Vegan Life, Ipoh

Date visited : 28 May 2018

I first came to this place 3 years ago with my vegetarian friend and I immediately fell in love with the food here. The food here is so delicious that you'll forget that you're in a vegetarian restaurant.

Vegan Life is different from all the vegetarian restaurants I've been to. The dishes here are prepared uniquely and presented in a way that will make you salivate just at the sight of it. 

Since there were only 2 of us here, I could only order 4 dishes and even that the waitress was skeptical that we may not be able to finish all of them.

My husband ordered the Vegan Soy Taufu Delight Rice. The item you see in the bowl consists of soybean fiber, soy toufu meat, toufu, coriander and ginger sauce.

I ordered the Vegan Red Curry Rice as I wanted something spicy. The curry contains potato, toufu, dried bean curd, celery, cabbage, cauliflower and mushrooms. I liked it very much because the curry has a sourish taste to it and I like sourish food.

I saw this on their menu and I wanted to try it out because it seems to be their signature noodle dish. It is called the VeganLife Special Fried Noodle. Depending on your preference, you can order it spicy or non spicy. I'm not sure what type of noodle they use in this dish but it is definitely not the common type of noodle. It is not oily and it is not too dry as well.

Last but not least, the VeganLife French Bread Pumpkin Mushroom Soup. Since I love pumpkin based dishes, I had to try this as well. The pumpkin soup is thick and savoury. This soup is quite filling as it is filled with mushrooms, broccoli and cauliflower. 

Other than these dishes, there are many other dishes that you could choose from. They have a variety of rice dishes, noodle dishes as well as Western dishes. You'll be spoiled for choice. 

I would highly recommend this place if you're a vegetarian or just want to eat something different or meatless.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 4/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 4.5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Halal

Other information:

Address : No 25 Jalan Medan Ipoh 7, Bandar Baru Medan Ipoh, 31400 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-566 6044

Business Hours : 11.30am - 4.30pm / 6pm - 9.30pm Daily

Transaction : Cash

Links : https://www.facebook.com/ivanvikym/

Kedai Makanan Kum Kee, Ipoh

Date visited : 27 May 2018

This is one my favourite go to place for dinner or even supper when I'm in Ipoh. It is not located within the town area but hidden within the quiet village of Pasir Pinji in Ipoh and it only opens at 6pm till late.

This place is famous for their braised chicken feet and pork trotter which locals refer to them as "Big, Small Feet". Small feet being the chicken feet and big feet being the pork trotters. And these two are the signature dish of this place.

For me personally, I will only order their Chicken Feet a.k.a Small Feet as I'm not a big fan of pork trotters. But I heard the Big Feet are the more popular choice among the locals.

I normally don't eat chicken feet when I'm back home but the ones here are very soft and tasty. It's so soft that the skin and flesh are easily detached from the bones.

Though they are popular with their Big, Small Feet, people also come here to eat other dishes and generally people here prefers the Ipoh Hor Fun.

You can have it either tossed in just dark sauce.

Or you can it in clear soup.

And of course they don't just eat it plain, they will usually pick and choose ingredients like these to go along with their noodles.

Another popular choice is non other than their steam chicken.

The steam chicken skin is thin and smooth while the meat is very soft and tender. I somehow feel that the chicken texture here is much better than the ones people rave about in Lou Wong or Onn Kee.

The above are only some of the dishes I've ordered, the ones I've missed out, other than the braised pork trotter, is the braised tofu and also the Ipoh bean sprouts.

And if you come here during the weekdays, after 8pm, there will be a stall selling all sorts of kuih opened right in front of the restaurant. The kuih sold by this man is home made and is quite popular among the locals as well. Even before he finishes setting up his stall, you could see people starting to gather around him anxious to make their purchase.

I would also recommend you to come here during the non Public Holiday weekday to avoid the crowd.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 3/5

Food Quality : 4/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : 798 – 799, Jalan Raja Muda, Taman Pasir Pinji, 31650 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-512 5219

Business Hours : 6pm - 3am Daily

Transaction : Cash

Kedai Kopi Kwong Hong, Ipoh

Date visited : 27 May 2018

When I came here for the first time last year, I immediately fell in love with this place. I only regret that I didn't know about this place much earlier. This is a place that serves Ipoh style Yong Tau Foo. However, the locals don't call it Yong Tau Foo, they call it Zhao Liu (Fried Ingredients in Cantonese).

Their business starts at 12pm but the shop is open for preparation at 11am. You can sit around and order drinks but they will only start the food ordering when they are ready at 12pm.

Just by sitting around and watch them prepare made me so excited. For me it's like watching food porn. Just look at the spread of ingredients you could choose from!

They even have variations of noodles to choose from. They have 4 types of noodles, mee hoon, yellow mee, Ipoh kuey teow and laksa noodles. After choosing your preferred noodles, you then choose the method of preparation or soup base. You can have it dry (noodles tossed in dark sauce with no soup), clear soup, curry and sometimes they even have assam laksa.

Assam laksa

Curry soup

Don't expect the normal thick and strong tasting soup from the usual assam laksa and curry laksa, the soup base here is lighter in taste so that it does not overpower the taste other ingredients.

These are my selection of the day. We ordered some fried stuff and some soup based ingredients. The fish paste used has a soft and bouncy texture. Each ingredient has their own special taste and each so delicious.

All the ingredients are so tasty. There's nothing I don't like here. I just wish I had a bigger stomach so I could eat them all.

