Must-try Ipoh Street Food Gems

By JeeShen Lee - Jun 02, 2015 (Last Updated Jan 02, 2020)

Ipoh is best known for its hawker fare and local dishes - some of which are hard to find anywhere else. Let's we go explore a delicious food!

1) Yong Suan

Yong Suan’s nasi kandar is fondly known as nasi ganja because it is incredibly addictive. After a tantalising lunch at Yong Suan’s, quench the fire in your mouth with some sweet soupy offerings from Hong Kee. Ipoh folks would drive through to take away their famous mah chee and peanut soup.

2) Hong Kee Mah Chee

Tucked under a big shady tree and parked in front of a house, Hong Kee’s Ma Chee stall is almost hidden from sight along Jalan Queen, Pasir Pinji. A creamy concoction made of toasted ground peanuts and sugar, it is full of peanut flavour (think liquid peanut butter) with a mildly sweet taste and a slight salty aftertaste.

3) Canning Garden Chee Cheong Fun

This Ipoh chee cheong fun, it is very simple and wholesome. The freshly steamed rice rolls are silky smooth and drenched with plenty of mushroom sauce, dried shrimps toasted sesame seeds, pickled green chillies and fried shallots.

There's more!

4) Kedai Kopi Kwong Hong

Kwong Hong is a yong tau foo or "liew", as the locals call it, specialist. Yong tau foo literally means tofu stuffed with fish paste. Nowadays, the term is being widely applied to a wide variety of stuffed vegetables such as eggplants, bitter gourd and lady’s fingers. However, Kwong Hong takes yong tofu to the next level - you will spot stuffed lotus root, oyster mushroom, broccoli, capsicum, kangkung and even seaweed here.

5) Kedai Makanan Kum Kee

If you are a big fan of pig trotters or braised chicken feet, Kum Kee at Pasir Pinji is the best place to go to. It is also why most people refer to this humble little eatery as "dai sai geok" - literally, big small feet.