AMAZING IPOH! City & Food Tour in Ipoh Malaysia

Ipoh has recently been rated as one of the most underrated destinations in Asia. Malaysians have long known that Ipoh is a charming smaller city with a unique history and food scene but now this capital of Perak state is starting to draw attention and visitors internationally. The first place that many tourists come to see here in Ipoh is this concubine lane. They call it that because a local wealthy businessman named Yau Tet Shen bought his mistress a house on this street. Fun fact while you're here be sure to visit wife lane where you guessed it he bought a house for his first wife which is oddly enough right around the corner from concubine lane we think he would have thought this out a bit better. Ipoh was a small and out of the way place until the 1880s when the discovery of large tin deposits caused a boom drawing mining companies and Chinese workers. Many hawkett Chinese workers became very wealthy and successful during that time including Mr. Yau Tet Shen who you'll remember built homes nearby for the women in his life. Speaking of Hakka miners millionaires and mistresses we have stopped here at Beauty Baru which you see right across the street there for a bowl of Hakka Mee. Let's try it. The Hakka Mee comes with a plate of noodles that's got bean sprouts green onions and a sauce on top of like fried ground pork. Then it comes along with this bowl of soup that's got different kinds of meatballs fish cakes tofu in it and then we've got an accompaniment of these like delicious deep fried goodies to go along with it. So I'm gonna start by digging into the noodles. Okay so we've mixed up a little bit of soup. I read that that's how you're supposed to do this is mix a little bit of soup into the noodles. I've added some of the fresh chili sauce that they've made over there. Let's give these noodles a try. Those are tasty. The noodles have this like springiness to them and then of course you can't go wrong with like sautéed ground pork. The green onions add a little bit of freshness and those crunchy bean sprouts that you find everywhere here in Ipoh are amazing. Those are good. Nice oily like Angie said uh springy noodle. They're tasty. A little bit of the minced pork that's going on with them there. Yeah I could do this. All right the lady said that this was a meatball with ginger inside it. I love ginger so I'm going to give this one a shot. No idea what I'm grabbing into right now. Definitely a fish cake of some kind. From the look of this I'm also going to say it's a fish ball of some kind. That's really tasty. It's got a flavor I can't name it but I like this one. Yeah I'm just a fan in general. I like the fish cakes. I really can't tell what this is. It appears that like it's some kind of vegetable slice stuffed with some kind of meat. If you know what this is let me know. I'm gonna try this one here. I'm in hopes that I had one the other day for the first time. It's a pork ball that's made with veins. Sounds weird right? But they were super tasty. That's tasty. It's almost got like the texture of a fish cake inside but there's like a tanginess to the vegetable. That's tasty. That is definitely porky. What part of the pig? I have no idea. Look at that slice of like deep fried eggplant. Wow. I have no idea what's inside but let's give it a shot. It's also got something stuffed inside of it kind of similar to uh like a fish cake or something. I have no idea what that is but that is tasty. And this one also no idea what it is. I think that this is some type of veg fried vegetable. This I think she said it had some kind of fish in it. Can't say 100%. Let's find out. It doesn't taste like there's a whole lot inside of there. It's just like a caramelized piece of dough almost but it's tasty. It's got a sweetness to it. It's nice. No I don't think that's fish. That's got some kind of like creamy vegetable in it but it's got like this beautiful kind of oily crispiness on the outside and then this creaminess from whatever vegetable is in there. Oop dropped it. If you know what's inside of that let me know because I want to order that again. It's super tasty. One more here. I have no idea what it is. Here's what's fun about all of this. You try all this different stuff you have no idea what it is. Like we literally walked up here outside of reading about Hakone. We had no idea what any of this is. Lovely lady decided to describe everything to us. This is all actually been really good though. It's fantastic to try all these new things. This clock tower is named after James Birch who was amongst the first British colonialists of the region. Birch's lack of respect for traditional customs caused conflict with local leaders ultimately leading to his assassination by the followers of Dato Maharaja Lila. Dato Maharaja Lila is considered a folk hero amongst