So if you were to come here, try one of everything. I promise you won't regret it.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 5/5

Price Range : $

Status : Non Halal

Other information:

Address : No 309 Jalan Gunung Rapat, Taman Rapat Setia, 31350 Ipoh, Perak

Business Hours : 12pm - 5.30pm (Closed on Mondays)

Transaction : Cash

Tai Soo No 1 Ipoh Famous Dessert, Ipoh

Date visited : 26 May 2018

When we talk about dessert in Ipoh, almost everyone that I know will mention Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah. But to me, Funny Mountain is no longer funny as it is highly commercialized and it is too crowded with tourists. So I decided to look for another alternative for good Tau Fu Fah (Soybean Curd)... and I found it.

Tai Soo No 1 Ipoh Famous Dessert is a humble store located along the busy street of Jalan Raja Musa Aziz. And here they offer more than just Tau Fu Fah. They have Tau Fu Fah in different variations, cendol and ais kacang as well.

So if you are among a group of friends or family who would appreciate more variety, this would be a good choice.

Now let's talk about their Tau Fu Fah first.

This is their plain Tau Fu Fah with Gula Melaka (palm sugar). Tau Fu Fah with Pandan Syrup is nice but Gula Melaka gives the Tau Fu Fah an added caramel toffee like taste. The Tau Fu Fah here is very smooth and served in a reasonable portion.

This is Tau Fu Fah with Soya Bean and Pandan Syrup. It's a mixture of both hot Tau Fu Fah and cold Soya Bean drink. I will usually choose this on days I'm torned between a hot serving of tau fu fah or a cold and refreshing soya bean drink.

This is their Red Bean Cendol. The red bean and cendol is soft and sweet. However, when mixed together with the shaved ice drenched in Gula Melaka, it's not overly sweet.

And this is their Ais Kacang Special. Their Ais Kacang Special consists of shaved ice drenched in Gula Melaka, Rose syrup and evaporated milk, cincau (grass jelly), cendol, sago, red beans, sweet corn, roasted peanuts and then topped with a scoop of corn flavoured ice-cream. I actually preferred my Ais Kacang without ice-cream but I forgot to inform the staff on that and by default, it came with the ice-cream.

So if you want to try something new or enjoy your dessert away from the tourist crowd, why not come here for a change.

OUR RATING

Ambience : 3/5

Service : 4/5

Food Quality : 3.5/5

Price Range : $

Other information:

Address : No 24 Jalan Raja Musa Aziz, 30300 Ipoh, Perak

Contact No. : 012-527 8881

Business Hours : 11am - 6pm (Closed on Wednesdays)

Transaction : Cash

Links : https://www.facebook.com/ipohfamous/

Lian Thong Restaurant, Taiping

Date visited : 26 May 2018

When I browsed through blogs for food recommendation in Taiping, Lian Thong Restaurant was highly recommended for the best place to have breakfast. But since I've already made plans for breakfast, I saved stomach space to try this place out for lunch.

From the look of this place, it is easy to tell that this place has been around for quite a long time. Judging from the customers I see in this place, this place is popular not only with the local adults and elderly but also teenagers as well. 

The first thing I ordered was their Fried Taufu Pok.

The skin of the taufu pok is thin and deep fried till crunchy while the meat filling remains moist and juicy.  

Next I ordered their signature dish, the Bomb Mee.

It is similar to the normal Cantonese Fried Noodle or also known as Kong Foo Chau. The difference is in the noodles. The Yee Mee noodles in this Bomb Mee is fried till it is all puffed up and that creates the light and spongy texture on the inside. It is then topped with egg gravy, vegetables, chicken and prawns.

And last but not least is their own made Salted Lime Juice.

This drink is perfect for a hot weather or when you have a sore throat. It is slightly salted, slightly sweet plus a hint of sourness. And with all these combined, it makes it so refreshing and yummy.

The salted limes used for this drink is own made in this restaurant.

You will see jars and jars of limes in different stages of fermentation on their cashier counter and on top of a car bonnet outside the restaurant, under the sun.

They also have other worth trying dishes like Fried Mee Jawa and Kerabu Rice. I didn't have enough stomach space for them this time but I will definitely come back to this place again to try them out.

OUR RATING
Ambience : 3/5
Service : 4/5
Food Quality : 3.5/5
Price Range : $

Other information:
Address : No 5 Jalan Kota, Perak, 34000 Taiping
Contact No. : 05-807 2645
Business Hours : 8.30am - 2pm (Monday - Friday) / 8.30am - 12pm (Saturday) / Closed on Sundays)
Transaction : Cash
Links : https://www.facebook.com/LianThongRestaurant/

Restoran Kakak, Taiping

Date visited : 26 May 2018

I've heard of this place for quite some time now but I have never been here in person. 

The reason I've heard about this place is because of their signature coffee called Kakak Peng (Kakak Ice). My colleague bought it for me to try during my last visit to Taiping for work and I loved it.

Kakak Peng is a mixture of milk coffee and barley. It may sound strange and a bit exotic to some but you have to give it a try to appreciate it. It can be served hot or cold but I personally liked it cold. The sweetness from the barley gives the coffee a unique taste.

Other than their signature coffee, people also come here for their Kai Si Hor Fun (Kuey Teow Soup with Shredded Chicken). 

The texture of the kuey teow (flat rice noodles) here are similar to the ones well known in Ipoh. As you can see, they are generous with the portion of shredded chicken. If you are not comparing to the ones found in Ipoh, this is easily the best in Taiping.

OUR RATING
Ambience : 3/5
Service : 4/5
Food Quality : 3.5/5 (4.5/5 for the Kaka Peng)
Price Range : $
Status : Non Halal

Other information:
Address : No 111 Jalan Pasar, 34000 Taiping, Perak
Business Hours : 5.30am - 1.30pm (Closed on Mondays)
Transaction : Cash