Members of this blog

Here we are ! The members for this blog.

Ken

Being the only guy among the female bloggers, I might be odd amongst them like a gold tooth, but like a gold tooth, I shine the most. And that’s me alright, Woon Kean Keng. I don’t mean to brag but no one can beat me in video editing. I’m always charged with creativity when it comes to editing videos. Some say I make magic while some say I am, MAGIC! To me, there is one thing that videos must contain, the humanity of the moment. This kind of video is realism. But realism is not enough- there has to be vision and the two together can make a great video.

Wei Qi

I am someone who’s always on the fast lane. Like racers say when everything is under control then you're not going fast enough. I’m Wei Qi, the chauffeur who gets my co-bloggers anywhere and anytime to the right destination. And by anywhere, it could even be to infinity and beyond! Not only that, I am also the eldest among all of my co-bloggers and this is why I always make sure my 'little ones' are safe and sound. You can call me the 'mama racer' cause girl I definitely got that attitude! Fast but always steady and safe.

Alicia

Perfect has 7 letters and so does meeeeee. Coincidence?  I think not. I’m Alicia, the queen of perfectionist when it comes to photo snapping. I don’t take a shot with tequila, I take em’ with photos of exotic, bizarre foods. Photography is my calling; I wrestle with every image I shoot. I assume perfection is possible and I want to wring it out of every picture. If that’s all you ever know about me, it’s enough to say you know me very well.

Chow Pei Yee

I have the ability to speak in a cartoon-like voice which sounds little or nothing like my voice. I’m Pei Yee. I am unspecialized in a very specialized profession-videography! When it comes to being a videographer, I’m a world-class expert. My three P’s: passion, patience, perseverance. You have to do this if you’ve got to be a videographer.

Theerthana

Why look up at the stars when the biggest star is me! I’m Theerthana, the vocabulary master of this blog. I always ensure that the words in the blog are filled with imagery, intrigue and emotion that make it gripping and intense. Great vocabulary is my flair and I always make sure that my expressive words give an artistic touch to the blog posts. My words will leave you unconditionally and irrevocably in love with the blog posts.

Wynnona

I am sitting here looking at the most amazing person I’ve ever seen, smart, gorgeous, witty and absolutely stunning! Yes, I am looking in the mirror! Hello there, I’m Wynnona, the blog writer and designer. Blog writing and designing is an itch that won’t go away. No matter how much I scratch it! Feel free to read my blog posts, but be careful, the hypnotic effect of my food blog post may leave you craving for more and MORE!

Our personal evaluation of Tuck Kee Noodles Ipoh and Mapo Restaurant Ipoh

a.    Your group opinion and why you selected these two places. 

          Ipoh is a food haven. Everyone will think the most famous attraction in Ipoh is white coffee. Noodle dishes are the must eat in Ipoh other than white coffee. The reason why we choose Mapo restaurant and Tuck Kee restaurant is because Ipoh's noodles are known for its smooth and springy texture compared with other places.
         Wanton Noodles is a local delicacy which is popular in Ipoh. There are numerous famous Wanton Noodles stores in Ipoh but we just want to feature one of them. Mapo Wanton Noodles is located in Bercham, Ipoh and just like many other famous food stalls, it only starts operating in the morning. The reason why we choose this place is because of the noodles. In order to achieve perfectly textured noodles, they tend to be handmade and do not add any alkaline water. By having procured the right noodles, they practice the traditional method in order to give the noodles a bouncy texture by pressing the dough of egg, flour and spring water, which is placed on a long bamboo log to mix the dough instead of using hands. Continuously pressing the dough by using bamboo log can make the noodles to have the springy texture better compared to using hands. Besides, the wantons they served here is not similar with those pathetically anorexic wantons where there is more skin than meat in other places. The wantons are as big as ping pong ball size and juicy.
         The reason why we choose Tuck Kee is because it is fifty years of fried noodles specialist which. All their variety of fried noodles are at the level best and irresistibly yummy, it is only operating at night. One of the must order dish here is the baby octopus in soy sauce. The octopus is blanched and then poured over with hot oil and soy sauce. It then has garnished with spring onion and fried garlic. The octopus remains springy and succulent while the special made chilli sauce provides the saltiness to the otherwise bland tasting octopus. Other than that, War Tan Hor Fun is another must order dish. It is a flat rice noodle served in a starchy and eggy sauce. One reason why this dish tasted better in Ipoh is because the rice noodles here are really good and smooth. They fried separately before adding in the eggy soup filled with lots of veges, prawns and meat .Thick gravy with traces of egg strands coupled with the flat noodles resulted in a smooth finishing touch. The amount of accompaniments is quite reasonable for its pricing.

b.    Its classification of e-commerce by the nature of the transactions or interactions.