Malay nationalists and he's seen as a symbol of resistance of the Malays against British colonialism. Dato Maharaja Lila was very serious about protecting Malay culture and so are the cooks here at Nelly's Deli. Hopefully not as violently. So we're here today to try some traditional Malay dishes. Of course you can't talk about Malay dishes without bringing up nasi lemak. We got this one here with fried chicken. It looks amazing. That deep red sambal. Can't wait to try it. That sambal's got a little bit of kick to it and that chicken is so juicy and crisp and I love these little deep fried anchovies that always come with that. All right so I'm jumping on this nasi lemak right now mainly because Angela just told me the sambal is spicy. I got some egg in here, a big hunk of sambal, a little bit of the rice. Oh yeah. There's good heat on that sambal. That may be the first sambal that I've had that's had really intense heat to it anyway with the nasi lemak. Oh that is so good. Coconut rice is awesome. Sambal is nice and spicy. Okay two things to start off with here. First and foremost the nasi lemak here. Best nasi lemak I've had in all of Malaysia and our travels here so far. Second thing is is to introduce you to this. I've never even heard of this before. This is cucur udang and what it is is a prawn fritter that is deep fried with chives and chilies and I am super excited to give this a try. Comes with a little what appears to be a very spicy little dipping sauce. You get it all covered up there and let's give this a shot. They're piping hot. They've just come out of the deep fryer but these are awesome. You can pop these into your mouth all day long. I can't really tell where the spice is coming from. Is it the sauce that I'm dipping them in or is it in the prawn itself? Cucur udang. Oh wow. All right you've got this crunchy like doughy fritter with like these fat juicy chunks of prawn inside of it. Like this is this is comfort food at its best. I can't believe how much prawn in here. Like I know it's like a burger but there's like big chunks of these shrimp in every single bite. A little drumstick. Oh that sambal is spicy. I'm gonna dip it in some more of the sambal. That is so good. That is done so well. Can't go wrong with this ever. The dramatic limestone hills and lush greenery surrounding Ipoh are stunning. We visited Mirror Lake to have a closer look. The locals say that the limestone adds minerals to the water supply that make the bean sprouts here fat and crunchy and give the noodles a unique texture. So to try these noodles that we're talking about we're here at Kokitiam Tian Chu and the name of the stall here is Tricycle Chicken and Prawn and they are famous here in Ipoh for their Kaisei Hor Foon. This is the Kaisei Hor Foon and it's got the famous kway teow noodles in it. So this is the wet version. It's a soup and it's got the noodles and some prawns and some shredded chicken. And this is the dry version of the same exact dish. That's really really good. You can taste like these noodles have like a like a slippery silkiness to them that is kind of unusual to me but it's got such a gorgeous texture to it. Yeah this is awesome. You can see why the place is loved so much. Why it's so busy. How fat those bean sprouts are. Crunchy and sweet and juicy. Those are amazing. The water here is supposed to be amazing. I can absolutely see the effect on the noodles that they have here. It's completely different than what you would get anywhere else. But the other big claim to fame is the bean sprouts. They're juicy as can be and they have this odd sweetness to them. Those are so good. It's no wonder people just eat plates of these. That's pretty good. We did have a dry and a wet version there and normally I am always going to choose a dry version of any of the noodles. I just feel like if I normally pack more flavor in. But I tried Angela's wet version and I'm gonna say it's better than the dry version is here. Something about what they do here in Ipoh with the prawn stocks that they use. The prawn and chicken stock they use. The prawns infuse the entire dish with the flavors of everything and it's unbelievable. Definitely try this place out. You'll love it. The bases of some limestone cliffs in Ipoh have eroded away in spots creating deep cave structures in the hills. Some of these caves have been transformed into temples. The beautiful San Potong Chinese temple draws tourists who come to marvel at the paintings and statues and the faithful come to worship and celebrate religious festivals. Chinese roots run deep in Ipoh so you know that there's great Chinese food everywhere here. And I'm feeling hungry. Jeff said he was hungry and he wasn't kidding because we're here at Sim Hap Kee and the amazing Lao family who runs this place has brought us out a spread like I have literally never seen