Heritage of Ipoh's Cuisine : 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