I have the same questions as many coffee commoners like myself out there when it comes to Ipoh white coffee from Malaysia. Yeah- like why is it “white” when it’s not and how it came about. So I angled for a way overdue trip last week to this sleepy and charming little old town once the home on welled heeled tin mining business folks. I mentioned “white coffee’ to our makan researchers there and somehow Ipoh tau-ge chicken and Lucky Restaurant resonated then after.

The real deal old world coffee in old town Ipoh was
popularized in this humble little kopitiam

We asked, and without hesitation, our senior makan chief there Uncle Lawrence, pointed us to the infamous white coffee war junction in the heart to Ipoh old town for that iconic cuppa. Sin Yoon Loong coffeeshop was as old school Hainanese as it came. Old mosaic green and beige tiles with old style coffeeshop tables and chairs greeted old regulars chatting aloud over their daily cuppa. “We have been at this spot since the 30’s” and third generation owner Mr Wong Kee Chor was frank to admit that they don’t make it like his granddad these days. “Then, they took the trouble to pick our really fine beans and handled them with a lot of care and attention. They way the rested the beans and allowed it to breathe before roasting it without additives like sugar or corn was pure sweat. The whole approach was pure, methodic and diligent, hence, it was nicknamed “white coffee” as in purity of production,” he shared. These days, a manufacturer churns out the beans to their specifications. Their cuppa, and the favoured version comes with milk, smooth, milky with a certain roundness and totally robust with no hints of the irritating sourness or bitterness like when brewed at the wrong water temperature. I had a go at the main competitor just across the next morning (which touts the famous Old Town Coffee brand) and I decided that this one was the better waste of my time, hands down.

The crowds coming here for the tauge chicken meal,
is relentless, even at midnight on a Monday.

It is hard not to mention the famous Ipoh bean sprout chicken and not say Lou Wong in one breath. The street where this corner coffeeshop is, is dotted with equally brightly lit and attractive competitors touting the same stuff- a plate of perfectly blanched Ipoh tau-ge in soy sauce with a platter of poached chicken. But, the situation is like how many gravitate and queue at only one nasi lemak stall among the many, at Changi hawker center. And even at the godforsaken hour of midnight on a Monday, Lou Wong is packed with desperate diners seeking that soulful dally with their makan icon. You enter the premises (good luck on finding a seat), order from the no-frills and clearly informed menu and the meal it served in less than ten minutes. It is impossible to beat their crunchy platter of tau-ge as it’s well known how they grow their bean sprouts in their natural spring water. Their chicken, comes a little slimmer and are the kampung bred type. Nice, but it just lacks that smooth and rich chicken oil and juiciness that comes from the fattened 2.2kg birds used in Singapore. And alas, they seal the deal with a plate of, get this – plain rice. Yeah, nice, if you grew up with it, but nay, if you have sinned with the oiler chicken stock boiled jasmine rice.

Lucky Restaurant’s crab egg custard served in the shell sitting atop the whole crab beehoon dish completely won me over.

Owner Mr Teoh Kar Hooi could sniff me out, like a shark at an injured tuna, looking for a great meal in his humble air-con seafood cze cha shop. I came knowing that his 29 year old restaurant had a reputation and an attitude-well heeled old regulars eat at this seafood joint, even for breakfast! They close for the all important dinner business meal as in his words “it is a bit too tiring to open at night and finish late each day. I need my sleep,” says this self taught chef whose approach to seafood lures many early risers each day to his shop for stuff like abalone or crab porridge. He sized us up and said “I know Singaporeans love Sri Lanka crabs”, and then everything he muttered sounded like gibberish and a claypot of crab beehoon soup lay before us. The stock was rich and accented with Chinese wine but he best part was how he cracked an egg over the juices on the shell and steamed it before placing it atop the dish. This crab egg custard did us in. he also has a particularly fresh supply of garoupa fishes and his simply steamed version was how the heavens would like us to consume it.