Soon-to-Be New and Improved (But We like the Old and Showing-Its-Years)

Ipoh was a mixed bag of hit and misses. Part of the problem was time - we didn't have enough and, since I was on assignment, it wasn't entirely our own. We blew town knowing we'd barely scratched its surface. (We did, however visit that tree; a former colleague of Dave's even tells us he appeared on the evening news hanging with some politicos).

Among the misses: entirely forgettable chicken rice at an Ipoh institution. Among the hits: the infamous ganja chicken (sorry Preeta, no photos) and dim sum at Restoran Foh San.

This place (like Lou Wong Tauge Ayam, apparently) gets mixed reviews. I don't know if we hit Foh San on an unusually good day (or detractors have hit it on off days), or if the fact that we were sharing a table with one of the owners and a demanding regular was doing the ordering had anything to do with it, but our breakfast amounted to some of the best dim sum we've eaten in a long time.

The prawn and scallop dumplings were a highlight, the wrappers lacking any gummyness and the seafood so fresh that one bite flooded our mouths with its briny juices.

Stir-fried radish cake (above, 3 o'clock) was surprisingly delicate and as light on grease as an absorbent cake fried in lots of oil can possibly be. The dish's bean sprouts were plenty crunchy and the cook added just the right amount of Foh San's housemade chili sauce.

Bean curd skin-wrapped prawn rolls (9 o'clock) were another hit, extremely crunchy and packed with not only prawn but large chunks of firm white-fleshed fish. I didn't even contemplate dipping into the mayo on the side.

spinach dumplings filled with minced pork, mushrooms, and water chestnuts 

I'm a huge fan of lotus seed paste which, paired with salted egg, is common filling for mooncakes. Foh San makes its own paste, and its perfect - smooth, not too stiff, and only slightly sweet. The predominant flavor here is lotus seeds. As it should be.

 

Foh San puts the paste inside chewy glutinous rice flour wrappers, coats them with sesame seeds, and deep-fries the lot. They're tasty, but they can't hold a candle to the lin yoong bao (opening photo), the lotus paste-salted egg mooncake filling inside a steamed bao. Check out the beautiful layers on that bao

We loved Foh San, but to tell the truth we're not sure if we'll go back. Located on the ground floor of the Perak Chinese Amateur Drama Association, the restaurant is quite a classic scene - whirring ceiling fans, steamer-laden carts whizzing here and there, tables crowded with mostly regulars who keep the volume pretty high.

But around the beginning of May Foh San will look very different; the restaurant is moving to a brand-new four-story building with a roof garden. Out will go the old tablecloths, chopsticks, steamer baskets (round baskets will be replaced with square), and tea pots (except the blue-flowered pots, in which cha wang - the 'king of teas' - is served). There will be no more carts; patrons will have to order their dim sum. Everything will be new and spiffy and smart. Presumably, the food will be as good as on the morning we dined there.

But we just can't imagine it being the same.

Restoran Foh San, G/F Perak Chinese Amateur Dramatic Association, corner Jalans Mustapha Al-Bazri and Dato Thawil Azar, Ipoh. Mornings.

As of the beginning of May (estimated): No. 51 Jalan Leong Nam, Ipoh.

***

An aside: this will be the last time - for a while - that I plug Dave's new photo blog, but the opening photo of this post is my favorite from our recent sojourn in northern Thailand. This lady really touched us.

Comments

[Jarrett]

Beautiful descriptions and photos, which leads me to this question: do you know any good dim sum spots in Bangkok? You've made me hungry with this post, but I haven't found any yet that really shine...

Any tips, anyone?

[BM]

What about duck noodles? Isn't that Ipoh?

[Marcus]

Robyn,

Thanks a bunch for your posts, I've been keeping track of every post since this blog first came up. Now that Dave has a photo blog up as well, I can't wait. I love food & photography, great combo.

[Beth]

Gosh darn it! That looks sooooo gooooood!!! I'm salivating right now.

[Stephanie, NZ]

I highly recommend the Ais Kacang from "Gerai Ais Progress" (stand 27) at the hawker stalls west of the Central Market, in Ipoh. I had ais kachang there in January with at least 10 delicious ingredients - a mound of ice topped with taro coconut icecream, creamed corn, salty roasted peanuts, palm sugar syrup, then, hidden under the ice, cendol, red beans, grass jelly, evaporated milk, and - I'm not entirely sure but maybe these were - sago pearls, a light green jelly, tiny pink jelly-like balls... an absolute delight! Ipoh kuey teow also lived up to its reputation, being the smoothest, silkiest and best I've had. Next time I'll make Ipoh a destination instead of a transit point - especially armed with recommendations from this post - many thanks!

[inadobo]

Wow!

It's amazing when you see food and think, "oh.. that looks kind of good" and then you see food through the eyes of someone that can take a good photo and you think "oh wow! I need to swallow because I'm salivating so much..."

Excellent post!

[wandernut]

I'm a million miles from home and miss the food so much. Sigh. I can almost taste the salted egg yolk in that lotus paste pastry.

And... OH NO!! That's so sad (the revamp). Why can't people just leave good things the way they are :(

There was a Foh San in SS2, PJ. Not sure if it's a branch, not sure if it's still there. The last time I had dimsum there it was underwhelming. I hope the new Foh San in Ipoh won't suffer the same fate.

Sigh.

[annapurna]

Please, don't change a thing in your blog...street food is where it's at and I've always loved you/your blog for knowing that. I've been a (silent) EatingAsia junkie for at least 3-4 years now. Your style and intractability (is that even a word? If it's not, it should be!) are my inspiration, and garner my total respect. Keep on keeping on. Those of us currently unable (financial crisis "oblige") to indulge in the glory that is Asian food on the ground depend on you to live vicariously, downing, through your expert words and images, the exquisite savors in which we cannot plunge and splash (for the moment--I remain sanguine).
Thank you both, Robyn and Dave--you make life worth living! (And I live in Paris, so this is high praise, though I suspect you eat out waaaaay better than we do, in spite of the The City of Light's reputation!
Merci,
Maia

[J2Kfm]

thanks for the link.
nasi ganja was addictive right?

the original branch at jln yang kalson even more ...