before. So the first thing I'm jumping into here is their homemade tofu with prawns and minced pork. And she said it's spicy. The tofu that they do around here. It's unlike any tofu you're gonna see anywhere else. It's always homemade. It's this jiggly little bits of deliciousness. The texture is entirely different than the tofu that you would buy at the store. Anything that you get anywhere else, absolutely. Yeah. It's like custardy. It's custardy. That's exactly what it is. Yep. But custardy, savory. Oh yeah. Deliciousness. The restaurant. It's gorgeous. The whole setup of the restaurant. And they have a little rotating table here. Dim sum type table. Yeah, it's a dim sum table. Look at that. We've really overdone it. We have way overdone it. There's no way we can eat this much food. But I am jumping into one of these dishes here. And this is the lamb stew with bean curd sheet. You want some on your plate? Yeah, it comes in this gorgeous clay pot that they that they cook it in. Oh wow. Let me give you a little bit of that. Oh, thank you. Oh, the smell coming off this is unbelievable. Yeah. But I literally, I wish you could smell this. Unbelievable. How is it? It's really good. Lamb when it's done wrong can be like really tough, right? Very good. A little bit of rice, some lamb. Wow. This is so much fun because many of these dishes we've never tried before, we've never seen before, you know. Back home we love Chinese food. But the Chinese population here in Ipoh, this particularly is a Cantonese restaurant. So it's so fun to talk to the owner of the restaurant, ask them what dishes they recommend and like this is stuff that we most for the most part haven't tried before. So this is a lot of fun. What are you going for? Here's something I've been dying to try since I'm going to Malaysia. I've never tried this before. I've seen them hanging up at markets and whatnot. So these are the famous stinky beans. They are in what appears to be a sauce with some chilies, some fried onions, minced pork. Actually looks really good. And people call them stinky beans, but they don't have a smell to them yet. Maybe the smell hits you when it goes in the mouth. Maybe once you start chewing it. Yeah. Let's find out. Let's try them. No, that's it. Oh, that's tasty. It's really like, okay, first off, gorgeous chili sauce, just the right amount of heat. And then there's crunchiness from the beans and from the onions. And then savoriness from this like minced pork that's mixed throughout this. This is a perfect mixture. Like spicy, crunchy, a little bit bitter from the beans. So good. That's tasty. Really good. Oh my. Let me get a little bit more. This restaurant has Jeff eating his veggies. The secret to getting Jeff to eat his veggies? Throw pork in it. Minced pork. Throw pork in the veggies and I'll eat it. Oh, that's good. That is really tasty. Oh my god. Okay, I'm going to swing the opposite of that. Oh, I'm so excited about this. I feel like you need to put your head in the shot, like close or your hand so you can see just how enormous these prawns are. Okay. It's one of their specialties. Do you want a little bit of sauce? Honestly, the size of this prawn. Oh my god. Prawns are very big but also cooked perfectly. Meaty, sweet. I am absolutely covered right now but these are unbelievable. I'm so glad she recommended this. This is out of this world. You guys know me. This is one of my full-time favorite things ever. Pork belly. You're never gonna get me to turn down a piece of pork belly. That comes with these little soft steamed white buns. A little mantou. Look how cute they are. Sweet mother of fatty goodness. Oh man. I can't talk to you guys anymore about pork belly. You already know how Jeff feels about pork belly. Oh, fatty, fatty goodness. It's crazy. Oh wow. That's unbelievable. Oh, it's good. Take the mantou and dip it in the glaze, right? Like a pork glaze. A little bit of sweetness to it. Oh, it's nice. The last dish we're trying out here is. It's long beans and aubergine. You know how we take eating for health seriously, so we wanted to get another vegetable. You can see that it's got chunks of chili on it, fried garlic. There is so much food here. Oh, that's good. Oh, Jeff's not usually a huge fan of eggplant. Pieces of garlic on it. There's milkiness. It's roasted. It's beautiful. It's all got a great flavor to it. Look at that. We just keep rolling right around. We have dish after dish. The whole carousel is covered with food right now. Good thing we didn't have breakfast. This is amazing. If you are in Ipoh, definitely don't miss a Cantonese feast with the amazing Liu family at Sin Hub Quay. Next week, we arrive in the Pearl of the Orient and what many consider to be the food capital of Malaysia, Penang. Hit that subscribe button and turn on those notifications so you don't miss the deliciousness.