When it comes to street food in Malaysia, most people often cite Penang right off the bat, but for those who likes something perhaps more comforting, Ipoh street food is a great alternative. If you’re in KL looking for a taste of what Ipoh has to offer, Avenue K’s Ipoh Market Street (non halal) should be in your short list.
Ipoh Market Street, Avenue K
Walking out from KLCC LRT station, take a right turn and keep walking towards the end, you’ll find Ipoh Market Street on your right. The diminutive entrance opens up into a pretty decent size dining hall with a menu filled with a good selection of dishes hailed from the city that was famous for tin mining.
One thing to note – Ipoh Market Street at Avenue K is a non-halal restaurant.
Ipoh curry mee
The signature dish here is the Ipoh Curry Mee (RM 11.90) that comes with chicken stripes, roast pork, mint, lime, and your choice of noodle. I thought the broth does pack a punch and the inclusion of roast pork made everything that much better. Definitely satisfying for someone who wants a jolt over lunch, I liked it.
Ipoh white coffee, market street soft boil egg on toast
The soft boil egg on toast (RM 4.90) was my favorite dish over the tasting period. In fact, I went back a week later to specifically order this and savior it slowly. Perfect soft boil eggs on perfectly toasted bread, as simple as they are delicious.
The Ipoh white coffee (RM 4.50) here is one of their specialty, and always with proper thick foam too. If you like full bodied creamy coffee, this would definitely satisfy.
Ipoh caramel custard egg, spicy chili crispy pork fried rice
Ipoh caramel custard egg is something that seems sorta out of place at this “kopitiam” style restaurant, but I thought the dessert was more than decent, like most dishes we tried here.
Other than noodle dishes and light meals, Ipoh Market Street also serve “tai chao”, or hot wok style of meal from 5-10 pm daily. We only managed to try their spicy chili crispy pork fried rice (RM 11.80) and it was pretty decent, though I’d want to have the portion to be a bit smaller so that the pork to rice ratio is higher tho, but for those with a big appetite, it is definitely not a bad thing.
Address: Ipoh Market Street UC-3 Avenue K Avenue K, 156, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.159257, 101.713610 Tel: 03-2181 2623
Admittedly, fried rice hasn’t been one of the sexiest hawker dishes in Malaysia. If you ask anyone of their favorite Malaysian hawker dishes, chances are that most people are going to say char kuih teow, laksa, prawn mee, mee goreng, and so on.
Restoran Hup Soon fried rice, Petaling Jaya SS3
That being said, I think a plate of good old fashion fried rice is the perfect dish when you really want to have that stomach filled up good.
When it comes to good old fashion fried rice for lunch, one of the best places you can go to Restoran Hup Soon at Petaling Jaya SS3.
fried rice with the glorious fried egg
The operator from the stall that specialize fried rice is originally from Kedah and has been operating in the same stall for over a decade, serving up the same recipe from all those years.
A plate of fried rice comes with finely chopped long beans & char siu, egg, crunchy bean sprouts, and prawns. I’d also strongly suggest that you ask for an additional fried egg that’s perfectly fried with the egg yolk that remains runny.
egg with runny yolk is my favorite
The fried rice is also served with some chili padi for those who loves a bit of kick, tho I think it’ll really be perfect if there’s some proper Penang sambal here.
If you’re a fried rice lover, this is definitely a place to check out.
Address: Restoran Hup Soon 7, Jalan SS 3/29, Taman University, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS: 3.095309, 101.611128 Hours: breakfast & lunch
While we’ve been cooking more at the new house, I’ve been somewhat neglecting updates on writing about the food we’ve been cooking. Well, here’s one that I made several weeks back that should be easy for anyone who knows how to light the stove – a simple mushroom and prawn fried rice dish.
home cooked mushroom and prawn fried rice
Ingredients:
1.5 cups of rice (cooked & cooled)
6-8 medium prawn, peeled
2 eggs
half a yellow onion, chopped
a handful of mushroom, sliced
3 tablespoon cooking oil
half a clove of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
1/2 tablespoon soya sauce
salt & pepper to taste
chili & some basil (optional)
fry the ingredients one by one, and eggs last
Cooking Instruction:
prepare all ingredients and place on the side
heat 2 tablespoon cooking oil and fry garlic and onion till it starts to fragrant
add mushroom, then prawns a minute later
add rice once prawns starts to cook, stir and add sauces
part the rice in the center, add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil, then add eggs
stir everything till egg is cooked
add greens on top and viola, you have a plate of awesome fried rice!
This is a complete meal in a dish, add sambal for extra kick.
When it comes to Japanese restaurants, KL is spoiled for choices. Probably 80% of the hotels has an in house Japanese restaurant, there bound to be a place serving sushi at every shopping complex, and they are also represented in most newer commercial centers.
It is then very easy to get lost in the conversation, and higher end Japanese restaurants often have to offer something unique to set themselves apart. Be it ambiance, ingredients, or experience.
Zipangu at Shangri-La Hotel, KL
Personally, Zipangu at Shangri-La KL always have a special place in my heart as it was the restaurant where I first experienced foie gras back in 2007, as you would remember the first Kobe beef (at Elegantology), or the first ebiko (at Jusco Pyramid), first tempoyak (at Tenggol Island), etc.
