Beyond KL: Perak

SG foodie took a trip up North (as the locals would say) and stopped by a few places in Perak on the way to and from Penang. In case you want to know, most people in Perak speak Cantonese but in Penang, they speak Hokkien.

Teluk Intan

Our first stop was in Teluk Intan, a small town before Ipoh. It was a quick stopover for the famous Teluk Intan chee cheong fun (rice flour roll) that was filled with fried small prawns, fried small onions and some turnip. SG foodie have tried so-call Teluk Intan chee cheong fun in KL but they seriously pale in comparison to the ones available in Teluk Intan itself. SG foodie is sorry to say that she is unable to provide directions to the standalone stall (which is actually an old house) as she was too busy stuffing her face.

Kampar
Moving right on, SG foodie travelled onwards to Kampar, another small town where she was offered some Kampar fishball noodles that comes with fish balls, meat balls (both fresh and fried), fried beancurd skin, fried fishcakes, etc. SG foodie however have tried a better version of this in a coffee shop in SS2, PJ and wasn't quite impressed with the one in Kampar that she has tried. Maybe she wasn't offered the ones from the correct stall? Readers who know Kampar well, do enlighten SG foodie. But at the same hawker centre, SG foodie bought some swiss-roll-like buns/bao/mantou that were filled with either kaya, custard, red-bean paste (tau-sar) and some steamed cakes and SG foodie MUST say these were absolutely wonderful. They were soft and though they look quite big (think twice the size lengthwise of an average slice of swiss-roll cake), you'll be asking for more than one once you start!

Penang
While SG foodie tend to stay at the Batu Ferringhi beach area while in Penang, most of the food are street food. But as this was a work trip, SG foodie did not get a chance to go to her favourite char kway teow stall in Lorong Selamat where other street foods such as Hokkien mee (penang-style which is prawn noodles soup), ice kachang with peanut butter-like ice cream and cuttlefish with kangkong is served from another coffee shop further down. But SG foodie did drive past them but they were closed and SG foodie made a very quick stop to New World Park, opposite the main road adjacent to Lorong Selamat. The newly-opened food court is clean and breezy and best of all offer the best of Penang street food under one roof! So begging the driver to wait, SG foodie quickly got some char kway teow, hokkien mee, curry mee, ice kachang, popiah, pie-tee and penang assam laksa, gobbled them down and rushed off. When dinner time came and SG foodie was asked what she would like for dinner, SG foodie asked for seafood and was brought to Tanjung Tokong, behind the Tau Pek Kong temple where we sat by the beach in the open and ordered salted crabs and prawns, fried oysters, satay, grilled fish, fried sotong, fried beehoon and fried rice. Then proceeded to pig out. Instead of the usual metal pincers and hammers to break the crab, you are given short thick bamboos to use. Innovative! Oh by the way, SG foodie who hates tau-sar peah/heong peang in general, absolutely loves the double-baked mini tau-sar peah from Ghee Hiang that also sells the most fragrant sesame/teel seed oil. Unfortunately SG foodie didn't have time to go to Ghee Hiang this trip.

Bidor
So on the way back to KL from Penang, SG foodie was taken to Bidor where she was given the choice of trying Pun Chun's roast duck noodles or Restoran Mee Wah's wantan mee. Now SG foodie has tried the Pun Chun branches in KL and decided to give wantan mee a chance. The dried wantan mee in Malaysia is generally in a black soy sauce accompanied with pickled green chillis and at Mee Wah, it's served with prawn wantan soup. The wantan is a generous ball filled with minced pork and crunchy prawns while the wantan mee was made to a nice bouncy consistency. It's not easy finding wantan mee made in such a bouncy consistency. They ran out of char-siew by the time SG foodie arrived but it was still a nice treat regardless.

So as you can imagine SG foodie has put on quite a bit of weight even in this short trip especially since she's not a fitness fanatic either but heck you only live once! ;p