Ipoh cuisine

Dishes found in Ipoh

Savoury

• Bean Sprouts Chicken – also known as nga choy kai or tauge ayam, this is arguably Ipoh's most famous dish. It consists of chicken meat, assorted chicken innards, and locally grown beansprouts blanched in water dressed with soy sauce and sesame oil.
• Beef brisket noodles – Noodles, usually served on its own with a dark soy dressing, accompanied with stewed beef brisket cooked in the traditional Cantonese manner with white radish and selected spices in a clear broth.
• Chee cheong fun – a popular breakfast item, this consists of large pieces of flat rice noodles rolled up and served with sweet or spicy sauce. Unlike the chee cheong fun in Kuala Lumpur, chee cheong fun in Ipoh is served with minced pork and mushroom sauce, preserved green chilli, a sprinkle of deep-fried shallots and sesame seeds. Some eateries even serve chee cheong fun with a curried gravy.
• Claypot chicken rice – chicken rice served in a claypot, traditionally cooked with charcoal. Typical additions include salted fish and lap cheong. Bercham, a suburb in Ipoh is famous for claypot chicken rice.
• Curry chicken bread – a bread or bun bowl filled with curry chicken. It is also known as Golden Pillow Bread. A speciality of the neighbouring towns of Kampar and Lukut of Port Dickson, Negeri Sembilan, it is now widely available in Ipoh.
• Curry Mee. A bowl of thin yellow noodles mixed with bihun in a spicy curry soup enriched with coconut milk, and topped with tofu puffs, prawns, cuttlefish, chicken, long beans, cockles and mint leaves, with sambal served on the side.
• Dim sum – blanched noodles tossed with soy sauce, then subsequently poured on with some curry gravy. Dry curry nosually accompanied by slices of shredded chicken, char siu, cockles, and sometimes siu yuk.
• Fish ball noodles – Noodles served with round, spherical bites of fish paste steeped in a light broth on the side. Local variants may include tiny versions of fish balls, or the inclusion of sides like pork meatballs with cuttlefish bits and stuffed tofu skin rolls as accompaniments for the noodle soup. Another variant called hor hee, which is the Teochew term for fish ball, is also found in certain eateries in Ipoh. Hor hee is a Teochew-style noodle soup, with small fish balls, sliced fish cakes, preserved vegetables, bean sprouts or shredded lettuce, and savoury fish dumplings in a fish-based broth.
• Hakka Mee ; the name indicates its place of origin as Dabu County, the center of Hakka culture in mainland China.
• Hainanese chicken rice – a much-loved Chinese classic, found in modest hawker stalls as well as upmarket cafes and restaurants.
• Ipoh laksa – laksa served in Ipoh is very similar to Penang style assam laksa, differing only in the garnishes used.
• Kaya toast – toast spread with butter and kaya, a sweet spread made from a base of coconut milk, eggs and sugar. Kaya toast is a popular breakfast staple and afternoon tea snack.
• Rendang – Perak has its own variants of rendang, the most well known being rendang tok. Rendang tok uses a liberal amount of dried milled spices and unlike many other rendang varieties found in Malaysia, it is much drier in comparison, with the gravy being greatly reduced from prolonged simmering until all that's left is merely a thick layer that coats and adheres onto each piece of meat. Rendang tok can be found in some eateries and restaurants in Ipoh, and is usually cooked with beef.
• Salt-baked Chicken – Ipoh is famous for its flat rice noodles, which is prepared with local unfiltered spring water. There are two varieties: Kai see hor fun is served in a clear chicken and prawn soup with chicken shreds, prawns and spring onions. Chau hor fun – This is a dish of cuttlefish with kangkung and topped with a sweet and savoury sauce.
• Tempoyak is a popular Malay delicacy. It is durian flesh which is preserved by fermentation in an earthenware urn. Commonly eaten with chillis and other dishes; it is well known due to the popularity of its key ingredient, durian, among locals. It is also used as a primary flavouring for gulai or stews.
• Wonton Mee – thin egg noodles with wonton dumplings, choy sum, char siu and a side of pickled green chillies. The noodles are usually dressed with a dark soy sauce dressing, with boiled or deep-fried wonton dumplings as a topping or served on the side in a bowl of broth.
• Yau Zha Gwai is version of the traditional Chinese crueller. The dough is shaped like a pair of chopsticks stuck together, and the name itself amusingly translates into "greasy fried ghosts". A breakfast favourite, it can be eaten plain with coffee, spread with butter or kaya, or dipped into congee.
• Yong liew – better known as yong tau foo in other Malaysian states. Items like brinjals, lady fingers, tofu puffs, tofu skin, bitter melon, chillies and are stuffed or mixed with a pork or fish meat paste, and are either deep fried or boiled and served in soup. A type of yam bean ''' fritter, made with shredded yam bean and the aforementioned meat paste is usually offered alongside the stuffed items as well.