           The e-commerce classification of Mapo and Tuck Kee fall under the scope of business-to-consumer (B2C). It is an e-commerce model in which businesses sell to individual shoppers. It is also referred as the business and transaction conducted directly between company and consumers who are its ends users. 
            Even if Mapo and Tuck Kee are classified under B2C in selling their dishes to customers, however, their main business is conducted offline because both restaurants are under the click-and-mortar e-commerce organization. Click-and-mortar e-commerce organizations undertake some e-commerce activities often as an additional marketing channel. It means their business is a mixture of online and offline medium where the online is the marketing channel whereas the offline is the primary business transaction. As a result, Mapo and Tuck Kee apply both online and offline operations. Hence, this is why both restaurants perform their primary business offline, which is selling food. They only apply the online medium via Facebook as a marketing platform to attract customers. The nature of transactions of both Mapo and Tuck Kee is to sell and serve mainly food and beverages to their customers. The transaction occurs between the businesses (Mapo and Tuck Kee) to customers who dine in to their eateries. Mapo and Tuck Kee serve their dishes directly and physically to their customers. Their transaction takes place in a physical store. Many of the restaurants are adopting click and mortar business because it can assist the company to be more profitable. Another definition of click and mortar business model is to offer fast service to the customer either online or in a traditional way which is face-to-face service. This further proves that both Mapo and Tuck Kee are adopting click and mortal business model.
                 The term B2C often defined as those transactions happen between a business and its end consumer. There are some examples of B2C such as individuals shopping, ordering food in diners, enjoying meals in restaurants and etc. Mapo and Tuck Kee are selling customer-based products thus it implies that they are involved actively in B2C marketing. Both of the restaurant prepare and cook the dishes according to the customers' need and preference and serve it to the customers. Therefore, customers can enjoy their meals immediately when the food is served.
             
c.    Its business models.

