Dining in Ipoh

It's been a really long time since I had time to blog. It's good in a way, because it means I either have no time to rant (because my blog consists mostly of rants and reminiscences) or that I'm too happily occupied with work (really?). :P

Here's a little update on what's in Ipoh recently. I was back for the new year, and the week after.

Ipoh & I - An Introduction
Although I'm born in Ipoh and my home address is somewhere in "31650 Ipoh" (yes, exactly in the city of Ipoh), I'm actually a stranger to Ipoh. I've never studied in Ipoh before, and I used to spend only 30% of my time there over the weekend when I was younger. It's only in Dec 2003 that my family are officially back in Ipoh for good.

Each time a new friend asks "where are you from", I'd just tell the fact (Ipoh), but deep inside, I hardly consider myself "Ipoh-girl". Physically yes, but not at heart. The only factor that attaches me to Ipoh is the fact that my family lives there and my home is there. Speaking of home, again, I question how often am I there to call it my home as in the place where I grow up. The worst thing is that I know where to go for nice dim sum in KL, but not knowing the number 1 dim sum in the whole of Malaysia - right in Ipoh itself. So near and yet so far.

An Instance of Being a Stranger to My Own Hometown
Call me "ignorant about Ipoh" despite being somewhat "Ipoh girl". Prior to watching 'Ah Xian' food documentary on Astro AEC, I had no idea that the most famous dim sum is found in Ipoh. Jalan Leong Sin Nam, no, I had no idea where the place is until I became a regular user of Google Map. Oh, it's near Excelsior Hotel.

The Breakfast Place
I was rejoicing and excited when I unintentionally discovered the new Foh San dim sum restaurant at Jalan Leong Sin Nam. The place is big, beautifully-renovated and looks really nice! So nice that I couldn't help resist taking pictures as if I were not from Ipoh.

The front entrance... nice!







One of the windows at the first floor:

Roaring business...


Delicious egg tarts at the takeaway counter:

Another view inside:

As to whether I've dined in at Foh San, the answer is "no". In any famous dim sum restaurant, the key to getting a seat is to be there very early in the morning. That's what I was told. So, this is the place that I've been looking for all my life, and I've finally found it almost 27 years down the line.

Since I only discovered Foh San at about 10.30 am that day, there's no way of finding a place to sit in the restaurant, in light of the school holiday and weekend when the restaurant was full of customers. And thus, my mom decided to take away a few varieties of dim sum. At home, I was totally fascinated by the tastiness of every single piece of the dim sum - from the 'siu mai', 'ha kao', 'char siu pao', to the egg tart. They're as addictive as what I'm already addicted to - my all-time favourite sushi. Now, I've become a fan of Foh San's dim sum too.

Walking Around

Syuen Hotel from side way...

The Dinner Place
Here's another local Chinese restaurant that I went in for the first time... Tuck Kee in Pasir Pinji, Ipoh.


The interior looks nice... I didn't know that until I went in. The restaurant looks so-so on the outside, but the inside is cosy and generally has all the pretty decors of a Chinese restaurant.

This was pictured on Chinese New Year's eve when the staff were busy preparing to open the restaurant for reunion dinner. Nowadays, there are quite a number of people who choose the convenience to dine out for reunion dinner as opposed to cooking big scale at home. The food there are generally good and very reasonably-priced.