Every time I go to Ipoh (though I don't go there that often), the local hosts will proudly take us to Dai Shu Geok Yong Tau Foo (忠记兵如港口大树脚炸料粉). Dai Shu Geok in Cantonese means "at the foot of the big tree".
Dai Shu Geok is actually a large food court with some 8 - 10 food stalls but the most famous one is the yong tau foo stall 忠记兵如港口大树头炸料粉 (a mouthful of words 😝 ).
忠记兵如港口大树头炸料粉 the anchor stall is right at the entrance of the food court. (We shall call the stall Dai Shu Geok Yong Tau Foo in English.)
One of Dai Shu Geok Yong Tau Foo's attractions is they have a large selection of freshly made yong tau foo. Prices are also very competitive.
The majority of Dai Shu Geok Yong Tau Foo pieces are fried items which are all fried on order, so they are all fresh and crisp. Fried YTF are crowd pleasers, so that is perhaps why Dai Shu Geok is so popular.
Various forms of fried stuffed tofu (with generous fish paste filling), pork dumplings and fried tofu skin. Customers just help themselves to the pieces they like, put them in a basket and pass it over to the staff to cook and serve it at their table.
There's also stuffed vegetables and fishballs (boiled items) which I like better.
We had a mix of stuffed tofu and stuffed vegetables. The deep fried items were served without any dressing sauce. Chili sauce dip is available. We also had stuffed vegetables which were served boiled and served in a bowl of soup.
The fried yong tau foo is eaten with noodles. We had Penang style asam laksa and kway teow (rice ribbon noodles) in soup.
I especially enjoyed the blanched soupy items for the fresh vegetables and savoury bouncy fish paste.
Love the crunch of the long beans and thick chunky bitter gourd.
Crispy and crunchy fried yong tau foo are the crowd pullers at Dai Shu Geok.
I enjoyed these fried mashed mang guang 芒光 cakes (known as sar kok liew in Cantonese). It's like Chinese turnip hash browns. This savoury sweet juicy crisp cake is a best seller - Must Try 👍
Very enjoyable crunchy crispy savoury fried tofu skin (fu chok in Cantonese).
We had Penang Asam laksa, dry version kway teow and kway teow soup. For me, kway teow soup works best with the fried yong tau foo as well as the blanched items.
Information for you 👉 Obligatory stop for visitors simply because Ipoh people love this place so much 😄 So, we have to be here to appreciate what Dai Shu Geok YTF is about at first hand. The yong tau foo is nice, with several must try items (e.g. fish filled long beans and sar kok liew) not found in Singapore or Johor. Eating with locals under a big tree is a charming authentic hyperlocal foodie experience.
Restaurant name: Big Tree Yong Tau Foo 忠记兵如港口大树头炸料粉
Address: 652, Jalan King, Taman Hoover, 31650 Ipoh, Negeri Perak
GPS: 4°34'56.0"N 101°05'08.6"E 🌐 4.582231, 101.085730
Waze: Dai Shu Geok Big Tree Foot
Tel: 012 507 1482
Hours: 9:30am - 5:30pm
Non Halal
Date visited: 30 Nov 2018
Oh yum! I miss this. Thanks for reigniting my homesickness...:-)
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed very much your posts as usual. I've been living in both countries (Malaysia and Singapore) most of my life.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I understand usually both countries referred it as mang guang…. but it is in fact known as Sha ge(沙葛)
Unfriendly staff. Very rude service attitude!
ReplyDelete