            The business model is the way of conducting business by which a company can generate revenue to sustain itself. In Mapo and Tuck Kee restaurant, there are few business model that is relevant which are business model from service and manufacturing perspective, as well as value proposition, customer segment and customer relationship. Value proposition is one of the component under the business model which Mapo and Tuck Kee are adopting. There are a few elements that are going to discussed in this section which are affordability, variety of foods, food tastiness, consistency of food quality, experience and skills and environment.
          Another business model from the service perspective is that both Mapo and Tuck Kee restaurant owners are mainly involved in preparing the dishes for the customers. Often times, it is very unlikely for business owners to go under and involve in the main operations instead they would settle for being at the cash counter. However, it is a different story for Mapo and Tuck Kee. Their business owners’ main job scope is to prepare the food. By doing this, the business owners have a sense of purpose and commitment as they will put their hearts into the cooking process. They become conscious of the food quality, freshness, ingredients, taste and hygienic preparation methods. They will be very meticulous in preparing the food as these business owners have been cooking the recipe passed on by their ancestors across generations. This consequently leads to a perfect dish being served to their customers. It further reinforces and creates a strong bond between the restaurant and the customers. Customers become more loyal as they will feel secure that the food is being prepared by the owners. By having loyal customers, Mapo and Tuck Kee are able to generate more revenues as the loyal customers will frequently dine in to their eateries. Not only that, when the loyal customers spread the word about the business owners involving in the cooking process to others, Mapo and Tuck Kee can attract new customers. Having high number of customers can increase their profits.
             The second common business model that applied by Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Noodles Ipoh is manufacturer business model. Manufacturer direct business model can be defined as the manufacturer take raw material, create their own product and selling their product directly toward the consumer. For both restaurants, the owners highly prefer to prepare and handmade their noodles rather than takes from the suppliers. Firstly, Mapo’s owner who is also the chief of the restaurant is more preferable to practice the traditional method in order to prepare their fresh handmade Wan Ton Mee which is not processed by the machine or from any suppliers. He wants to make sure that they are able maintain the texture of the noodles and serve the best noodles towards their customers. Furthermore, one of the factors that help the Tuck Kee to gain community trust is its noodles. Among the variety of noodles, one of the famous noodles and highly recommended by the existing customer was the Hokkien Dai Loke Mian (fat and thick rice noodles). The owner of the shop (Mr Zhao) in insists to use handmade Hokkien Dai Loke Mian which follows the recipe that was passed on by his father.
         In simple term, a value proposition is a value to be delivered to and acknowledged by customers. Affordability of price is a subcomponent of value proposition. Affordability refers to the willingness to pay by customers. Mapo and Tuck Kee entice their customers by offering affordable and reasonable pricing for their dishes. That is, their dishes are neither overpriced nor underpriced. Despite having an affordable pricing, the quality of the food is still up to the standards. Hence, customers feel that they are able to derive the value offered as they get a good meal in return of paying it at an affordable cost. It shows that customers are not only willing to pay instead they are also happy to pay for the food.
            Both Mapo and Tuck Kee serve a variety of foods in their restaurants. Having food variety might have a strong impact on the business’s profits. Different consumers have different quality valuations, tasted or budget constraints thus both Mapo and Tuck Kee strive to satisfy their customers’ needs by offering them a wide range of food. Mapo and Tuck Kee offering three different portion sizes of food and the restaurants able to cater the food according to the customers’ preference. When the restaurants offer many different food, the customers can get whichever food they prefer to have at the moment.
           The reason we chose Mapo and Tuck Kee is because they are highly recommended by the locals in Ipoh. The tastiness and nice aroma of the food which are the reasons why Mapo and Tuck Kee have been so popular among the locals. The chef deeply focuses on the ingredients because they believe that only good ingredients can make nicer and tastier food. They cook the dishes with all their heart. They did not serve the dishes to the customers simply because they wish to earn money from that, instead they sincerely wish the customers will enjoy eating the food that they have prepared. When a chef prepares the food earnestly, the food will be tastier. The chef did a great job in maintaining the food quality consistently. They showed consistence in the amount and type of ingredients they used each time they prepared the dishes.
             Besides, experience and skills is another aspect that adds on to the value proposition element. Mapo and Tuck Kee has been in existence for many years. Their authentic recipes were passed down by the older generations to the younger ones. Hence, the experience and skills were passed on by the older family members to the younger ones. Preparing the dishes according to the authentic recipe for generations has caused the business owners to master the skills and knowledge. The knowledge that they have inherited has become their learned capabilities. Hence, the business owners have a clear picture and direction of the proper methods of the food preparation accompanied with their abilities in cooking, Thus, this is what makes Mapo and Tuck Kee different from their others. Even if so many generation has passed, the food authenticity and uniqueness still remains as the experiences and skills have been well-documented.
              Factors of restaurant environment is one of the significant factors that led us to choose Tuck Kee Noodles and Mapo restaurant as our targeted famous local food stall. Both restaurants carry on weekly cleaning to ensure their eateries are hygienic. The owner and the staff of the restaurant serve the customer politely, friendly and attentive. In addition, due to the large amount of the customers, restaurants have provided sufficient place or seating capacity for the customers. Hence all of this has created a warm ambience in the restaurant towards the customer. Hence, customers able to dine in to the  excellent quality of tasty food in a relaxed and comfortable setting.
In addition, Tuck Kee Noodles and Mapo Restaurant have great value proposition by locating themselves in an ideal geographical location in which  it  enables them to attract the potential customers. For Tuck Kee Restaurant , it was convenient for its customer for parking and provides a lot of packing area for the customers as the location famous tourist spot. Additionally, Mapo Restaurant is also located in a residential area at Bercham. Most of the residents like to enjoy their food in that restaurant because it located nearby the resident area and it is convenient for the customer.
           Customer segment also plays a vital part of business model because it dictates the  restaurant’s direction of who they wish to serve. Generally, the main target segment for Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant is non-halal customers from all income level due to their affordability in terms of food prices. With their well established reputation and history in food industry, apart from locals, they also target business travellers and tourists who travel from different states and countries who love to eat noodles.
        Another business model of both restaurants’ is customer relationship. With wide range of customer segments to deal with, it is essential to have a model which ensures each segment of customers are properly communicated with to maintain customer overall experience in long term. In the scenario of these restaurants, these relationships are dependent on two motivations which are Customer Acquisition, and Customer Retention. Through Social Media Marketing method such as Facebook, they secured both motivations by updating customers with their dishes attached with tempting food photos. Such model ensures existing customers are kept in touch with and retained as well as attracting potentially new customers. They also closely monitor and engage to customer who leave feedback. Whether it is significant, it can show consumers that their concerns have been listened to and taken into account.  Such approach further enhances the relationship with customer satisfaction.

          
d.    Its basic approach used in marketing and advertising.

