Ipoh, Malaysia

A day trip to Ipoh to visit Grandma's house. This is something that I used to dread as a child (no cable TV, no computer, no one my age, end of the world!), but have been looking forward to nowadays since I hardly ever get a chance to go. It never really changes. The place we always go to for satay and Ipoh hor fun is still there, as stiflingly hot as ever.

We cause quite a spectacle when we walk in, or at least A does. It's like Brad Pitt walked in the door. Like clockwork, every single head in the restaurant turns to stare. OMG THERE'S A GWEILO IN IPOH?! The reaction is so over the top that you just have to laugh.

We order our Ipoh hor fun and also some chicken satay while we are waiting. No photo of the satay, but the hor fun begs for a photo. It is well worth the long wait (long by Malaysian standards) and comes with a plate of short, plump & juicy bean sprouts. Someone explains to me that you can only get these type of sprouts in this area where it is the perfect weather for growing bean sprouts in the higher regions, which makes them so fat, crunchy and with no stringy tail ends. The perfect bean sprout!

Ipoh hor fun

The hor fun is so great. It's such a simple dish - clear chicken and prawn soup with flat rice noodles, but so easy to do wrong or even worse, boring. The stock is rich and deep with the flavour of chicken and prawn and those cool, crisp beansprouts go so darn well with it.

Signs on the wall encourage us to order the caramel custard. Okay!

It's basically a creme caramel. Not bad, straight out of the fridge so it's a little too cold and firm for me. People have finally stopped staring at A the white boy and there are some ominous dark clouds coming in, time to head off.