A colleague recently mentioned that I stayed in hotels more than at home. Ok, so that might not be 100% true (although sometime it did felt that way), but I did travel to Ipoh very often for work. Usually I would go for a few days but my trip today was cut short to a day trip due to an event that I had to attend in PJ tomorrow. The day started early and after a busy morning in the factory, it's chow time. Now Chemor is a small town in Ipoh. When I say small, I meant small like very small. But despite its size, there are many hidden goodies here. And Restoran Wong Kee is one of my 3 favourites (stay tuned for the rest).
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| Simple corner shop, no air-cond but not sweat inducing... |
During our last few visits, the food portion always come in XL size. So today, we're careful to order only 3 dishes. We ordered the lamb belly in claypot (yong lam pou), a grouper fish fillet steamed in soya sauce and a stir fried potato leaves (or shoots, mind my English).
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| Steamed grouper fillet in soya sauce. |
The fish was a big disappointment. It was overcooked. The sauce is ok, tasted a bit too strong of ginger but definitely not the best I've tasted.
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| Stir fried potato leaves. |
The vege tasted a bit unique. I guess it got something to do with the "superior soup" (siong tong) that they use to fry the vege. It has a nice hint of herbs. Just a tinge but not overpowering which made it quite unique and nice.
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| Lamb belly in claypot. |
Now, I save the lamb for last because it was the best dish of the day. It might not look so special from the photo but my my my.... it was soooooooooooooo nice. The lamb is just so tender. Not chewy as one would expect. Neither was it too soft. It was cooked at just the right texture. The sauce...wow...it's just wow.... first time I ordered this dish and I regret not ordering it in my other previous visits. If you did ever visit this shop, this dish is a must have. I know some people who don't like lamb because of the smell. But I assure you you will like this.
Other than the few I've mentioned, the restaurant actually serve very good herbal style snake head soup (sang yu tong) that comes with a lot of different herbs and plenty of wolfberry (kei chi). Decided to try something else today coz I have ordered it everytime in all my previous visits. Another dish worth mentioning is the kong pow eel. Maybe I'll snap a few pics in my next visit. Oh, and did I mentioned that food in Ipoh are waaaaaay cheaper than KL. :-)