          Marketing is a common word used to describe the means of communication and transfer  of information between the company and the consumer audience. Marketing and advertising approach is a useful tool which focuses on building a long-term relationship with customers and the seller must have a deeper understanding of its customer.
          One of the approach applied by Tuck Kee Restaurant and Mapo Restaurant was Social Media Marketing and Advertising. Tuck Kee has created their own Facebook page (to promote their restaurant and various foods. This was one of the useful approaches to target a larger group and worldwide potential customers. Besides, Tuck Kee Restaurant frequently changed their Facebook cover photo and uploaded new attractive food photos in order to improve the stickiness of the Facebook page as well as to attract more Facebook users or customers to access their page.
          In addition, Mapo Restaurant also implemented the same method as Tuck Kee. Mapo Restaurant created their own Facebook webpage to attract potential customers and updated the latest information toward the customers. It has created a platform that allows the customers to give their feedback or exchange the opinion through Mapo Restaurant’s Facebook page. There are approximately 2 million small to medium business advertising on Facebook recently, which proves that there are various advantages of advertising on Facebook. Facebook advertising enables Tuck Kee and Mapo Restaurants' owners to enhance audience target in a lower advertising cost compared to the other advertising methods. Besides, Facebook advertising is more convenient and is easily reached by mobile and computer audience. In other words, customers can achieve ubiquity by logging into the  Facebook page using their mobile device.
           Secondly, Tuck Kee also applied reputation-based system which is also known as building web reputation system in order to market and advertise its business. Digital reputation is rapidly expanding under the real-world influence. Although Tuck Kee does not have its personal blog, many bloggers have promoted or posted Tuck Kee’s delicious cuisine and provided comments in their personal blog after they visited the Tuck Kee Restaurant. When the online users or blog readers visit their blog, they may feel interested towards the shop when Tuck Kee gets a high feedback score or is highly recommended by the online communities. Hence Tuck Kee is able to establish trust among the online users or new customers via aggregated positive feedbacks from thousands of strangers online from those blogs.
          Lastly, Mapo Restaurant is using online word by mouth method in order to promote their shop. Through customer’s online feedback and participation in social media forums such as Facebook, the existing customers may share their experiences, feeling and interaction with parties with no prior knowledge of each other. Hence, the potential customers are easily influenced by the family members, friends and people that they trust. and are familiar with. Furthermore, the customers could gather enough information for a consensus about the quality of food, price, staff services and further information regarding Mapo Restaurant from friends , neighbours and family members.

e.    Recommendations to improve businesses through e-commerce.

        E-commerce can offer so much towards the food and beverages industry. It has expanded very fast as marketers of consumer packaged goods and as retailers. This has given the consumers the ability to do most of their transaction online which allows them to purchase whatever they want in a much shorter period of time and it is way more convenient. We have picked two restaurant for this assignment, the first is Mapo Restaurant and the second is Tuck Kee Restaurant. Both of these restaurants serve local Chinese food. Mapo Restaurant is famous for their various types of Wan Tan Mee and Tuck Kee Restaurant has a few signature dishes which are their noodles and their fried baby squid. 
           There are few ways Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant can improve their businesses through E-commerce. Firstly, it is by having a website which has the details such as the location and the descriptions of their restaurant. It is one of a good way to advertise and promote their restaurant. This is because online advertising is usually free of charge, therefore they can save cost on advertisements and commercials. For example, Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant can open a page on Facebook to promote their restaurant. They can put in the background of their restaurant, restaurant operating hours, locations, contact numbers and also their menu with short descriptions or recommended signature dishes.
             Next, there are more and more food and beverage businesses which  are leveraging the e-commerce capability to bring their businesses to a new height. Besides, the usual way of going all the way to the shop and ordering food from the physical shop itself, many food and beverage businesses are seeing the benefits of having an online ordering. So we recommend Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant can have a B2C Electronic retailing (E-tailing). They are recommended to have an E-tailing business model such as the location-based e-commerce (I-commerce). Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant can have an online ordering system where they can put an online menu on their website where customers can place their order online. Then the restaurant can deliver the food straight to the customers. The restaurants should also provide an easy online payment system where customers can pay upon delivery. The customers can pay through cash, coupon, credit/debit card. 
               There is another alternative which Mapo and Tuck Kee can have a try, which is assigning their delivery task to a third party or external courier company. Mapo and Tuck Kee can have full attention in preparing the dishes for the customers in shop and customers who order online. When the food is fully prepared, the third party courier company will deliver the food to customers’ door step. By deliver the food to customers, the courier company can receive commission based on charged value on the food he delivered. By outsourcing the delivery service to third party can assist the restaurant to increase the number of orders due to its user friendly inter-free and hassle free online order service. However, by doing this, the restaurants should always keep the menus of courier company updated to ensure a more smooth order flow. The customers can rate and comment on the delivery service, time taken to deliver and the taste of the foods through delivery. This is so much more faster and convenient for the customers. Especially with the hectic working hours and heavy traffic jam these days, most customers are too tired and lazy to go out to pack their food. This is an additional way to reach out to more new customers and increase sales.
             Next, Mapo Restaurant and Tuck Kee Restaurant can promote their restaurant in Trip Advisor or even invite famous bloggers over to their restaurant to taste or try their food and write about it on their blog. This also allows customers that dined in their restaurant to comment on the blog page below and give positive or negative feedback about the food they ordered there.

