Was my first time in Ipoh and my sis booked us a room at Ipoh Downtown Hotel. We travelled from Kajang to Ipoh Station via ETS train. Journey was about 3.5 hours from Kajang Station. Think it was less than SGD30 for a return ticket.
arrived - Ipoh Train Station
ETS Route
Reached Ipoh Station at about 1pm. The station was constructed in 1894 and it has a nice exterior painted in white. From there, one could take a taxi or Grab to downtown. If you intend to get Grab, most of the grab cars are not that big and could possibly fit at most 2 luggages of 23-24" in its boot. We had 7 adults with us, thus it took us 3 vehicles to transport all of us and our bags to the hotel.
Ipoh Train Station
It was just a 10 minutes ride from the train station to Ipoh Downtown Hotel. This hotel is located near "Tong Shui Kai" (糖水街) or also known as "Dessert Street".
Ipoh Downtown Hotel
hotel sign
hotel lobby
We were given rooms at Level 5. There's a small sundry shop at the hotel lobby where you could get instant noodles, chips, bread, or ice-cream but with a higher than market price. Good for rainy days where you don't want to walk out but there's a convenience store just a few steps away from the hotel.
hotel room with 2 double beds
view from room
minibar with complimentary drinks
instant coffee
complimentary bottled water
bathroom
bathroom supplies
After checking-in, it was about way past lunch time so we decided to try the nearby coffeeshop. We went to Hua Nam Coffeeshop.
Hua Nam @ Jalan Leong Sin Nam
fried noodles stall
char kway teow with cockles @RM5.50
cockles 螄蚶
The char kway teow was good. Savoury, well-fried and had a hint of wok-hei. The cockles (seahum) was of a decent size. On another day, I tried their "Kap Dai" (及底) noodles and it was essentially just fried noodles. Preferred the char kway teow over that anytime!
Kap Dai" (及底) @RM6
Also tried the curry mee but think there was a mis-commucation. Ordered a bowl with additional roast pork, and when it came, there was no other ingredients in the bowl except roast pork! Hahaa.
roast pork curry mee @RM6
roast pork curry noodles
My dad ordered the "lam mee" (淋面) from the Penang Noodles stall. Hmm, no particular liking for this dish as I still prefer the lor mee back in Singapore.
Lam Mee (淋面)
The iced coffee from this coffeeshop is pretty good. Not too acidic, strong coffee and milk that's not too overpowering. They also have a plum drink which they soak the plum in a large container to steep out the flavours.
iced coffee
housemade preserved plum drink @RM2.60
Also tried fruits rojak at the coffeeshop, and it was good too. Just that the turnip slices was a tad tough. Other than that, the rest were ok. Tasty.
rojak
The caramel custard from the coffeeshop was not bad but it wasn't made in-house. They got it via a supplier. First one that I had, it disintegrated rather quickly as the custard had not solidify enough. Informed the lady-boss and she changed another one for me.
caramel egg custard
Kedai Minuman & Makanan Hua Nam 華南白咖啡茶室
Address: 45, Jalan Leong Sin Nam, Kampung Jawa, 30300 Ipoh, Negeri Perak, Malaysia
Did a staycation in Petaling Street (茨厂街) over this CNY period. Stayed at Hotel Geo (3 star) for 4 days 3 nights. It's pretty close to the Pasar Seni MRT, hence one could venture to nearby KLCC or Pavilion too! Central Market is within 5 minutes walking distance, as with Petaling Street.
MRT ride to Pasar Seni
Hotel Geo (Triple room)
Hotel check-in was 3pm. The room cleanliness need vast improvement as the floor was still dusty and the mini-fridge was sitting in a dusty cupboard. Heck, we even found empty wrappers of previous occupants instant noodles in one of the cupboards...
Due to heavy rain, we spent first day having fast food for late lunch. The only food outlet connected to Hotel Geo is Texas Chicken. For CNY, they were having the Spicy Szechuan flavour. Pretty good, as far as fast food goes...
Texas Chicken
Ventured out to KLCC and chanced upon Lion Dance performance. Just nice for CNY!
During CNY period, lots of foreign workers had their off-days as well and KLCC seemed to be the spot for them to hangout. The mall was very crowded.
There was such a thing as 'premium' toilet in KLCC for one of the level. Its entry fee was RM2. Tried it and can't say the experience was good. The toilet was crowded and yes, there was an attendant located in the toilet and there were moisturizers for the hand after washing. But that's about it. I didn't loiter in the toilet to use the hand cream. The toilets at other levels do not have entrance fee.
KLCC night view
water fountain show
The water show was of Bollywood themed in the initial before playing Celine Dion's 'My Heart Will Go On'.
In the mall, there's Hokkaido Baked Cheese Tarts going for RM14.90 for 3 selected flavours. That's less than SGD2 per piece.
For breakfast, we ventured to Tang City Food Court but my favourite beef noodles stall Kew Yee was closed for CNY. Had to make do with prawn noodles soup was the lam meen was sold out too. For CNY, expect food prices at foodcourts and hawker centres to be up-priced by about RM0.50 to RM1 per bowl.
prawn noodles soup @RM7.50
After breakfast, it was a stroll along Petaling Street to suss out stuffs to buy.
Petaling Street
Apparently, there's a Family Mart and of course, we went in to take a look. More like, we went in to enjoy the air-conditioning. Prices for a matcha latte or coffee were exorbitant. Korean products in this Japanese convenience store was too pricey. For example, a packet of 330ml banana milk drink (Bingrae) costs RM5.80?! Good thing was, there's soft-serve in-store and the flavours were cheesecake and matcha. So interesting, so I tried the cheesecake flavour.
