Wrap up

Quite some time now since my previous post.  Well I'd started working from the office so can't be accessing my blog or my neighbours would see haha.  Also.. busy lah.

So after our Ipoh trip, SE said it was great because we did many things.  She didn't expect it to be so fun.  All rightttt!  Pat on the back for the organiser/planner (me of course hehehe).  I was happy to have found a good mix of food and activities.

Putting down our itinerary for the Ipoh trip here for future reference.

Day 1 - Tg Tualang Prawn village, Dinner at Gourmet square

Day 2 - Breakfast at Ming Court, Qin Xin ling, Sam Poh Tong for tortoise, Lunch at Dai shee geok, Dinner at Hooray 

Day 3 - Breakfast at Kong Heng, Concubine lane, Harry potter cafe, Light lunch at Kong Heng, Dinner at Japanese

Day 4 - Breakfast Chang Jiang, Concubine lane again. Lunch at Jin Xuan Tapah

Let me also document down the habit of my little sleeping companion.

Look who wrapped herself up in all of the blanket....

Zzzz

And helped herself to the whole bed....

Zzzzzz

She laughed when I showed her these.  I'm sure I will look back on these pictures one day with nostalgia.

Ok!  Wrap up of the Ipoh trip.  We have since gone on another trip, let me find the time to post...

Food at Ipoh 2

A second post on food as one isn't enough haha.  Day3 breakfast was at Kong Heng of the famed chicken strip noodles/kai see hor fun and pork satay.  KSFH was too meaty though - had to leave some of the chicken uneaten.

After wandering around Concubine's Lane, we walked over to Nam Heong 5mins away only to find it closed.  Our tired legs took us back to Kong Heng for a light lunch. This second round I noticed a CCF stall, what joy!  Chose the mushroom sauce version, which I enjoyed despite it being a little plain.  Another version next time perhaps.  We also had rojak (good), satay (again) and popiah (I didn't take any).  Looks like we have new targets here for our next visit.

Meaty chicken noodles and satay

Waze decided to crash in the evening. :(  The spoken directions were there but not the visuals.  How were we to get to dinner?  Typically Waze would take us through various dark roads in housing estates.  I'm not used to Google maps for driving and decided against using it.  Somehow we managed to reach our dinner place... which was closed.  Sigh.  I'd definitely checked whether it was open before setting off.  We ended up at a nearby Japanese restaurant.  The place was clean and bright, food presentation was good, taste was nice enough.  But no need to repeat since we can easily get Japanese food in KL.

This is yummy actually

Day4 lunch:  Stopped by Jin Xuan in Tapah on our way home to KL.  Cheap and good as usual - soy sauce prawns, fried squid and kangkung belacan.

Oh a feast again

Top marks for the meals during this holiday.  :)  

Chang Jiang Coffee

On our last day in Ipoh, I decided on a visit to the old site of BBQ lamb.  Partly as parking would be easy (heh heh), also I was curious what the place looked like now plus I wanted to check out Chang Jiang anyway.

We had coffee and various snacks including kaya butter toast.  Not bad but nothing to shout about.

One iced coffee has arrived

Nice toilet

One more picture of Chang Jiang

As for "People's park" itself, unfortunately it has continued to run down.  

No water here now

Time flies... before MCO the girls were young enough to love playgrounds.  Now they have pretty much outgrown them.  They clambered around a bit and went down a few slides.

Playground

Concubine's Lane

Day 3, the girls were eager to do 'shopping' at Concubine's Lane.  Our last trip to Ipoh was 3 years ago so there have been some changes.  First, our usual parking was now boarded up, probably for development.  Luckily there was another lot just a short distance away as parking isn't easy to find in this area.   

There used to be more souvenir and food stalls.  They must have not been able to survive the MCO. 

JE wanted an ice-ball.  Despite Mummy trying to be a wet blanket saying these are just syrup on ice, we were on holiday so ok lah.  SE wanted this wriggly worm she saw.  Again since we are on holiday... worm comes home with us.

Ice balls are good stuff! Also wriggly worms

The girls enjoyed themselves.  So much so they requested to come again the following day when we were in the area.  And got themselves more sugary snacks. 

One was 'tang hulu' - I don't get the attraction of these sugar-coated fruit, but we're on holiday so why not.

Ahmmm!

As usual, the girls lit up the moment they saw the cotton candy stall.  They got a big stick of cotton candy - see how happy SE was!

Happy!

Yes these are delicious!

Apparently the amount of sugar consumed still wasn't enough.  So they had to get another fruit stick, chocolate-coated this time.

Chocolate-coated strawberries!

Hopefully there will be more stalls in future, something closer to Melaka's Jonker Street would be fun.

Harry Potter Cafe

I'd been wanting to bring the girls to this cafe for ages.  We'd strolled up to it 3 years ago at a time when they didn't know the characters yet.  Later the Harry Potter bug did hit - the girls watched the movies again and again.  JE read the books too (SE until now hasn't read them) and especially liked the villain Draco Malfoy.  In fact, Draco is the reason she moved away from her 'first love' of BTS the Korean boy group.

However as expected, since there aren't new books nor TV shows, their interest in Harry Potter eventually waned.  Good thing the girls were still game to visit this place - not sure whether its name is "Platform 9 1/2" or "Plat9rm". 

You have to buy at least one item for each patron (the kids were excluded) in order to enter.  The drinks we chose tasted good so no problem.  The costume cost RM10 to rent without a time limit.  Staff were waiting for a batch to return from the laundrette.  JE wanted a House Slytherin costume but was fine with the available one of House Griffindor. 

Introduction to the characters

Witch JE

Witch SE

This must be one of the school professors hehe

There were a few nice spots in the cafe for photos.

Shall we try some dark magic?

Be very afraid, I have a wand

There was also an open area for outdoor photos.  Props were available, although some had seen better days. 

Don't forget your trunk!! And I'm still wearing your hat.

Ah my parcels of school supplies have arrived

Potions require lots of study

I shall be a smart witch, you will see

We had fun. :)  I was so glad the girls were in the mood for photos.
 

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.