Pasir Pinji Food Fest
Ipoh Perak Food Tripping
My foodie family and I went on a Perak food trail from small-town Kampar to Pasir Pinji before reaching main destination in main town centre in Ipoh. It's been quite a wide we last had a culinary trip to the Ipoh, Perak.
PINJI FEST Food Passport
We were lucky so to say as we had chosen to Labour Day ~ May 1 to start our culinary food trip to Ipoh. The locals I met told me that Pasir Pinji town was having a 'Pesta Pinji' or 'Pinji Fest' for the next three days from May 1 to May 3 to introduce the town's attractions and its local cuisine. This passport was launched to increase awareness of the hidden gems and aims to promote and rejuvenate Pasir Pinji as food heaven and restore it to its former glory.
Direction & Address
Pinji Fest Food Passport is a compilation of
10 local cuisine spots which are highly recommended by the Pinjireans. Tourist can make good use of this passport to embark on a journey of authentic local taste and flavours.
I was told that all the delicacies which are recommended are now being run by the 2nd or even 3rd generation owners. They have inherited the craft from elders and have well captured the original taste of these local cuisines.
For more info, please visit their official Facebook at :
www.facebook.com/pestapinji
We saw this house at Jalan Pasir Pinji, creatively decorated with recycled construction materials with murals painted depicting the tasty local cuisines.
PASIR PINJI CHEE CHEONG FUN
House No 1456,
Jalan Pasir Pinji 5, Ipoh
Our first stop at Pasir Pinji town to feed the hungry stomachs was the famous Chee Cheong Fun stall or house. Most of the locals operate their family business from their home, so you will see us going on a 'House-Hopping' gastronomy adventures to seek out the best eats in Pasir Pinji.
Chee Cheong Fun Stall within the house
The rice noodles roll or better known as 'Chee Cheong Fun' pricing is as follows: Extra Large serving per plate ~ RM 3.80, Large or Medium serving ~ RM 3.20 to Small serving ~ RM 2.30.
Everyone comes here solely to eat the Chee Cheong Fun only. You can see the lady-in-charge just picked and chopped the soft and thin noodles before placing them on plate or plastic bags for take-away.
Chunky Pieces of the Tasty Dried Shrimp in Rice Noodles
Sneak peek at an old uncle helping out in the house
A Whole Container of Chee Cheong Fun
Toppings Sauce for the Noodles
You can choose to have your rice noodles with chilli sauce, sweet sauce, soya sauce, shallot oil or preserved green chillies.
Dried Shrimp Chee Cheong Fun
Numbering System
Follow the rules to eating in this place... Upon entering the house compound, please proceed to the counter next to the stall to get your number. You will be allotted a number and please remember it by hard. There is no numbering system nor tickets or even small plastic number card given to customers. Our number for that day was number 35. Go find a place to sit among the many tables and chairs around the house and wait patiently for your lucky number to be called out.
Large crowd with my blogger hubby giving a 'Peace' sign while waiting to be served
A combo pics of my kids and I waiting patiently for the tasty Chee Cheong Fun to be served. My son's facial expression here shows exactly how bored he was after waiting for more than 30 minutes with a very hungry growling stomach. Pity my boy!
Waiting Game at Pasir Pinji Chee Cheong Fun
Simple but Tasty Eats of Chee Cheong Fun
Rice Noodles with Sweet Sauce with fried shallots & sesame seeds
Rice Noodles with Everything in
~ Mixed of Chillie Sauce, Sweet Sauce with green chillies topped with fried shallots & sesame seeds ~
Rice Noodles with simple mixture of soy sauce, fried shallots & sesame seeds
We just simply loved the different varieties of the Chee Cheong Fun, in a total of 3 types. The house-made rice noodles were so smooth, freshly steamed and slurp-worthy. You can taste and bite into the briny flavour of the dried shrimps. One of the best I ever tasted; it was fine and thin, not thick in texture like the ones we used to buy and eat from the morning market or the roadside stall, Chee Cheong Fun stall.
Definitely worth the wait for at least 30 mins if you are lucky. The locals were seen placing orders and packing away 20 to 30 packets for some party or events I think. The owner told me that if you are large order, you probably have to place your order prior to a day in advance to avoid disappointment.
ROJAK JALAN PADANG
57 Jalan Sultan
Pasir Pinji Ipoh
Our next gastronomic adventure brought us to this celebrated but unassuming, low profile
Fruit Rojak stall, located at another house. These are among the great offerings that have given Pasir Pinji an added charm.
Pasir Pinji is famous for its local delicacies and a unique feature of the food here is that the taste remains very much the same today as decades ago. This fruits rojak stall had been around for
35 odd years which was a sibling, brother and sister business 3 decades ago.
Picture Time While Waiting
Same rule seems to apply when eating at this place. We gratefully proceed to take our number for the day from the stall which comes in the form of a small pink number card wrapped in plastic. Our waiting game started and this time, we were luckier and was customer number 19 for that day. Get comfortable, find a place to sit or stand and just wait patiently for your turn.
Rojak Uncle In Action
There is a poignant story to this
'Rojak Uncle' running his business from his home now. A few years back, he would ride his bike and peddle his rojak at Jalan Padang. One day, while climbing a mango tree to pluck some mangos for his business, he had a bad fall and hurt his leg. Since then, he was not able to ride his bike and thus, have to run his business from his home since.
A generous portion of mixed fruits of turnip (sengkuang), pineapple, raw mango, zucchini and crispy prawn crackers goes into the mixing bowl. House-made special rojak sauce and chilli sauce are added in together with a generous sprinkling of fragrant crushed peanuts to be toss evenly before serving.
