Under Big Tree Ipoh Yong Tau Foo

Even though I been to Ipoh so many times in my life, but only recently did I went to this infamous Yong Tau Foo place which is called under the big tree. Its located at Pasir Pinji and I have its GPS coordinates as below. The stall is open from morning till late lunch I believe as on that day that I went, it was already about lunch time and there were many many people queuing already and feasting on the Yong Tau Foo.

There is a sort of food court here and its all nicely shaded so you do not have to worry if its sunny or raining which is good to know. The foodcourt here is famous for its blended red bean slurpie but I was craving for some coffee that day so thats what I got. Nothing beats some nice Ipoh coffee.

So what is good here? Well, of course its the Yong Tau Foo but some of the pieces are more unique than others but the best part is that you can choose what you like and they will then serve it with the noodles of your choice. There was also Asam Laksa as an option and that was what I opted. I believe there is also curry and plain soup as well as Kon Lou (dry version). Among the piece of Yong Tau Foo, the one that stands out were the fried sweet turnip (sengkuang) or Sah Kok in Cantonese were really nice and its a big fat piece too. The combination of the turnips and the mix to hold it together worked very well and it tasted even better after its been soaked in the soup.

I also ordered the fried upside down tau po4.582318,101.085805k as well as a piece of stuffed bitter gourd to test them out as I find that its never easy to make a nice stuffed bitter gourd. I give them high marks as they steamed and then fried the bitter gourd and this makes it taste nice indeed. As for the laksa, as I side dish to the Yong Tau Foo, it passes off well and of course don't expect tonnes of fish meat or things like that but I was surprised that it was able to carry itself quite well too. Overall, a good eating experience here and highly recommended to try it out.

Location : Jalan King, Taman Hoover, Ipoh, Perak. Phone : +6012-524-5408

GPS : N4.582318, E101.085805

Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant, Ipoh

A relative of mine had a wedding dinner at Pusing Public Seafood Restaurant in Ipoh on Christmas eve, and as a food lover, how can I not or resist the temptation of bringing my camera along for some quick photos right?

Well with Ipoh, when it comes to wedding dinners, a very important aspect is that the food must be good and the portions big. And I do mean big. Just continue skimming through the pictures below and you will know what I mean. Hope you all enjoy it and this is one restaurant which I believe if you ever have a dinner there, you will not be disappointed.

The first course, "5 fook lam moon" or a 5 combination platter. Just look at the size of the plate, its as if we have 5 full course meals in 1! This is what and how any platter should look like! Beat this, restaurants in Penang and KL!

Wedding Dinner at Sun Li How Fook Restaurant @ Ipoh

Well, last weekend my good buddy Jen Sen got married and held his wedding reception dinner at Sun Li How Fook Restaurant at Ipoh. Yeah, its not near thats for sure. Since I wasn't shooting the wedding, I focused instead on the food. Hehhehe.
Well, the restaurant was really big with 2 levels. We were at the upper floor which was smaller, I think there was about 20 tables in total.
As with all chinese wedding dinner, its a typical 8 course meal
I will go through each of these with pictures to follow in my link.
1. Appetizer : Four Season platter
This four season platter basically have a combination of hot and cold dishes. As the name implies, there is 4 varieties here. When I first saw the platter, there was a lobster shell on it. I was like, wow, lobster. Alas, it was a recycled lobster shell. Was a good deco though. So there was a cold jelly fish with mini octopus and mango salad. I liked this one. The jelly fish was cut in big chunks giving it a good crunchy taste. The octopus are those standard mini ones which have been marinated in the red sauce. Too bad they cut it in half and not whole pieces.
Then there is a baked prawn with cheese. This really tasted like a fusion dish and nothing chinese traditional about it. The combination of the prawns and the cheese was good.
Next is chicken stir fried with hand made fish ball. This one was rather plain, and not very exciting.
Last on the platter was fresh scallops wrap in fish paste. I felt that the amount of fish paste was abit overwhelming and voided the taste of the fresh scallops. But nonetheless, it was pretty good with the chef adding some kei chi on top.
Rating : 3.5/5
2. Sharks Fin soup was next. Well, I can't recall if the menu mentioned sharks fin or not but there wasn't any sharks fin for sure in the soup. It was mainly fish maw, chinese ham and crab meat. The good thing was that besides the usual vinegar, the restaurant took the trouble to serve a bowl of whisky together. This I like. So with some whisky mixed in, it gave the soup some needed oomph.
Rating : 3.5/5
3. Steamed white pomfret followed. Now this is a very nice fish if its fresh and big. The one we have on the night was of a pretty decent size. It wasn't super big but enough for the table. When the fished arrived, it looked abit firm. I was correct, the fish was overcooked. Oh well, can't be perfect. The fish was not superbly fresh as well as can be seen from the eyes and taste. The good thing was the chinese cilantro and light soy sauce blended in well with the fish.
Rating : 3/5
4. The next dish was interesting. The item which they put on the table was a glass of fresh spring onion stalks. I immediately wondered if this was to go with the suckling pig. I was right. The funny thing I don't get it is how do they expect people to eat such a big stalk of spring onion? The buns and suckling pig was much smaller in size, so even though it looked good, it was not practical or tasted nice as well. The suckling pig on the other hand was pretty good. I like the fact that they left some meat besides the skin as this gave it much more flavour. The buns though were not that great and tasted like those u get from the super market.
Rating : 3.5/5
5. Next up was prawn fried with soya sauce. Now finally the seafood was fresh. The prawns was succulent and juicy and you can easily peel the shell. For this kind of cooking, one must make sure to peel the shell with your teeth to be able to taste the slightly crisp soya sauce coating. If the prawns used were XL size, I would give this a 5.
Rating : 4/5
6. Lo Hon Chai, of mix vegetable. This is a disappointing dish. There was no gravy, and hardly any flavoring at all. Dry dry dry.
Rating : 2/5
7. Steamed rice with chinese wax sausage in lotus leaf. Yeah super long name. I'm not a fan of chinese wax sausage but I can tell you that the rice was poorly cooked because when I ate the rice, there was hardly any taste of the wax sausage. This means that it was probably not cooked well enough. Mostly this was fried earlier and then just wrapped in the lotus leaf and served. there was no hint of the lotus leaf as well.
Rating : 2.5/5
8. Dessert was last. It was a pancake and beancurd skin with gingko nut thong sui. I didn't try the pancake but my friends mentioned it was the best dish of the night. I did try the thong sui and BIG failure. How can the restaurant serve gingko nuts without removing the bitter stem in the middle? When I took a bite of the gingko nuts, any feeling of niceness about the thong sui disappeared immediately. Else it would have probably been better.
rating : 1.5/5
Overall, I had a hearty meal as my table only had 8 person. Jen Sen, no offence ya but I'm a food critic ma. I'm sure the restaurant should serve better when its not a wedding dinner as the chef could probably pay more attention to the food. Cheers and leave some comments too

More photos : http://www.apples-studio.com/gallery/ww50.6_09_dinner/index.html

Wikimapia link : http://wikimapia.org/#lat=4.58451&lon=101.0909128&z=18&l=0&m=b&show=/14750539/Sun-Li-How-Fook-Restaurant