Food at Ipoh 1

Food is definitely something I look forward to.  We feasted during this trip hehe.  A rundown of the places we went...

Day 1 dinner was at the Ipoh Gourmet Square (a fancier name than its earlier name 'Glutton Square').  It was a busy Sunday but we got lucky getting parking and a table.  Besides the curry mee I had been craving for, the other things I found delicious were oh-chien/oyster omelette, lobak and HK CCF.  The spiny shellfish were pretty good too.  I would have ordered more things if stomach space had permitted!  

Spiny shellfish

Day 2 we braved the queue at Ming Court for breakfast. SE was complaining throughout the half hour.  Once we got in though, everything was good:  Service was efficient, the dim sum were dainty and yummy, the prices were very reasonable.  All boxes ticked!  Still, probably our first and last visit as we are aren't willing to queue for long.  

Let's see if this is worth the wait

Lunch was noodles and assorted liew at Dai Shee Keok.  This is my customary stop at Ipoh especially since we could pop in at the nearby JJ Swissrolls afterwards.  Food was good as usual.  I belatedly realised one of the stalls sold CCF.  After an internal war with my gluttony side, decided NOT to tapau since we had other food destinations and I AM trying to lose weight.  Didn't take any pictures from lunch.

Dinner was at Hooray Restaurant for their pork chop with pickled onions.  Even SE the sworn onion-hater liked this dish.  JE requested soup, I said we already had enough food.  The waitress suggested a small portion for 1-2 persons at  RM6.  So ok, why not.  Then when soup came, it was chock-full of ingredients and was definitely enough for all 5 of us!  I was convinced the order was mixed up and they had given us a big portion.  But no, when the bill came, it was RM6 for the soup all right.  What a steal!  We ended up taking away the "lapsapkai" chicken dish (not in the picture below as it hadn't appeared yet) as there was really too much food.  The squid dish tasted good enough but the squid itself was too soft to the bite.  Penning this down so next time I will try other dishes instead.

Ah my soup is here

An additional thing I was happy about was the relief from the parking woes at our previous eating places!  I am not great at driving or parking.  Parking was a breeze here. 

No tortoise

We dropped by Sam Poh Tong which was a stone's throw away from Qing Xin Ling.  The girls wanted to feed the tortoises as they always do when we visit Ipoh.  We waited for a while to buy tomatoes as the seller ran out and had to cut more.

People have been saying for years that the number of tortoises are going down.  But this trip, we were surprised - the enclosure was practically EMPTY!  The girls had been looking forward to their game of trying to feed the smaller tortoises before the big ones came to snatch the food.  Suffice to say that this time, there were more uneaten tomato lying around than there were tortoises.

So few tortoises. What shall we do with our tomato?

Took the chance to comment on the lack of tortoises to the tomato-seller on our way out.  She had the audacity to say, "Oh these tortoises just love to HIDE!  The other day people were commenting that there were so many tortoises that there wasn't enough food!"  Hahaha.  What complete BS*.  No way any tortoise was hiding unless it had learned how to turn invisible.

Sad trip.  Guess there is no need to stop by any more.

Qing Xin Ling

The weather was perfect when we woke up the next day - cloudy yet not threatening to rain.  So off we went to Qing Xin Ling leisure and cultural village.  Entry was RM12 each.  Let's see if it was worth it.

We are at this place where we cannot remember the name

however many times Mummy says it

There were plenty of photo opportunities.  The place was interactive, eg there was a drum used for lion dance at one of the 'buildings' where we happily took our turn.  The 'shops' had things we could lift and pose with.  Old wood and items were used in building the place so it looked genuine enough. 

Fake ticket booth! We bought real tickets already outside

Us at a random stall

There was a courtyard area in the centre.  I was busy at my phone a while and when I looked at the girls again, they'd paid to get this to write wishes on. 

Making wishes in English and Chinese

It's very difficult to get it up there

I also tried to fling the thing up a few times and failed!  Eventually JE got it hooked on something.

Just of couple of ladies going out

We took our time and found the place bigger than it initially looked.  My favourite area was this 'hillside village' built along some steps.   I could imagine it as a real village and wondered how it would be like to live there!

Do we need to buy something from this shop

I cut hair for Jojo hehehee

The first 'shop' in the 'village'

I want to be rich!

Definitely worth the trip.  :)   

Ipoh trip 2022 - MyPrawn Village

Managed a trip to Ipoh for the 1-week school holiday.  :)  Hubby came along this time, compared to our Kuala Selangor trip where he stayed home.  I had to drive though - hubby can have seizures unexpectedly so it's not safe for him to drive.  Well easy peasy, I have driven there way back when my parents were still living in Ipoh.  Except that was really long ago plus in later years my brother drove.  My toes were cramping by the time we made a pit-stop. 

Get some ice-cream and corn

Our destination was MyPrawn Village in Tanjung Tualang.  Gosh now I know this place is over 2 hours away from KL.  The compound is decorated very well.  Unfortunately the mini wonders attraction was closed for the day.  Snap some pics first...

Reached finally

4 ladies and a boat. With some random dwarves

Found a sleeping baby deer

Wear a mask, you!

Let's go in for lunch.

Mr Peabody and us

We are going to eat youuuuu

The food was good even though the place was a tourist trap.  We had freshwater prawns (obviously fresh), iberico pork ribs (tasted fine but cost more than the prawns), pumpkin-sauce tofu and veg.

We give this meal a thumbs up

After eating we went out to take more pictures.

Watermelon for dessert maybe?

This panda is cute 

No, this frog here is the cutest

A cat rock. Nah still prefer the frog

It's so hot. We could do with some ice-cream ourselves 

On to the wall murals...

SE the mama panda is coming! Don't touch the baby!

Come here, pretty bird

Lots more photos but enough already for this post. :)  Worth the visit for sure!  Arghh another 40mins more to get to Ipoh.  

Piglet's back!

The lost piglet has been found!  Turned out it was in a basket of hubby's stuff and he found it.  Hmm did it go off on an adventure and finally decided to return?  Our maid Jane is quite sure she had checked in that cupboard!  

Now the issue is... Piglet has been gone 4.5 months and we have grown fond of its replacement, Piglet2.  (Never thought we'd have a B-grade drama... you know, where someone returns after a long time away only to find he/she has been replaced and his/her family has moved on!)  A lot has gone on since the piglet was lost.  Piglet2 has invented new silly songs, has ordered itself a toy, has acquired a kid in Pikachu, has done all sorts of things and been all sorts of places.  It sometimes accompanies us in the car with a safety belt on - proudly saying 'Safety pig!'.  Sometimes it goes without the safety belt where it would be 'Dangerousss pigggg' in a menacing voice.  It carries JE's bag (saying 'strong pig!'), passes things through the house grills ('jail pig!').  It eats ('nyam nyam nyam') and drinks ('sippy sip sip sippy sip sip'). Overall, it is just a very noisy pig.  When you see it go to sleep and think, peace finally, it will let out loud snores.  And when you ask it to shush and not to be so noisy, it will say plaintively, 'but Piglet... is a quiet pig'.

SE says it has been Piglet all the while, and other creatures interacting with it saw it as a little pink piglet.  But for JE and me, it is strange seeing a pink bean-shaped pig instead of the white moomin with a tail.

At the moment, Piglet is the pink pig and 'Miglet' (short for Moomin-piglet) is the white moomin.

Piglet and Miglet

Piglet, Miglet and Pikachu

All being couch potatoes

So now we have two pigs haha.