Weeks have passed since my Penang trip and me being a procrastinator as usual kinda lazy to write about my 4 days 3 nights of food binging, weight gaining, fun trip. Not that I didn’t intend to write about it at all, but with all those photo processing, albeit nothing much but food, food and more food, by the time I’m done with them, I’ve kinda lost my momentum of putting them into words. Maybe, next time I should do it on-the-go style, you know… typing furiously on my iPhone while on the road / eating and all, but then, who am I kidding, rite? With all the navigations, food searching, photo takings, decision making and relaxing moments, there wasn’t a time whereby I could sit still and type anything, everything I had at that instant. I would either suffering from food coma or looking out what to do eat next.
Nevertheless, I shall begin this post with the first day of my Penang trip. To begin, I’m not sure what sparked the interest of driving up north but with awesome food (at least that’s what I thought then) in mind, that pretty much made my decision. Gathered a couple of peeps and done some researched (of food locations), booked the hotels and allocated who do what, it was then that we were actually serious about it.
The day started out at 6AM with me being a driver. It was really tough waking up that early but then again, the plan has to go on. By 7AM, we were already quarter way through on the road towards Penang. The roads were still dark and empty as North-South Highway wasn’t brightly lit due to insufficient lampposts. And there weren’t many cars and lorries on the road either. Motorcycles were close to non-existent.
We made our first pit stop at Ipoh as we decided unanimously to have our breakfast at the Restoran Foh San. Oh yes… the glorious dim sum house which is famous for its vast variety of porky, meaty, fried, steamed goodness. Almost every foodies knows of this place. Some pledge their troth to it while others prefer the one (Ming Court) opposite of it. Surprisingly, Ming Court was closed on that day. I’ve no idea why though.
We reached at the (big) doorstep of Foh San Dim Sum at around 9am and we were kinda lucky that there were a couple of empty (but limited) tables. If we were to arrive any later, we would have to wait for one. This was proven as by 9.30AM, incoming customers were scouting, asking around for empty tables.
As we sat near the fried / porridge counter, the waiter took our order (for tea only) at a breeze. I guess they were trained to do so to cater such a large crowd. To fasten the ‘process’, instead of waiting for the push carts to arrive at our table, my friend went around looking for what’s good and what’s not to bring to the table to be devoured.
There were a couple of usual stuffs we had that day. Namely siew mai (pork dumpling), har kow (prawn dumpling), char siew bao (BBQ Pork Bun), chee cheong fun, yong tau fu, and etc. The unusual ones would be pork porridge and gai wo bao.
The food was alright. The prawns were big and fresh but the translucent skin of the prawn dumplings was a lil thicker than usual. The siew mai was packed with pork and prawns in it and hence, they added this bouncy feel to it. Although we were kinda amazed by the large serving of the chee cheong fun, we weren’t impressed by it. It tasted salty prolly due to the soy sauce that came along with it.
We kinda liked the pork porridge as it was smooth and nice while the pork balls were tender and tasty. The portion of the porridge was big and there were at least 8 decent pork balls in the porridge which could be shared among 2~3 people.
While each of the fried stuffs consisted of different fillings, they were nothing to shout about. They were crispy on the outside but the fillings were just ordinary. I would have liked the yong tau foo if not for the addition of lemon zests in the stuffing. I would prefer mine to be filled with pork meat and fish paste and nothing else. I bet they even put the lemon zest in the fishballs as well. Blerghhh…
Gai wo bao was the other one we didn’t favour much. To us, it was essentially a loh mai kai wrapped in a bao. It looked fancy but taste wise, nothing special.
The rice was a lil wet sticky whilst it tasted a lil weird. We didn’t finish it at all. The char siew sou (or also known as BBQ Pork Pastry) was a total letdown. The pastry was thick and hard while there were very little fillings in it.
With tummies filled, we left the place after about an hour plus. The bill came up to RM53.00. Judging by the amount of items we took, the price seemed alright although I would expect better quality since it is a well known restaurant famed for its dim sum. But, I guess their quality has indeed dropped as claimed by others.
Address :
Restoran Foh San
51, Jalan Leong Sin Nam,
30300 Ipoh,
Perak.
