Papparich

It was Saturday 3 weeks ago, I was in Bangsar around 12 midnight. There is this shop in the corner of the road in Bangsar called Papprich that caught my attention. Well, the shop looks like one of those new kopitiam that has sprung up in Malaysia. But, this one is different in that it has a certain English elegance in its decor. Being curious, me and my friend went in to take a look.

"Malaysian Delights" written on the front door was simple, but elegant. The steam coming off from its food counter makes me feel warm about the place. Apparently, they serve dim sum. Not many kopitiams serve dim sum. Most of them serve toasted bread and noodle.

This being Bangsar, most of the client are Malaysian yuppies of various races.

One look at the menu, I was impressed with the varieties of food offered. You have all sort of noodles like char keoy teow, laksa, hor fun, curry mee, etc.

They have hor fun dry style mixed with various type of gravy too.

Nasi lemak and chicken rice.

Otak-otak and fried foo chuk too.

There is also a wide variety of toast and bugger.

Vegetarian dim sum, lor mai kai, egg tart, etc.

For dessrt, they have bean curd, soya bean, ice cream, pudding, etc.

There is a wide variety of drinks, hot and cold.

I ordered a plate of hor fun dry style mixed with chicken and prawn in soy sauce.

It was a big plate.

My friend ordered chicken hor fun.

Actually, we wanted to eat something light. But the variety of food on the menu made us ordered more than what we should eat at 12 mid night.

The vegetarian dim sum is a bit disappointing.

The fried foo chuk is chewy and tasty.

A bowl of bean curd. You have a choice of plain sugar syrup and gula melaka.

Same for soya milk too. Soya milk with gula melaka was great.

Barley with lemon. Home made.

The bill came up to around RM50. Not that expensive considering the amount of food we ordered.

Well, so far Papparich only has branches in Klang Valley. If you are interested to open one, you can contact the following number.

Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant

It was 3pm in the afternoon and all my family members had to be in Bridal World to take family photo with my sister, who was the bride of the day. Just next to Bridal World is the new Foh San Dim Sum Restaurant.

Ask anyone from Ipoh where to have somea good dim sum breakfast, most of them will tell you to go to Foh San. Not that it is the only dim sum restaurant in Ipoh, but Foh San is definitely one of the popular one. The restaurant open early at 6 am every morning and you will see a long queue outside the restaurant waiting to be seated. At least, that was the scenario in their old shop.

The last time I came back to Ipoh for Qing Ming festival around mid April 2009 , I already discovered the grand new Foh San almost completed. The new building of Foh San is really big and grand. The architecture looks like a clan association. It spans at least 5 shop lots and 4 storey high. The building can house at least 1000 people. With this new building, I hope the long queue waiting outside the restaurant will become history. At that time, the building was still under renovation and not opened for business then. This time round, the new Foh San restaurant is already in business. But too bad, 3pm is not the right time of the day to take dim sum and yam cha and the restaurant is closed for the day.

In the end, we went to Hua Nam just across the road for some white coffee while waiting for our turn to picture. Guess I have to wait till Chinese New Year to enjoy my dim sum in Foh San. In the mean time, I could only admire Foh San's new grand building.

Medan Selera Stadium, Ipoh

Every times I come home to Ipoh, I will definitely to go makan in Medan Selera Stadium. This eating place is only 5 minutes drive from my house in Ipoh. Every things here are familiar to me as I grew up in this part of the city. I moved to Ipoh from Gopeng when I was 6 years old. My childhood days were in Star Park, an old housing area less than 1 km from the stadium. My teenage years were in Wah Keong Park, which is less than 3 km from the stadium. Ipoh Garden, which is just next to the stadium was the place that I shopped and ate in those days.

Actually, most of the hawkers in Medan Selera Stadium were previously (about 20 years ago) hawkers in the shaded roadside hawker area by the road side of Jalan Lau Pak Kuan next to the Ipoh Garden roundabout before the municipal authority moved them to a newly built Medan Selera Stadium. I passed by this place on my way to school on my bicycle everyday. Quite frequently, I stopped by this place to have a bowl of ABC after school on my way cycling home.

The two things that I miss most from this eating place are wanton noodle and ABC. There are several wanton noodle stores in Medan Selera Stadium, but the best is Min Chee. I have been eating its wanton noodle since my childhood days. The store has been operating for 30 over years.

Unlike people in Hong Kong who eat their wanton noodle in soup, people in Malaysia and Singapore eat their wanton noodle mixed in gravy too. However, ask anybody from Ipoh about wanton noodle in Singapore, he will never fail to tell you how horrified he was when first ate his wanton noodle mixed with tomato ketchup or chili sauce in Singapore. The selling point of wanton noodle is its crunchy, smooth and slippery texture that allow you to slurp it into your mouth. To prepare wanton noodle with this texture, it is crucial to put the noodle through hot and cold water with the right amount of time. You wouldn't want to eat wanton noodle with a texture like mee goreng right.

Wanton in Ipoh comes with tissue paper like thin skin. In fact, the skin is so thin that it will disintegrate after you slurp it into your mouth. Typically, you will be served with at least 5 or 6 pieces in a bowl of soup. Wanton in Singapore comes with thick, yellowish colour skin and typically served with 2 or 3 pieces in a bowl of soup.

Call it ABC (Air Batu Campur) or Ice Kacang as you may. But trust me, Ipoh has the best. The closest is Penang. In Singapore, they add in atap seed and sometimes agar-agar jelly, but the syrup is just plain sweetness and colour. They use green colour syrup too. In Johor, they put Milo powder on top. Nothing beat Ipoh. In Ipoh, ABC comes in only 2 colours, red or brown. Each has its own taste. I just can't describe the richness of Ipoh ABC. You just have to taste it to really see the difference.