Food Trail: Ipoh ? Soy Bean Curd & Classic Wanton Noodle

Last week we had to travel down south to Kuala Lumpur, then Setiawan, then again to KL and back to Penang for work and personal matter. And as usual we would take our time to savour or at least try something which is foreign to our taste bauds. The drive down was a bit off scheduled, thus we did not had any major meals in Ipoh, just some bits and pieces along the way.

First stop, Funny Mountain Soya Bean Curd and Milk shop near to Jalan Theatre in Ipoh town. This particular shop has been in the print media and online media for quite sometime, but we only had the opportunity to try it for the first time on that faithful day.

The soya bean curd or ‘taufu fah’ is still kept and served from the wooden barrel like the old days. The bean curd was very smooth, until I could not sense any form of firm texture. The soya bean curd also lack that distinctive beanie and earthy fragrant and taste. And the sugar syrup was nothing to boast about too. But then again, who am I to criticise about it when it has been on the news because of its uniqueness.  The usual ‘taufu fah’ that I have had although is not as smooth, it still had body, the light fragrance of the soya beans and the earthy nutty taste. Syrup wise, it would be either pandan scented clear sugar syrup or the common palm sugar. Oh, another experience! The proprietor or worker was bit arrogant at first before I took out my DSLR. He really annoyed my Gill Gill.

Not feeling satisfied, we headed, truthfully, I headed to another ‘taufu fah’ shop that may have just ‘pop-out’ just a corner’s walk away.  It seems that there are many me-too business that have begun operating in the Ipoh. I guess the Chinese saying “Pigs are scared to be fat” is true. Not only Funny Mountain has its work cut-out, even the Au Keng Lim bake salted chicken is facing stiff competition from newly set-up salted chicken shops and stalls around its own turf.

The next ‘taufu fah’ shop that I went to was ‘Lai Kei Soya’. The bean curd had more body but still lack the fragrant and taste, but the sugar syrup was a tad better. They have at least a choice of 3, palm sugar (gula Melaka), plain ‘pandan’ sugar syrup and ginger sugar syrup. I had the ginger syrup which was quite strong and spicy. At ‘Lai Kei’ they emphasise that their soya bean curds do not contain gypsum powder. Gypsum is a very soft mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate. It is use to coagulate the soya bean milk to make the curds. In Asian society it used to be a major source of dietary calcium.

After the pit stop in Ipoh  town, we headed to Menglembu in search of the coffee shop that I used to patronise for the famous Ipoh White Coffee, ‘Meng Meng Kee’. But to our untimeliness, the shop has only closed for the day. A check with its neighbor, they told me that the coffee is not as good as before. May be on my next trip, I would have to sample the white coffee one more time to be sure.

Thus, a drive to the near by ‘makan’ spot was needed before we continue our journey to KL. For this, we went to the ‘Wai Sek Kai’ near Jalan Lahat and found ‘Michael Home Made Noodle’. What actually attracted my attention was first the sign saying it was home made noodles and the pungent aroma of boiling anchovies base soup. It is one of the traditional recipes of making ‘wantan’ noodles’ soup stock. The wantan noodles were springy and crunchy, but the ‘dry’ sauce was just average. The soup was sweet and fragrant, and the wantan was quite good. In whole the experience was comforting.

After the plate of comforting noodles and the bowl of soothing wantan and soup, we continued with our journey to KL. After we reach KL, we immediately went off to delivered the ‘ta pau’ baked salted chicken from ‘Au Kheng Lim. After that it was off to ‘Rocket United Cafe’ in PJ SS2 for a very late dinner.