The texture of Ipoh taufufa is unbelievable.
So silky smooth, it slides down your throat with ease, cooling its path and bringing much comfort to the parched throat.
Otherwise it works just as well as a deserved treat. There isn’t a need to justify a (or more) bowl of beancurd when you are in Ipoh!
Time is money and money can’t buy time.
In the recent years convenience, practicality and comfort took favour over tradition & old habits.
For all that I shun sugar, I love my pastries and cakes.
And my Chinese sweet soups (tong shui).
I have never really liked English pastries; the flaky layers of butter never agree with me somehow. But the flaky crust of tau sar pneah gets to me every time.
I just love it. As long as it is not overly greasy of course.
My ideal tau sar pneah would be one with “dry” (meaning non-greasy), crispy crust, and lightly sweeten soft, fine mung bean paste.
Addition of shallots does impart fragrant, but not imperative.
I’ve blogged about a few of my favourites and Tong Huat’s in Kluang is seriously one of the better ones I’ve tried.
For Penang, I prefer Ghee Hiang over Him Hiang.
For Ipoh, Guan Heong Biscuit Shop‘s tambun biscuits are definitely worth buying.
For Teluk Intan, I’ve tried the famous Tiger & Yee Thye ones, both not bad, but I still prefer Guan Heong’s.
My housemate is from Teluk Intan and once she bought back a box of the Tiger brand tau sar pneah (tambun biscuits/mung bean biscuits) for me.
I didn’t exactly shriek in delight though I love these tau sar pneah in general. To me, tau sar pneah must be from Penang. I mean, we are known for our tau sar pneah right?
Besides, a whole box! If I don’t like it (which is the norm because I’m so picky about my food) what am I going to do with them??
If you remember, I had introduced on my blog about this traditional biscuit shop in Ipoh and their delicious yet unique baked biscuits a while back.
Guan Heong’s range of biscuits are still handmade til today and they make their own pastry, paste, BBQ meat and well, just about almost everything. 🙂
During the mooncake season (like now), their range of special mooncakes will be available for a limited period and orders are expectedly overwhelming.
Based on their mooncake list I was most tempted by the durian and savoury mooncakes!
It was by a funny stroke of luck that we stumbled upon Thumb’s Cafe in Ipoh.
We were not in Ipoh for a food excursion. It was in fact a photography skewed trip, with a trunkload of clothes in the boot of the Volkswagen Passat, heading to north for landscape inspiration shoot.
Ipoh offers great gastronomy finds and besides dim sum and the ubiquitous bean sprout chicken, another quintessential “Ipoh food” (if you can call it that) is the tau fu fa aka beancurd and soya bean milk.
Finding a good one in KL/PJ can be a challenge (but hey if you know of a good one to recommend, please do drop me a comment!) as most sold by vans, stalls and even in coffeeshops are diluted and lacked the full glory of the mouthfeel and fragrance of fresh soya milk.
Worse are the ones that left a powdery aftertaste in your mouth!
I’m in Ipoh currently for a photoshoot with the Volkswagen Passat. It is a 7 days experience with the mighty Passat and so far I’m on the fence about liking it or disliking it.
The ride is incredibly smooth and the pick-up (acceleration from standstill/informal way of saying an ability to accelerate rapidly) is a pleasure but the car does seem very masculine to me.
Still, we are on the mission to make the car look sexy so we will! 🙂
As a Penangite I grew up eating our famous “tau sar pneah” (green bean paste biscuits) and had accepted it as part of Penang’s heritage and culture.
When in Ipoh it was always the kaya puffs.
The very kaya puffs that I personally dislike as the shop is forever crowded, the shopkeepers rude and the puffs overly greasy and sweet.
I only got to know of these meat floss biscuits that is (apparently) synonymous with Ipoh recently. And for the first time in my life, I ate a flaky biscuit with fillings of salted egg yolk, dried BBQ meat and meat floss… and I LIKED IT! 🙂
