Snow Beer

It's been a loooong day. The day started at 2.30am. Woke up and straight away the long drive up to Ipoh. By the time I finish work at 10pm, both legs are so sore they are screaming for a good massage. But too bad, shops closes early in Ipoh. It was already 10.30pm by the time I reached the hotel and after a quick shower, we went for some makan & minum in one of my favourite in Ipoh. The locals called it "Yi Nai Kai" or loosely translated from Cantonese as Mistress Street (actual name is Jalan Bijih Timah as reported by Maps). The shop name is Kafe Sun Yoon Wah. Actually there're 2 shops facing each other. The other one is called Kafe Yoon Wah. Sun stands for new I guess. There're tables inside but we decided to take one of the table outside. Most of the shops are already closed and the streets are quiet. Nice...

 

Full moon...

 

We quickly order some simple dishes and of course, the highlight of the meal, the famous Ipoh snow beer.

 

Look at how cold the beer is. Tempting, so inviting...

 

Other than Ipoh, I have only found this in another restaurant in Cheras but somehow, Ipoh's one taste better. So what is snow beer if you must ask. No, it's not ice blended beer. It's a way, a very good way to enjoy your beer. I've actually succeeded in making my own snow beer at home after a few attempts, so I'm sort of an expert with snow beer. There's a bit of science to this. First the beer need to be really cooled down to just about it's freezing point but not frozen solid. Then it's quickly poured into a frozen mug. Now the key word is quickly coz it's the formation of foam that turn the beer into snow beer. Sort of how your air conditioning unit works. When the gas starts to expand, it quickly cools down the beer and since it's already at freezing point, it turns to ice / snow. I've even done it with Coke before. Well, enough of science. Mail me if you want the tips to make snow beer. They served all sort of snow beer ranging from Carlsberg to Heineken, Skol, etc. I've even tasted Hoegarden before. The key to enjoying it is to drink it quickly, taking big gulps and...buuuuurp.... ah... bliss.....

 

Our food same later. We ordered the "Man Sar Siew Yok Mee", meehoon soup and a salt & pepper fried sotong. The "Man Sar Siew Yok Mee" is actually stir fried wantan mee (egg noodles) with roast pork. If you love wantan mee, you would love this one. The noodles tasted great although I find the roast pork a bit too dry for me.

 

Man Sar Siew Yok Mee

The meehoon soup is nothing much to shout about but with the belacan chilli sauce, it tasted great. Or maybe I'm just hungry... :-) I think I kaw tiem at least 3 plates of the chilli. I luuuuuuv belacan chilli.

 

Meehoon Soup

The salt & pepper fried sotong comes with a small pile of pickled papaya, the slightly sweet one, not the sour type. It was garnished with lots of spring onions. It was nice. Nothing really special but just simply nice. It's one of those dish that's not really unique or stand out or special but tasted just nice, think Maggi mee.... 

 

Salt & Pepper Fried Sotong

 

BTW, there's always some promotion going on there with the beer. This time around, I'm given a lottery ticket. I've never bought a lottery ticket before, now I have to go find out how to check whether I've become an instant millionaire... :-) 

Kluang Roast Pork

It's outstation time again, this time down south. After brazing through one AES, 3 hidden mat skodeng and a long hot day in the factory it's quitting time again. Staying in a new hotel (or motel, best in Kluang...hahaha...) today. Wasn't too keen about driving out again after checking in, so decided to go tah pau my dinner first. And we're having roast pork today. Now, this is no ordinary roask pork. It's not your typical roast pork. It's not a good roast pork. It's a great roast pork. It's THE best roast pork I've tasted to-date. You most probably have not heard of this place. Heck, I may be the first one to blog about it. It's so isolated it doesn't even have a signboard. And it's only opened 4 days a week. So how do I stumbled upon it? Through the locals of course. We were there in a restaurant  directly opposite it to have "yeh mei" @ "wild meat" (which serves very good "mountain goat", but that's story for another time) and the local recommended it. I was early and have to wait a short while while they prepared the whole pig just out of the oven.

 

This is what you see from outside.

This is the uncut portion. See how crisp the skin is.

And this is yummylicious...ready to eat.

 

Well, yeah...looking at the shop's exterior and the packaging of the roast pork, it doesn't really look that appetising.  But looks can be deceiving and aren't we taught to never judge a book by it's cover. Pop a piece into your mouth and you will know what I meant. The skin is not just crispy, it's crunchy like prawn crackers. And the fat layer, it's not the chewy feel one would expect. The fat just melts in your mouth. The meat is just juicy. Wow...imagine all those texture mixing inside your mouth as you chew on them...blending in with the spice and salt used to marinate the pork... it is just awesome...soooo goooood.... really good...

After all this talk, so where it is you asked since it doesn't even have a signboard. If you look into your map, it's located at the corner of Jalan Tan Kim Seck and Jalan Haji Manap Nordin in Kluang, Johor. Nearby the Kluang Baru market, directly opposite Restoran Xiang Hong (which you most probably won't find in Google Maps). Oh...and the secret is to ask for the best cut. The early bird catches the worm, asked for the cut near the neck before the locals snatches them all up.
And you thought Kluang is only famous for it's railway coffee....try it... open on Mon, Tue, Fri & Sat nite only.

Pineapple Beer

March is a such a hot month that you can feel your skin burning when you go outside. So what's better than to stay indoor, turn on the aircond, kick back, relax and pop open a cold one....ahh.. blis.... Sure, you have your favourite Tiger or Heineken or Carlsberg or Hoegarden or.... but have you ever tried pineapple beer?

 

 

The taste is really unique. Got mine from Jusco in Megamall. Hmmm...so cooling....

Never Judge A Book By Its Cover

Who would have thought that there's good food to be found in places like a highway rest area? Well, I did at R&R Tapah (South Bound). Left Ipoh quite late, so decided to have my meal first else I'll be both hungry and grumpy if I get caught in the after office hour traffic by the time I reach KL.

 

This is the stall... Stall #6 Express Stall.

 

And what's so special you asked. It's the curry mee... How good is it? Good enough that I gave it a beauty look at the mirror (mei yan chiew keng). You know, like the Maggi mee ad.... 

 

 

I ordered a special one today. Usual toppings are fish balls and sliced fish cake, but today I asked for roast chicken as well. The noodle is your standard yellow noodle. The chicken is nothing to shout about. The fish balls are quite springy. But the one that standout is the soup. If you are the type that like very thick kind of curry, this is not for you. The soup is creamy but not too thick or too thin. It was just the way I like it.... It feels great slurping up to the last spoonful of the curry. Will definitely stop by on my next trip again. Give it a try... like what they say in the Kenari ad... belum cuba belum tau.... 

 

Restoran Wong Kee @ Chemor, Ipoh

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).

 

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).

 

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. 

 

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.

 

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. :-)