Waiting-In-Line among the crowd of more than 10 customers
Good Stuff: Pasir Pinji Fruit Rojak
RM 5
A picture paints a thousand words, so to say... You can see that the rojak was very delectable and appetising with a generous serving of the super thick rojak sauce. You can see that Uncle Rojak does not sting on his sauce thus making his rojak simply one of best I ever tasted in my life. A good rojak sauce and lots of the peanuts is the ultimate recipe or formula for a good rojak.
If I were to pack this and eat it at home, I would add on more chopped zucchini or cucumber to soak and finish up the balance of the tasty sauce. As the saying goes, "Waste Not, Want Not" or "Don't Put Good Food To Waste"... by the way that Auntie Lilly's saying.
Posing with Uncle Rojak & his Super Rojak
LUK-LUK (STEAMBOAT - Skewer Style) STALL
Road Side Stall (Opposite The Pasar)
Along Jalan Sultan
Pasir Pinji
Our next stop in search of a popular
Jelly Lemon Ice stall. We found this roadside stall crowded with lots of customers. We took a pit stop to check out this luk-luk stall. We hesitated to order any food as everything sold at this place look uninteresting, nothing spectacular ... furthermore, steamboat cucuk was not in my list of food to eat in Pasir Pinji.
Refreshingly & Thirst-Quenching
Lemon Ice Jelly
RM 2
Cendol
RM 2.20
Nevertheless, we managed to order some desserts such as
lemon ice jelly and
cendol from this stall. It was a refreshing change after the long queue at the rojak and rice noodles stall. Weather was humid and hot, so we really enjoyed the dessert especially the lemon ice jelly. Sourish with nice and smooth jelly topped with salted plum powder, it was a great thirst-quenching drink to take to soothe our dry throat.
Jelly Ice Stall
Road Side Stall (Opposite The Pasar & next to the Luk-luk stall
Along Jalan Sultan
Pasir Pinji
Lemon Ice Jelly
RM 1.80
Lemon Ice
RM 2
We actually ordered from 2 stalls which were located side by side. The second batch was from a lady running a small stall solely selling cold drinks. We weren't sure which stalls served the better version of the famous Lemon Ice Jelly.
Well, our verdict was that the 1st stall - Luk-luk stall. The jelly was fine and smooth, more flavoursome with the right lemon taste. The auntie's ones didn't hit the right notes and the jelly was very 'agar-ish' and lacking the texture of jelly-like, not smooth and just wasn't good enough to the 1st stall.
YONG TAU FOO
1213A Jalan King
Pasir Pinji
05 - 2411 993
Customers queuing after their picks
We were driving through Pasir Pinji small town and chance upon this crowded stall. As a travelling foodie family in search of nice food, we decided to make a pit stop again. Everyone was either choosing or queuing to pay for the Yong tau foo, so we just join in the crowd. Hence, the saying goes like
'Go to where the crowd is to have delicious food'!
We picked some fried foo chuk, dumplings (sui kau), green chillies and some stuffed yam cake with fish paste. The hungry customers were like crazily jostling around to pick the food once it was placed on the tray fresh from the wok.
Yong Tai Foo (YTF)
RM 0.85 per piece
We found the Yong Tau Foo just mediocre, average in taste and nothing spectacular to justify any wow factor from us. Seriously from where we came from, there is many more much tastier Yong tau foo being served here in Klang Valley. Ampang YTF was 10 times better and Kg Cheras - Hakka YTF (served with pork and fish paste) was many more times better than this.
Sorry to say this, I just cannot comprehend what the tourists and locals looking for in a good YTF. The soup was bland and the fish paste was not firm in texture, serving portion was just average. Ayoi, my coffee shop outside my Taman can beat them any time in taste and flavour!
HONG KEE MAH CHEE
House No: 550A Jalan Queen
Pasir Pinji
( Picture Credits To Pesta Pinji 2015 FaceBook )
Well, this was our last food hunt to check out the famous Pasir Pinji's Mah Chee ( Mochi ) and Peanuts Paste dessert ( Far Sang Wu ). For those who don't know what is 'Mah Chee', it's actually steamed glutinous rice flour mixed with crushed peanut and sugar. Both are popular and delightful snacks sold at night market.
Priced at RM 3 for a plate of mochi and same price too at RM 3 for a small bowl of peanuts dessert, I think this place is highly over-rated. Foodie like us usually put a benchmark to these famous places, where people are actually queuing to try these tasty bites.
The mochi was just okay, just average, something you can get from your Pasar malam (night market) while the peanuts paste dessert was too small a serving selling at RM 3, definitely overpriced. It was not that bad in taste while it doesn't leave an impression for you to go back to eat it again.
My favourite and one of the best dessert stall selling the peanuts paste, sesame paste, red bean dessert and many more are found at
New Happy Garden Pasar malam. A big packet costs only a mere
RM 2.20 and its equivalent to 2 rice bowls serving, the real value in money and very delicious too. You will never miss him as there is a permanent queue once he arrived in his bike with the tasty snacks. Be early as it's all sold out by 7pm.
Overall, my family and I had a wonderful and exciting time driving around the Pasir Pinji town on our food hunt expedition. New places and new flavours make our journey so much fun and fulfilling. The folks at this nice place are pretty friendly and warm if you are lost or something, do ask around for direction.
Food is abundance in this lovely place but must know
what MUST TRY and
what NOT TO TRY. I hope my post has enticed you and your family or friends to take a drive down to Pasir Pinji for a gastronomic eating experience!
Bon Appetite!
Do check out my later post on my next food trail at the
yummy-licious Kampar & Ipoh town for more exciting and happy eats Food Trail!
Remember this Quote
"A FAMILY THAT EATS TOGETHER, STAY TOGETHER''
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