Every time I get to go back to Ipoh for work, I get really excited. 1. it’s my hometown 2. I get to see my grandparents (aged 94 and 89) and 3. I get to pig out on good food.
Also, being from Ipoh and everything, I thought I knew most of the great places for food, but this particular place slipped by me for some strange reason. If not for my Ipoh colleague, another born and bred Ipoh-chai (Ipoh boy) I would never have had the fortune of eating a whole bowl of brains by myself. For this, I have Marcus to thank.
Pig brain soup. Yes, in Cantonese this is the Chee-lou-tong.
They say eating brains makes you smarter. Errr.. not true. Try again.
They say eating brains makes you fatter? True!
Brains are after all, almost 60% fat due to large quantities of myelin (which itself is 70% fat) that insulate the axons of neurons.. and we ALL KNOW that brains are mainly made up of neurons right? Yes yes.. that’s why they call it grey and white matter.. it’s full of FAT. So, when they called you a “fat-head” in school, they were actually right.
How did this soup taste? Delicious! It felt like an oil-slick on my tongue with a texture not unlike what brains look like – A SQUIDGY MESS .. boiled in all that sweet, meaty goodness of pork meat and bones. Oh dang.. please pass me the Lipitor as I can feel my arteries constricting with the effort it now takes to pump blood to my extremities. Lunch has not even begun and already my system is shutting down fast.
Why don’t they sell nice things like fake singing birds in KL? I miss these!
A safer bet. This is the Ham Choy Ngap Tong. Salted Vegetables and Duck soup.
OK, so at this point I realize that this restaurants signature dish is in fact, the soup and its accompanying rice dishes. Yay, full marks for Ciki spotting this even though her own pig brain soup is fast lulling her into a semi-comatic state. Oh, believe me when I say, the soups here are superb. The Ham Choy Ngap Tong here is not too salty and full of duck flavour. This would be a much healthier soup to have than the pig’s brain one, but I would still order the pig’s brain because I am addicted to the flavour of myelin sheaths and axons and dendrons;)
Steamed rice in individual porcelain bowls. How gorgeous is that?
Even the rice tastes better! This method of steaming imparts a fluffier texture to the rice.
Pau Siew Yoke – Roasted pork that is fried up in garlic, and black sauce. So good words cannot describe it. The crispy pork rinds in this dish are to die for.
Fu Kwa Mun Kai is the final dish and let me just say, this is one of the most awesome versions of this dish I have ever tried. The bitter gourd is soaked in sugar just long enough to remove the bitter taste and then stir-fried with black bean and chicken to produce this home-cooked wonder, where once you’ve tried it, even time and tribulation could never erase from your memory.
A great yet simple meal at Hung Kee rice shop. I was surprised that this shop stirred so many memories and emotions in me. But then again, isn’t life about the more humble, so called “lesser” experiences that leave you wondering where you have been living all this time?
I like humble. It means more.
Add: Restoran Hung Kee, No.1, Jln Raja Ekram, Cowan Street, 30450 Ipoh, Perak Tel +605 241 0105
Hehe, I misread the title as Hunky Rice Shop Ipoh. Honest mistake, but I bet there are a lot of Ipohan hunks… just there are a lot of Ipohan babes, ya? 😉
I love pau siew yoke! Mom used to fry em up like this all the time. Yums!
ROFL!! Funny la you. But yes, the thought did cross my mind too. HUNKY!
after months of eating nonsense, all i want is a bowl of home cooked soup as well and some rice..
maybe i should go get some herbal packet sans the pig brain.
what do u mean nonsense? you cook great joe! your own homecook is so good wat.. LOL! You shld start a restaurant biz in Oz!
We can get out of Ipoh but not the Ipoh in us
you mean, you can take the girl/boy out of ipoh, but never ipoh out of the gal/boy! haha
Bwains. Ew. >_<
LOL!
I’ll eat anything but the pig’s brain…eew. I can’t. I can’t…However, I wii it the Pau Siew Yoke anytime, baby! Anything with garlic and tasty pork is a winner in my book (or belly)!
eew seems to be a word i am getting a lot of on this post! HAHA. i love it!
sorry, i meant to type, “I will eat Pau Siew Yoke anytime…” sorry about the typo. feeding baby and blogging at the same time…
Fu Kwa Mun Kai and Pau Siew Yoke – the best and only found in Ipoh.
totally feel ya!
coincidentally, our grandparents are more or less the same age!
i’ve only had pig brains once, cooked french-style in butter. kinda liked it. i bet i’d like this soup one too (tar pau some back next time!!!) 😀
buttery, fatty .. smear it this way baybeh! hehe
Yumm… Not sure how the brain taste like but if you say it’s delicious. I trust you your taste. And yea eating brain not smarter it’s fatter…lol
Don’t trust me. I’ll only make you fat. 😛
hahaah… I might need to gain more weight.
Where is this Hunky shop huh? I also Ipoh-mali… so maybe i shd go get some brain-shot there the next time i balik kampung! I add chilli padi into Pau Siew Yook – more shiokkk! 😉
Restoran Hung Kee,
No.1, Jln Raja Ekram,
Cowan Street, 30450 Ipoh, Perak !!
Next to the previous 8 Kok Lau (octagon market?).
You Ipoh gal ar? No wonder so pwetty 😛 I have not been to that shop in ages! somebody tried to sell me that singing bird recently lar in town 😀
Wow, chee lou tong…. must be so wonderful. Brought back memories of the times when mom used to make sizzling liver and brains with lotsa ginger, wine, sesame oil and black bean sauce. Thanks.
+Ant+
dun think that I can eat that when I go Ipoh on Friday… time is just limited!
=p~~~~~ I just drool cuz I’m speechless.. that’s all haha. Everything looks sooo delicious!
why never tapao for meeee
Mum said the shop’s quality has dropped drastically over the years. Not sure bout this, but the place does retain that old school charm since the yesteryear’s.
Very traditional, and very very hard to find eateries like Hung Kee nowadays.
Though pig’s brain soup … erm, maybe not.
I’ve tried most of the pig but not the brains, it’s now on my list!
Fabulous post as usual. I hate you. You get to go to Ipoh and eat nice food. All I get these days are office air and a headache. Helpch!
Absolutely brilliant… drooling!
Don’t forget the Ipoh gai-see sar-hor- fun (shredded chicken hor-fun)
That’s a very old, charming restaurant! Is the siu yuk/char siew stall still there?
Pig brain soup? Yikes! Very cool that you can experience tasty and traditional food– and see your grandparents at the same time. Looks like a cool town.
hmm, never tried pig’s brain soup before. Not sure if I would, but we’ll see.
Heh, love the exterior of the restaurant, very industrial look.
now i want fu kua mun kai !
there are people selling fake singing bird in KL 🙂
hey i’ve passed by this place but never tried any of the food there… now i am tempted to try the pig brain soup!