Perak – A Truly Malaysian Food Tour
Perak holds a special place in my heart, partly because Ipoh reminds me of the Seremban I grew up in: it is an old mining town founded by Hakka miners, where the Chinese speak Cantonese. As a Hakka who grew up speaking these two dialects, I feel at home here.
For this recent trip, I was actually running two projects in tandem:
- We had the MOMC and Tourism Perak collaboration to highlight the food of the region through our content (#MOMCxTourismPerak)
- At the same time, I was also running a small group culinary tour with three guests from Australia (#jackiemtour)
We spent an initial three nights at the Travelodge in Ipoh, which, for the record, is the most plush and roomy Travelodge I have ever encountered, so make sure you book your next Ipoh stay there – https://share.google/eRb8FRfVVSaGlVh8R
Two of our MOMC chefs – Johari Edrus and Rizwandy Perrin – joined us along with two guests I specially invited: Australian content creator Roman from RomanTravelsTV, and Alexandra Wong, an award winning former journalist with The Star Newspaper.
Across three days, we visited many eateries in Ipoh and spent a day in Lenggong on a fish farm set in the middle of a lake. Most of the itinerary for this stage of our project was organised by Tourism Perak through Roselyn Lim, the Chairperson and Founder of the Perak Tourist Guides Association.
After that, I took my culinary guests to Melaka, Kuala Lumpur, Teluk Intan, and Pulau Pangkor. Since the latter two are also in Perak, the food and recipes from these places will be featured in our upcoming digital magazine as well.
Once the culinary tour wrapped up, Stage 2 of our project kicked in. This time it was just me, Paul, and our special needs child Noah visiting more eateries organised by Ben Yap of Ipoh TrEats, while staying at Travelodge Ipoh again.
We covered a wide variety of dishes on this trip: we enjoyed iconic Perak staples such as Rendang Tok, Kai Si Hor Fun, Ipoh Beansprouts, Dim Sum, Teluk Intan Chee Cheong Fun, Tau Fu Fah, Ipoh White Coffee, Tanjung Tualang big head prawns, and Yu Kong Hor.
We also explored dishes with a broader Malaysian appeal that have their own local charm: Yong Tau Foo served with Asam Laksa, beautiful Crab Congee with bird’s nest, a resplendent Nasi Minyak spread, Nasi Lemak with gently steamed rice, and Cendol with creme brulee. We ate Laksa Nyonya served with sambal udang kering, with the recipe for the sambal by Authentique Restaurant to be featured in our magazine.
Long before I founded MOMC, I published a digital magazine app called Truly Malaysian. I have decided to incorporate that name into our Masters of Malaysian Cuisine brand.
Our MOMC eMag will now be known as Truly Malaysian Magazine by MOMC.
This upcoming issue is a bumper edition. It captures everything we documented on this journey, with a focus on the people, the places and the recipes that shape Perak’s food story.
If you’d like to receive the magazine in your inbox when it is released, you need to be on our email list. This is a two-step process:
- Enter your details in the embedded form here – MalaysianChefs.com/JoinToday.
- Check your email inbox for a confirmation email – and click on the link to confirm your subscription (IMPORTANT, or your name will not be added by the system)
I look forward to sharing Truly Malaysian Magazine by MOMC Issue #25 with you.
Jackie M.
Founder, MOMC.
