how they were grown, and the quality of the water.
Ipoh has always been very proud of their taugeh production, where unlike any other, the mungbean sprouts had a very standard size, approximately an inch, maximum around 1.5 inches, and it is fat and crunchy when lightly blanched.
You can see closely how they look up close on the chopstick. If your mungbean is long and scrawny, that's definitely not from Ipoh.
The unique traditional rice noodles that are not just "kiu-kiu" (bouncy) and soft, the sauces from Ipoh (Kinta valley) is unlike other states.
The "Tim Jiong" (sweet) dark magenta-ish coloured sauce that is sweet and with a slight fermented fragrant, paired with clear shitake mushroom umami sauce, with soy sauce, garlic oil and plenty of sesame, signifies the simplicity of child's food, easily obtained from school canteens and wet markets (during weekends).
Unfortunately the wet market versions are getting lesser, but if not mistaken, this is still easily sought after at Chinese language based primary schools around Ipoh.
(However, I could be wrong. The "tim jiong" is getting harder to obtain with the exact same taste)
Usually it pairs closely with the mungbean sprout. Every state has its authenticity; like the capital city center is usually famous for roasted chicken, Ipoh had its own uniquely oil-blanched chicken, with a certain technique that leaves the chicken tender and almost well-done. And some Ipoh-rians even love to have the chicken bone with still slightly fresh blood to prove that the mean is cooked just the amount of tenderness with hot oil.
This version a little more usual blanched than oil-blanch method, but it is not too overly cooked either. The most important is the soy sauce umami combination with the mungbean sprout, sliced cucumber, cilantro that pairs with the oily chicken rice, that will leave foodies in such a good impression that they will return for more.
The infamous shreded chicken and prawn soul rice noodle combo, where the soup based broth is a combination of prawn shell and chicken bones. With the right amount of umami saltiness and a hint of sweetness from the prawn, the balanced flavour actually got people to travel through states just for a bowl during the late 1980s and 1990s when the highway was newly opened.
The prawn was just "bouncy" chewy enough that it isn't too hard, and my mom and I thoroughly enjoyed the soup till its last drop.
Even the original store's quality has dropped, but this restaurant managed to capture the essence of the taste, which I am impressed!
It can't say it is the best in Peninsular, but it has its unique roast because the coffee has a bit of buttery trace. I cannot say that this restaurant made the best, because I have tasted better at other places (that I need to look for the pictures again to give the review), but it is decently STRONG.
There are still a lot more other dishes that Ipoh could take pride on the way how they cooked it, but our stomach has a capacity limit. Perhaps next time when we know the traffic isn't too high, we will try the other types.
Right now, as long as we could temporarily curb the cravings, it would be good enough, because travelling for almost 150 miles for a meal is too much flaunting; and right now, every penny counts!
Would you give it a try on these yummy food?
Stay healthy, stay curious and learn new things, and stay happy!
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This little Niche Restaurant is located in SS2, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
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