  Desserts and pastries

• Caramel custard – a classic dessert and a popular speciality served at some of Ipoh's most well regarded food establishments.
• Chicken Biscuit or kai zhai peng – a popular souvenir for tourists to Ipoh. Despite its namesake, the original version of this legendary biscuit contains no chicken. It is made from wheat flour, candied winter melon, lard, red bean curd, sesame seeds, molasses and egg wash. Pun Chun Restaurant in the nearby town of Bidor is famous for this, as it is the birthplace of the Chicken Biscuit. In fact, it was once known as the Bidor Chicken Biscuit. This place also makes the first Shat Kek Ma pastry in Malaysia.
• Egg tart – several bakeries in Ipoh specialise in these Cantonese-style custard tart pastries.
• Heong Peng – flaky biscuits with a sweet filling, and are often bought as souvenirs by tourists to Ipoh. Among locals, 'heong peng' is famous in the suburb of Gunung Rapat, which is purportedly the pioneer in their production.
• Ipoh white coffee. A popular coffee drink which originated in Ipoh. Unlike the robust dark roast used for typical Malaysian-style black coffee, "white" coffee is produced with only palm oil margarine and without any sugar and wheat, resulting in a significantly lighter roast. It is typically enriched with condensed milk prior to serving. This drink inspired the OldTown White Coffee restaurant chain, and instant beverage versions are widely available throughout Malaysia and even in international markets.
• Kacang putih or kacang puteh – originally from Buntong, kacang putih refer to a category of Indian snacks made of legumes, nuts or flour and many types of spices, roasted or fried to golden yellow.
• Kaya puff – pastries consisting of flaky pastry with coconut jam filling.
• Kuih limas or kuih tepung pelita – a steamed confection wrapped in banana leaves which consists of two layers: the top layer is made with thick coconut milk, flour and a pinch of salt; the bottom layer consists of thin coconut milk with pandan paste, flour and sugar.
• Lempeng pisang – Malay-style pancake which consists of mashed bananas and grated coconut wrapped in banana leaves and char-grilled.
• Pomelo – Ipoh is famous for its fruits, such as seedless guava, cempedak, durians, and especially pomelos. Pomelos are sold in front of Sam Poh Tong, along Gopeng Road. These stalls cater mainly for tourists driving into Ipoh. Alternatively, one can go right into the Tambun-Ampang area where most of the pomelo plantations are located to have more choices
• Tau foo fah – a velvety pudding of very soft silken tofu, traditionally flavoured with brown sugar syrup.
• Tong Sui – sweet broths made with various permutations and combinations of ingredients, such as black beans, sea coconut, yam, sweet potato, longan and others. In Ipoh there is a whole row of hawker steels on one particular street dedicated to tong sui, called 糖水街 or Dessert Street.

  Hawker centres

• Ipoh Garden
• Wooley's
• Gerai Makan Hoi Teen
• Dai San Yen