Mention Tong Sui Kai or Dessert Street and every Ipohite will tell you where it is and also which is their favourite stall.
As the majority of the stalls here serve a dazzling choice of desserts and with me not having a sweet tooth, it is one area I have seldom explored. Until William set up a stall here.
As my readers will remember, in my blog post on January 25, 2021 in Ipoh Food Diva, I wrote about the ever resourceful William who closed his restaurant, Hau Xian Wei (one of my favourite go-to places pre-MCO) and opened two stalls: one he manages in the morning at Woolley Food Court and in the evening he can be found at Tong Sui Kai.
At night, William serves a whole different menu from his collection in the morning.
As tapau appears to be the ongoing trend these days, I went the whole hog and asked for all his evening dishes to be packed!
Wonderful for cocktails are his fried baby prawns, crispy, crunchy, eaten shell and all at RM10; and his Rempeyek, a type of flour cracker encrusted with Ikan Bilis, peanuts and an interesting embellishment—slivers of Kaffir lime leaves, lending a herbal touch to the cracker which I have never tasted before, RM8.
The vegetable pancake topped with prawns are RM1.50 each, and the curry Yau Yu or preserved cuttlefish can be eaten on its own or added as extra condiment for the Mee Jawa, RM15. The curry was unusual and not the usual run-of-the mill sauce. Initially tasting mild, the spice kick comes at the end as it slides down your throat.
The two “mains” which are tasty appetite fillers are the Mee Jawa, an Indonesian yellow noodle dish served with a mildly spiced thick gravy/soup, garnished with tofu, beansprouts, shredded lettuce half, homemade fish crackers topped with half an Onsen egg, and one Filipino Lime (Calamansi or Tsuen Kum). Great value for money at RM6.50. And you can add the curried cuttlefish and extra Onsen eggs at RM1.50 each to fill out the dish.
If spice is not your cup of tea, ask for the Japanese Dry Ramen topped with minced pork. This is reminiscent of our famous Hakka Mee but with an added layer of flavour. I don’t know what his sauce mix is (Chef’s secret) but it is certainly yummilicious, coating each strand of the al dente ramen with the minced pork being the “icing” to the whole dish. Garnished with oodles of finely chopped scallions, this is one dish I will return to again and again. RM9.
Both the noodle dishes are extremely generous in their portions and I could barely finish one by myself.
Well done, William! You have not lost your touch and despite the current economic circumstances you are coming out a winner.
Add to the fact that he has secured two prime spots for his stall at the mouth of Tong Sui Kai, customers need not look for difficult-to-find parking space, and rain or shine you can drive right up to his stall, order and take it away immediately.
Contactless delivery!
Stall 23 and 24,
Jalan Carey, Taman Jubilee, Ipoh, Perak.
Call William to order: 017 4216523
5.30pm – 10.00pm or when food is sold out