             
APA Referencing

Ipoh Tuck Kee. [ca. 2009]. In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved February 26, 2016, from 
         https://www.facebook.com/Ipoh-Tuck-Kee-395313370523668/timeline

Mapo Wan Ton Mee Bercham. [ca. 2011]. In Facebook [Group page]. Retrieved February 19, 2016, 
        from https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mapo-Wan-Ton-Mee%20Bercham/101804349906625? 
        fref=ts

“Moonlight Noodle - Yut Kwong Hor” Ipoh Tuck Kee (2016, February 23).Tripadvisor. [Web log 
       post]. Retrieved from https://www.tripadvisor.co.nz/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g298298-                      d7008452-i118796279-Ipoh_Tuck_Kee-Ipoh_Kinta_District_Perak.html

Restaurant Mapo. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://my.openrice.com/perak/restaurant/restoran-mapo- 
       ipoh-town/199088

What is ecommerce marketing? | Bigcommerce. (2014, October 14). Retrieved March 2, 2016,                  from https://www.bigcommerce.com/ecommerce-answers/what-ecommerce-marketing/

Travelicious @ Mapo Restaurant Ipoh

Looking for a place to enjoy your Wanton Mee in Ipoh? Jom, today we will be exploring a place called Mapo Restaurant in Bercham, Ipoh. It's famous for it's Wanton Noodles. At here, you'll able to dine for quite a few options of Wanton Mee. Wanton mee is one of the dishes that most of the Chinese have for their breakfast.  

The menus are literally on the wall, thus you can just look up and see which dishes are going to fill your stomach for this morning. It has both English and Chinese words thus it will be easier for those who can't understand Chinese. 

History of Wanton noodles: 

Wanton noodles is sometimes also called as Wanton Mee. The Wanton noodles originated from Guangzhou during the Ching Dynasty. The word "Wanton" is a Cantonese word for dumpling while noodles in Hokkien is called "mee" or in Cantonese, "min".Wanton Noodles made of Chinese egg noodle with Wonton dumplings, is called Wanton Mee, and this is one of Malaysia's Hawker Delights, the local-style of having delicious fuss-free noodle meal, anytime & anywhere.

For some who are new to this Asian noodle dish, wanton, in Chinese, it's named as 云吞 "Yun Toon" or 馄饨 "Hoon Toon", is an irregular shape bite-sized dumpling. Its filling is often made with marinated minced pork meat, and sometimes, shrimp is added, making into a small pouch of many. 

The noodles were handmade and not processed by machine. Most noodle makers add alkaline water or kan sui to give it that slight spring. But Mapo Restaurant disallows the usage of any alkaline water to exist in all the dishes served. They practice the traditional methods in order to give the noodles a bouncy texture by pressing the dough of egg, flour and spring water, which are then placed on a long bamboo log to mix the dough instead of using hands. Continuously pressing the dough by using bamboo log can make the noodles to have the springy texture better compared to using hands. 

This is the long bamboo log they used to press on the dough. It has been passed on for a few generations. 

The owner will ride on the bamboo and press the dough for a couple of round till the dough is firm enough before cut into thin noodles. This is the reason why the noodle is so bouncy. 

One of the secrets to the texture of the noodles is that they practically loosen all of the noodles and allow it to rest in a big box which helps the noodles to "breathe" freely and thus becoming more QQ and chewy. The chef or the customers normally call him tauke (boss in Cantonese), who cooks the noodles in boiling water for a few seconds then ladle out the noodles, and soak it in a cold water. The method of rapid change of temperatures is the secret to firm up the noodles and give them a springier texture. After going through the cold water rinse, they are dipped into the hot water immediately again to heat them up, drained and quickly tossed in the sauce.

This is roast pork or aka Char Siew wanton mee. It is served together with some vegetables and wantons. The wantons they served here is not similar with those pathetically anorexic wantons where there is more skin than meat in other places. The wantons are as big as ping pong ball size and juicy. This dish had totally made a really pleasant surprise for all of us. The texture of the noodles was perfect and it was as though it has came alive when you slurped and chewed on it. The sauce, an important element to give the noodles a unique taste, is made from a mix of dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and oil. The sauce had a secret ingredient in it which made the difference between great and eye-opening. A bit more kick with the sliced chilli and fermented black beans might just make it so much more enjoyable.

The fillings for wanton are stuffed with a little bit amount of fresh prawn meat and good amount of minced pork. The texture of wanton was good and the sweetness of the shrimp goes superbly with the smoothness of pork and it became an excellent combination. The soup that goes with the wanton is very tasty. It assembles a strong hint of sweetness and they used pork ribs to boil the soup, thus making the soup very rich in flavours. 

Not forgetting, few wafer thin slices of char siew are placed on the noodles and that is what makes the equation right for a plate of wanton mee. It was sufficiently burnt around the edges with a nice sheen. The roast pork tastes like fake dry tasteless meat tinged red with a hard texture and a little fat. However, you are still able to taste the juicy and charred texture from the char siew.