Cheesecake and Matcha soft-serve from Family Mart @$M2.90 per cone
Walk along the alleys and you'll come across the famous vendors for soya bean and also muah chee. Often times, one would see a queue at the Kim Soya Bean stall. The soya bean stall is now at the third generation. On weekdays, you'll likely encounter the second generation and on festive periods, you'll see the younger ones manning the stall. The beancurd (tau foo far) is delicious too with its smooth as baby skin texture and fragrance of soy bean when taken warm.
queue for Kim Soya Bean
The most disappointing lunch went to the Kim Lian Kee Hokkien Mee 金莲记福建面. We tried in the afternoon for lunch, and ordered the famed black hokkien mee and a ying yong 鸳鸯 (mix of fried beehoon and hor fun, cantonese style).
Kim Lian Kee Hokkien Mee 金莲记福建面 (Medium @RM23)
The hokkien mee looked decent but once you pick it up with a chopstick, one sort of knows that the noodle was not braised enough. The noodles were dry and not separated. Ingredients wise, there were pork slices, cabbage that tasted a tad raw, pig liver and lardo. The main chef was around but unfortunately, he did not fry our plate. It was done by his foreign talent assistant.
al-dente lukewarm noodles
The ying-yong was more well-fried and tasted as per expectation. The small squids were pretty unique.
ying yong 鸳鸯 (small @RM11)
Kim Lian Kee had two outlets within Petaling Street. One with the old sign-board next to the porridge shop, while another is larger with upstairs air-conditioned seating. We were at the older (original?) shop but seated opposite at the bank area. The hygiene at this area was dubious and used plates were left on the table or chairs by previous diners. The afternoon crew seemed lethargic and we saw a plate of side-dish that looked like fried spring roll, and they asked us if we ordered it. We said we didn't and the staff just left the dish on an empty table. What?
Left unsatisfied, we bought some snacks from Fung Wong Bakery. The piglet siew bao (猪子包) was nicely sweetish savoury. Best eaten when it is still warm from the oven. RM2.50 per piece. Goes well with a cup of hot unsweetened tea.
piglet siew bao (猪子包) @RM2.50
Other breakfast option in Petaling Stret, include the famed Hon Kee porridge 汉记靓粥 or Koon Kee wanton noodles. If you venture abit further, then one could enjoy the laksa and chee cheong fun.
Hon Kee Porridge is of Cantonese style and thus, the porridge was silky smooth. However, the porridge lacked 'depth' in its flavour and hence, add a bit of the soy sauce to 'lift' the taste. Lots of ingredients in the porridge and our favourite was the crispy fried intestines.
Hon Kee Porridge 汉记靓粥
crispy intestines and other porky parts
Interestingly, we found a Dong Teh Mun Market in Petaling Street. A distant cousin of Dongdaemun, South Korea?
Dongdaemun?
Stay tuned for Part 2, for better eats in Petaling Street.
Read more about previous experience at Petaling Street here.
The shop's name is quite a mouthful but hey, since it has Malaysian chefs cooking up street food, let's give it a try! Located at MyVillage Serangoon Gardens, level 2.
茨厂街 must-eats are chee cheong fun (steamed rice roll) that's paired with yong tau foo (tofu stuffed with minced meat), claypot lou shee fun (claypot bee tai mak with a raw egg in it), claypot chicken rice paired with ikan bakar (grilled fish) and so much more! Read about some of it here.
entrance
There's a couple of menus available; individual eats, or communal dining (zhichar) styled, or special menu of seafood hotpot. Seafood hotpot like this? A smaller version from its sister restaurant.
individual meal menu
So what did we try? Let's see the varieties sampled with Jennifer, Ivan, Alvin, Hence and Tracy.
curry chee cheong fun with yong tau foo @$6.80
pork trotters bee hoon @$8.80
The chee cheong fun was smooth and the curry complemented it well. And, how Malaysians like their local chee cheong fun? With yong tau foo, of course! The yong tau foo gave it some variety to avoid being too monotonous. The pork trotters were forgettable though.
Now, for the taste test. The KL hokkien mee. Ooh, don't forget the sambal which one have to take albeit self-service styled.
KL Seafood Hokkien Mee @$8.80
Happy to report that the hokkien mee came laden with lard bits at the bottom. So toss it up a bit before eating! The wok-hei was subtle but it kept us happy. Slurpiliciously good. The colour of the soy sauce was right. KL hokkien mee must be dark dark then nice.
round noodles? oh yes!
But of course, my preference of good tasty KL dark hokkien mee will always be the pork slices version with cabbage, chicken gizzard, crispy lard bits and fried with enough wok-hei.
Yong Tau Foo platter (own mix) @$1 per piece
Soy Sauce Chicken @$16 (small)
Another favourite of ours, was the delectable soy sauce chicken with its smooth gelatinous skin. The 滑滑 (wat wat in Cantonese) feels~. The marinade was good and strongly flavoured. Order this to satisfy meaty cravings.
All in all, we had a good meal and the service staff was friendly and has good knowledge of shop's namesake 茨厂街 (KL Chinatown).
Wishing you a happy meal at Petaling Street!
Jalan Petaling 茨厂街美食 Famouse Malaysian Food Street
Address: 1 Maju Ave, 556679 Singapore Contact: 6509 9872
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