Top 5 Local Foods To Try In Ipoh, Malaysia

If you have read the Lonely Planet’s Best In Travel Guide 2010, Malaysia is one of the most valuable destinations to visit this year. In fact, Malaysia is always a great place to visit in Asia especially when you are craving for food. “Malaysia, Truly Asia” is Malaysia’s slogan in tourism. It’s absolutely true. Travelers and food lovers are always able to taste all kinds of Asian foods in Malaysia. One of the food paradise in Malaysia is definitely Ipoh, the capital of Perak state located 200km North of Kuala Lumpur.

Though it’s not listed in my Top 10 Places to visit in Malaysia, Ipoh is surely one of the Top 3 Food Paradise in Malaysia. Being located on the bank of Kinta River and in the valley surrounded by limestone hills and other smaller rivers, Ipoh is all about hills and water. These rich natural resources are providing Ipoh one best essential ingredient of its food chain, the fresh and clean mountain water. And this is why Ipoh foods are always delicious.

I’ve been to Ipoh recently to seriously try out many of the local Ipoh foods and shortlisted here the top 5 foods that travelers visiting Ipoh must try:

1) Bean Sprout Chicken Noodle – You can’t find any bigger and tastier bean sprout elsewhere without the Ipoh’s rich soil and fresh water. Mixed it with broiled chicken and noodle soup, you will get the best bowl of noodle soup for either your breakfast, lunch, dinner or supper. One of the oldest restaurant selling bean sprout chicken noodle is Lou Wong Tauge Chicken Noodle in Ipoh New Town;

2) Mixed Fish Paste Stuffed fried food with curry noodle – The traditional food of Ipoh where patrons select their choice of stuffed fried food and a bowl of noodle soup. My favourite would be a bowl of curry Kuey Teow, or flat noodle. Ipoh produces the best Kuey Teow noodle in Malaysia, and might be the world! The Big Tree 40 Year Old Hawker stall (大树头) is the famous place for it;

3) Dim Sum (点心) – It may be originated from GuangDong China, Ipoh is one of the place making the best Dim Sum outside of China and Hong Kong. The best example would be the Foh San Restaurant in New Town;

4) Salted Steamed Chicken – Steamed chicken wrapped in paper and filled with salts. This special delicacy is normally sold as take away food. There are many shops in Ipoh town selling salted chicken or duck, one of the famous one is this called Wan Li Xiang located near Lou Wong bean sprout chicken, and

5) Kaya Puffs – Pastries with kaya filling. Kaya is a jam made from coconut milk and eggs. Sin Eng Heong located in town centre is baking one of the best kaya puffs in Malaysia.

Trying all the above foods without a cup of Ipoh White Coffee is totally unforgivable. Ipoh White Coffee is so famous in Malaysia and even China and Australia. Travelers visiting Ipoh must either go to Sun Yuan Loong or Nam Heong (the original shop of the famous Old Town White Coffee food chain) to taste the original Ipoh white coffee.

To view these photos in high and full resolution, check out my Flickr’s Photo set of Ipoh, Malaysia.

Off course, Ipoh cuisine has a lot more varieties than the above. I had at least 5 meals a day to taste different dishes when I was in Ipoh. The foods in Ipoh are so good to try. If you think Penang foods are great, you will find Ipoh foods excellent. 🙂 – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog.

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.