For Westerners, they may think that the chicken feet is disgusting but I believe when Asians see this photo of the chicken feet, they would start salivating. For some of you who may be a fan of chicken feet, then Mapo Restaurant is going to be the right heaven for you. Mushroom + Chicken Feet wanton mee it is! Two adjectives that most of the customers here use to describe the food here are cheap and delicious. For customers, cheap is good but none of that matters if the food is not good, but if two of these exist together, then the food is worth trying.

A plate of wanton mee with three chicken feet will only set you back RM4.80. The chicken feet comes to you intact and only fall to pieces when you press it against your soft palate. That perfectly fried skin which has been braised till its skin slides right off so that you can spit the bones out in one breath without making a mess around. The flavours are simply perfectly balanced so that your whole mouth is tingled at all times. The feet are braised until tendons between the joints of the feet have all been turned into gelatin and the flavours of the braising sauce have totally penetrated down to the bone. For a true chicken feet lover, you would spend at least a good 15 minutes nibbling on the soft bits, enjoying the crunchy bits and spitting out the spend metatarsal bones. And after you are done with your meal, you might go back to the pile of bones to double check that you have not missed out any bit of flesh.

You are not seeing anything wrong. Yes, this is wanton mee with curry chicken on top so this makes the noodle called Curry Chicken wanton mee. I'd say that the curry gravy is the soul of this dish. The curry gravy has achieved a right balance between rich but not overly thick or too dilute. It has this strong fragrant of curry flavor and it is further enhanced by coconut milk and other spices and ingredients. For some people who might find the curry with a thick layer of oil floating on the surface terrifying, the curry they served is definitely not oily at all. I'd say the chef is really good in using herbs and various types of curry powder in order to make this curry so tasty. The consistency of the curry is regular and you don't have to be afraid that some days the curry just didn't taste similar compared to the few trips before this. The spicy and fragrant curry gravy totally blended into the noodles well. While the wanton mee was pretty good on itself, it was the addition of those extra topping that helped to upgrade the food. 

The chicken was juicy, sweet, tender and sweet at the same time. Chicken was fully de-boned and thus is easier to eat and does not give you the trouble spitting out the bones and causing a mess around. They used American or Holland yellow potatoes depending on which potato is available for the time being. The potatoes they used are more tasty, tender and not hard or tasteless like those white potatoes.

A plate of simple and sexy noodles simply tossed with some umami pork gravy, freshened up by spring onions? Yes, I'm talking about Hakka Mee. Hakka mee here are served with generous amount of minced meat and gravy. Soft and bouncy noodles together with juicy minced pork, leafy vegetables just make the combination awesome. It is flavored with fish sauce, garlic oil and a glistening layer of pork lard oil. The chef made some changes to this dish in order to make it stand out among what other shops are offering, a bit of sesame oil for extra fragrance and some bean sprouts to "upgrade" the dish.

The noodles were good, has the springy texture and with just the right amount of sauces. The topping of minced pork was savoury and was slightly different from the conventional though. A little bit of bean sprout was added to this dish. 

Oh? Have I forgotten to mention that Ipoh was famous for its bean sprout? Ipoh's bean sprout was said to grow with water from springs germinating from the surrounding lime-stone hills. Therefore, the bean sprouts here are thicker, shorter and with only a very short root compare to other places. It totally amazed us how such a simple noodles dish can taste so good.

This is Ginger Duck wanton mee. Ginger duck used to be one of those homey dishes in Chinese families back in the days. The duck is simply cooked with copious amounts of ginger and seasoned with some soy sauces. The chef even add in a dash of Chinese Shaoxing wine in order to add fragrance into the dish. This dish is going to be a heaven and your cup of tea for those who are ginger lover.

The old ginger was used for this noodles because old ginger has the "ginger flavor" stronger and deeper. There's a saying among Chinese,"Old ginger is spicier than the young ones". The chef explained further to u that he used Bentong ginger, which is one of the species of ginger which has a better taste dimension among ll other species of ginger. In order to balance the noodle with the vegetable ratio, some vegetables are added. Still it had just enough taste of duck.  

What's best to down the grease of noodles with? A cup of cham. It can be either, coffee, tea, herbal tea or cincau. The coffee had a powerful charred scent and the smell of freshly-roasted coffee. It is unmissable rich, thick, sweetened with a mix of evaporated milk and sweet condensed milk. 

Overall, we as customers, were definitely satisfied with the food, service and price too. Any plate of wanton mee is going to cost you for about RM5.80. Although the price is a little pricey compared to other places in Ipoh but trust me, the price is worth the tastiness of the food they served. Furthermore, it came in a pretty big portion and it might be a little bit hard for those small eaters to finish the whole plate. 

