Hawker Food at Menglembu Glutton Street - Ipoh Stopover Day 1

For a light dinner, we'd like to go off the beaten track and drove to Menglembu 'Wai Sek Kai' or Glutton Street which is located along the main road of old Menglembu town.  There is a row of hawker stalls here that opens for business at night. Some examples are the curry mee, noodle soup with yong tow foo, char koay teow, hor hee and the famous Wonderful Honey Chicken.

I came here for 3 of my favourite dishes which are chee cheong fun, pork offals porridge and wantan mee. The wantan noodle is served in very small portions but we like it this way. It is normal to go double, tripple or quadruple though! We like their springy egg noodles and tasty wantan. I'm sorry there's no picture of the wantan mee because we had already walloped everything before I took out my camera!

The above is curry chee cheong fun. The curry tastes just like the traditional Chinese homecooked style with fried pork skin, cockles, long beans and a hint of lemongrass flavour. Fried shallots are added as garnishing. Home fried shallots have a nice aroma and slightly sweet savoury taste. The pickled green chilis and lots of toasted sesame seeds is a must for me. It is the onion infused oil that make the chee cheong fun dish really stands out.

This is pig offals porridge (chee chap chok). The ingrediends are minced meat, deep fried intestines, blanched liver and pancreas. The porridge is smooth with just the right thickness. I think it tastes great when garnished with some spring onions, sesame oil and a dash of white pepper.

“Hawker Food at Menglembu Gutton Street - Ipoh Stopover Day 1”, a copyrighted post, was written for Klang, Malaysia Daily Photo blog by Autumn Belle @ http://mymalaysiadailyphoto.blogspot.com on December 16th, 2010.

I can sit inside a proper restaurant and order my drinks there. The wonderful part is that I am not obliged to order food from the stalls inside this restaurant. I can order them from any hawker stall outside and they are allowed to bring it in, even from those accross the road. For drinks, we can choose soft drinks or desserts like ice kacang, jelly ice, homemade herbal drinks, barley or tong sui. The picture above is ice kacang.

Menglembu, is a big township in Ipoh city that is located at the foot of the Kledang Hills. It is about 15 min drive from Ipoh city centre. This is where the famous Menglembu groundnuts got its name and The Pagoda Brand Groundnuts has its origins here. There are still quite a number of prewar shop houses here.

The Menglembu market nearby is also popular among locals for breakfast and lunch. The char koay teow there is quite well known. I wonder if anyone still remember their famous bak chang (chinese dumplings) and tong sui.

There are many new food outlets attracting the crowd at Menglembu New Town, but in my humble opinion, I still like to come back here once in a while to savour these traditional stalls. This is where I get to sample family recipes that had been perfected and handed down from generations. My parents brought me here and now it is my turn to tell my kids. I still remember how my grandpa yearned for a hot bowl of black sesame porridge from a certain stall at the Menglembu market at his dying bed. I also remember the laughter, jokes and wise words my parents and grandparents used to say and the table manners they taught me when we sat down and ate together as as a family. These are instances where fond memories and cherished moments build around food or 'makan-makan' as we locals call it are made to last a lifetime.

This is the end of Day 1 in my Ipoh-Penang trip. Practically a makan-makan first day!

How to go to Menglembu Wai Sek Kai?
When you are coming from Ipoh, just follow the road signages to Menglembu or take Jalan Lahat. When you reach a roundabout with 2 peanuts as a monument (you have reached Menglembu now!), take the 1 o'clock turn. On the first junction on your right, you should see Public Restaurant. Travel on to the third or fourth junction, then turn right. You should be able to find the Wai Sek Kai where the hawker stalls are opened from around 6pm onwards.

This is my entry for Thursday Challenge, the Photo Theme this week is FOOD (Farmers Market, Vegetables, Meat, Cooking, Restaurant,...). To view what others have for today, click here.