So when I had the opportunity to be sample the Early Spring Lobster Kaiseki at Zipangu, I agreed to it immediately.
The six course menu is available from 15 to 31st March 2015, and priced at RM 280++ per person.
soy milk tofu with lobster & sweet sticky soya sauce
We started out with a dish that is visually very similar to chawanmushi, but what is usually made of steamed egg is instead chilled home-made soy milk tofu, with the topping of wasabi, sweet sticky sauce, and of course, lobster. The visual-almost-misrepresentation did not take away from the brilliance of the appetizer, it was simple yet elegant.
octopus with field mustard and soba noodle
The second course was octopus with field mustard and soba noodle. Another light dish showcasing not only seafood, but also the vegetables of the season in Japan. I particularly like the addition of bamboo shoots.
sashimi with salmon, lobster, and seabream
No Kaiseki is complete without some raw ingredients. For this we have sashimi with salmon, lobster, and seabream. If you haven’t had lobster sashimi before, I urge you to give it a try, it is one of my favorite raw seafood ever, in fact, I think it is the best way to enjoy lobster.
The soya sauce is mixed with lemon in this instance to give it an even fresher feel. I really enjoyed this.
hot dish – lobster and seasonal vegetables with Bonito fish gut sauce
The meal then turn up the heat just a bit with the next serving being a hot dish of lobster and seasonal vegetable with salted fish cream sauce. The star of this dish is the cream sauce, as explained by our server, it is actually made from Bonito fish gut.
It was subtle yet you can definitely feel its presence, sort of like how having Natalie Portman sitting at a quiet corner would make an impact to a room.
grilled Wagyu sukiyaki roll
The next dish took a departure from seafood to honor another Japan’s famous ingredient – Wagyu beef. The good chefs at Zipangu simply called this Sliced Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki Roll.
It was stuffed with mushroom and other seasonal vegetables grilled with perfection. Dip the roll in raw egg infused sukiyaki inspired sauce, and you have an implosion of richness with savory overdose. It was really satisfying.
lobster fried rice with pickles
Like most course meals, the penultimate dish is usually something you can fill your stomach with, and for this we had lobster fried rice (you can also choose from garlic fried rice, seafood fried rice, claypot cooked rice or steamed rice.)
The fried rice tasted rather muted at first, but with the accompanying pickles, it suddenly became balanced and, well, good! The lack of salt/soya sauce in the rice was to make way for the pickles, this was the first time I had fried rice this way, though the concept isn’t totally unfamiliar to me since you have onigiri served in similar fashion as well.
KY & ahfa at Shangri-La KL, with our professional Japanese server
(actually the Guest Service Manager – Yoshihiro Hattori)
Panna Cotta with Cherry Blossom Flavour ends the Early Spring Lobster Kaiseki dinner, an experience that is truly Japanese and executed perfectly at Zipangu. I really enjoyed this review and the walk from KLCC under hot sun to Shangri-La was definitely worth it.
The menu only lasts till end of this month, so if you’re a lobster lover, don’t miss out.
Address: Zipangu
Shangri-la Hotel
Jalan Sultan Ismail
Kuala Lumpur GPS:3.152139, 101.709419 Tel: 03-2032 2388
One of my favorite dishes to cook during my time in the States was scallop fried rice, the reason is two folds – it is very delicious, and scallops are very affordable there (a pack of 8-10 huge scallops went for less than $10).
first, “marinated” your scallops and prawns in brine
Back home in Malaysia, scallop is quite a prized ingredient, so having scallop fried rice is a bit of a luxury. That is unless, you get the seafood from East Malaysia. I picked up some frozen scallops and prawns while on a work trip to KK a week ago, so I immediately thought of recreating the very same dish that I’ve been missing.
boil the vegetable, and pan fry the seafood separately
Here’s how you can cook this simple scallop and prawn fried rice at home, feel free to substitute with other shellfish or seafood items if you like.
Ingredients (for two servings):
a dozen scallops, medium size
6-8 prawns, medium size
vegetable (choi sum)
2 bowls of steamed rice (cook from 1.5 cups)
1 bulb of garlic, chopped
2 eggs
soya sauce
cooking oil
black pepper & salt
start by frying garlic, then rice, and finally eggs
Cooking instructions:
marinate seafood with brine for 5-10 minutes before cooking
boil the vegetable separately for about 5 minutes, add a tablespoon of cooking oil to the water to make it smooth and more palatable
heat up 3-4 tablespoon of cooking oil and fry the seafood for about 2 minutes, set aside
reuse the same cooking oil but add another 3-4 tablespoon
fry garlic till fragrant
add rice and 2 tablespoon of soya sauce (dark soya sauce optional), fry for a minute
add pepper to taste
split the rice in the middle, and add eggs
continue frying until eggs are cooked
plate everything and serve!
scallop and prawn fried rice with a side of vegetable
This fairly simple dish only takes about 10-15 minutes to cook, tastes pretty awesome too. Total price for two person came up to be about RM 20 or so, I got the seafood from KK airport.
start by frying garlic, then rice, and finally eggs