You will feel very comfortable when having your breakfast or brunch in here because you can feel the air of unity surrounding the families of happy eaters tucking in with gusto.

The service provided was nice. The waitress are so friendly and because we are first time visiting the shop, they slowly and patiently introduce each of the dishes they have in the shop to us. You know what customer cares the most, beside the price of the food? Service. If we are treated nice and good, we'll definitely come for another time. The food were served fast and efficient. Because they cook every dishes whenever you order, thus by the time the food arrived at your desk, it's still hot. 

For my personal opinion, I think it's definitely worth a stop for this place. 

A friendly reminder: Remember to pair your noodles with pickled green chilies that are more tangy rather than fiery for a perfect meal.

Feedback: 
"I regularly dine in to the restaurant as their noodles are fresh and have the warmth of home-made food as the noodles were hand made. I love their high quality cooking and which is also accompanied by the hospitality offered by the waiters and waitresses." - by Mr Loo

"My family and I frequently visit the place on weekend mornings. The dishes served by Mapo were simply exquisite! Mapo's menu offers a wide variety of mouth-watering noodles that prompts my family and I to eat here again and again." - by Mr Raju 


"We feel delightful to claim that Mapo is one of the best places to go for authentic Chinese noodles. The restaurant is coupled with great deals and great varieties. The prices offered were affordable and reasonable." - By Ms Tan, Ms Lee and Ms Au 

Last but not least, a group photo of us ! 

More information regarding Mapo Restaurant :

Address : 20, Laluan Tasek Timor 15, Taman Mewah, Bercham, Ipoh Town, 31400.
GPS coordinate: 4.635309, 101.124669 

Tel : 012-5251266

Business Hour: 7.00 am - 4.00pm

Visit Mapo Facebook for more information

PS: It's a non-halal restaurant.

Travelicious @ Tuck Kee Noodles Ipoh

Tuck Kee Restaurant, one of the fried noodles "specialist" restaurant is located in Ipoh and has been operating for more than 50 years at the same location. If the name, Tuck Kee Restaurant does ring a bell for you and you go like ... "Oh, the one which is famous for smoked duck, roasted pork and...." Then you are wrong! Hold your ammunition, people. The Tuck Kee you heard and remembered is a Chinese diner somewhere around Ipoh and unfortunately that's not the Tuck Kee that I am going to talk about in this post.

Coincidentally, there's another shop with a rather misleading name of Sun Tuck Kee where "Sun" means new in Cantonese, which is located just right beside the original shop. The Sun Tuck Kee eatery is run by the original shop's proprietor's descendant. However, we, as customers, we prefer something which is a rather old, original and traditional food. Thus, let's make it crystal clear one more time, the eatery that we visited was the Tuck Kee Restaurant.

They are well-known for serving a variety of noodles. For example, the Hor Fun (flat, thin and broad rice noodles), Mee (yellowish noodles), Udon (japanese noodles), Low Shu Fun (short and rat-tail-like noodles), Mee Hon (thin rice noodles like thread) and the most well known Hokkien Dai Loke Mian (fat and thick rice noodles). All the noodles can be cooked in different variations depending on customers' preference. The noodles always guarantee a heavenly taste for whichever cooking method you prefer. Your taste buds will be fully satisfied and that's what makes you to come back more often.

When you visit a restaurant, the first thing you order must be the signature dish of the restaurant and so did we. Apparently, the owner of the shop strongly recommended us to try out the Hokkien Dai Loke Mian. They serve this noodles in a springy texture sauce and lightly charred prawn with crisp vegetables. This dish is based on an older recipe called Dabuman and the name itself indicates its place of origin which is Dabu Country, the center of Hakka culture in mainland China. Some suggested that this dish was brought over to Malaysia and originated from a hawker stall chef, Wong Kian Lee in the 1920s. It's going to cost you only RM6.36 (Small), RM11.66 (Medium) and RM14.84 (Large).

Another food in the must-order-list is the War Tan Hor Fun. It's serving is completely immersed in a pool of creamy/savoury gravy laden with the goodness of eggs, sweetness from the vegetables and the most important ingredient of all the dishes of Tuck Kee Restaurant - lard fritters (aka fried pork oil). With the chunks of pork and prawn, the broth makes everything special. Ipoh is famous for its flat rice noodles, which is prepared with local unfiltered spring water. If it's fried noodles that you are craving for, then this dish will do perfectly for you. The price for this dish is varied according to the size, RM6.36 (Small), RM12.72 (Medium) and RM15.90 (Large).

What is the Yu Kong Hor shown on the menu? It is known as the moonlight fried noodles, similar to the War Tan Hor Fun but with a raw egg on top of the fried hor fun. The raw egg is instantly heated up on the spot with the help from the heat of fried hor fun. The inclusion of the fried pork oil boosts the dish to a whole new level. It's going to cost you only RM7.42 (Small), RM12.72 (Medium) and RM16.96 (Large).

Hokkien Fried Mee Hon or commonly known as Char Bee Hoon, is a dish of fried thin-like-thread rice noodles served with thick soy sauce, vegetables and prawns. The chef cooks this dish by using g gas stove and a wok, and this combination works best because it can achieve as much "wok hei" (a unique flavor or taste that comes from a wok and high flame) as possible. As customers are always right, additional ingredients such as eggs and cockles can be added according to customers' preference. This dish was inspired by the spicy cuisines of Southeast Asia. The dish appears on most of the menus of almost all Cantonese-style eateries in Hong Kong. Although Fried Mee Hon is easy, simple and fast, but it requires the chef's experience or aka "Kung Fu" in order to make the simple dish delicious. There are 3 size of portion, RM6.36 (Small), RM11.66 (Medium) and RM14.84 (Large).

When you have reached this much length of the post here, you must be thinking, it's a little dull with just noodles. The owner of the shop must have thought that too, not only did Tuck Kee manage to satisfy our cravings for noodles, but they do serve them together with some appetizers. There are bean sprout, braised chicken feet, meat ball soup, baby octopus in soy sauce and braised egg and bean curd in soy sauce which does the job.

Unfortunately, we never got the chance to try the braised chicken feet and egg dish on the night we went. This is because it was already sold off. However, we did get some recommendation from few online food bloggers saying that these two dishes were above average and some of them even said these are some of the very best that they've ever had in Ipoh.

The one item which you should NOT miss is their first-rate Boiled Blanched Baby Octopus in soy sauce. The octopus were drizzled generously in fried garlic oil, garnished with coriander and fried garlic bits, served together with special homemade chili sauce topped with crushed peanuts. The combination of chewy octopus and piquant condiment is going to satisfy your every taste buds perfectly. The price is RM13.78. 

We did not miss the chance to taste Ipoh Bean Sprouts, after all this is what Ipoh is famous for. Bean sprouts here from Ipoh are generally larger, shorter, fatter, crunchier and can we say sweeter? Definitely yes! And these qualities are all due to the power of spring water which they used to grow the bean sprouts here. Tuck Kee does some of best blanched bean sprouts in Ipoh, I dare to say. The combination of soy sauce, sesame oil, chicken oil and shallot oil were all tossed together and this upgrades the already-tasty-bean-sprouts. The price varied according to the portion, RM3.10 (Small), RM4.24 (Medium) and RM5.30 (Large).

The chefs mastered the skills after years and decades of experience and possibly trial and error free. All of their dishes are at the level best and irresistibly yummy. And this is Tuck Kee's Tauke (boss), Mr Zhao. He has a nickname called Mr Wat Tan Hor. 

You can find some other customers in the shop slurping away on their bowl, licking their bowl to make sure it's clean and not wasting any single drop of the sauce. If you are a fan of noodles, then Tuck Kee should be on your must eat list when you visit Ipoh. The shop fully lived up and beyond my expectation. There you have it. Now, let's begin your food hunting trip to Ipoh and be sure to drop by at this restaurant.

This is the menu of the shop. If you wish to know more about the exact price, what you can do is just click on the photo and enlarge it. They have three sizes for every dishes, which are small, medium and large. The prices are not expensive, thus is definitely worth to try when you are in search for food to crave at late night !

Last but not least, a group photo of us! 

Feedback:

"The food was good and I usually come to the shop around midnight and the shop is still open, which is good for late night travelers like us. The price was not too cheap neither too expensive, just affordable." - by Jun

"I recommend that you must try the steamed octopus! This is one of my favorite shops in Ipoh and I visited the shop every time I was here." - by Ryan

"This is my first time visiting this shop. I was attracted by the amount of tables placed on the footpath and road. Me and my wife were satisfied with the food served here. There are a lot of choices of different fried noodles, the taste was yummy and price is just nice. I will definitely give it another try the next time I visit Ipoh." - by Uncle Chow 

"My friends and I came over to this shop to have our dinner after our yoga class. This shop is easy to find, easy to find parking space and that's the reason why we often come here. We love Yut Kong Hor. We order it every time when we come." - by Aunty Mei Shiow

More information regarding Tuck Kee Restaurant:

Address: 614, Jalan Yau Tet Shin, 30300 Ipoh, Perak Malaysia.

(Same row as Onn Kee Tauge Restaurant Ipoh, near to Ipoh New Town police station)

GPS Coordinate: 4.593959, 101.084478

Tel: +605 2537513

Email: tuckkee@live.com

Business Hour: 5.00pm - 2.00am (Off on Tuesdays fortnightly)

Visit Tuck Kee Facebook for more information

*Ps: It's a non-Halal restaurant.

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