Ipoh Street 怡保街

Got to hear of another spot that had recently sprouted up around the island that is serving up Malaysian-style pork noodles — this one comes after the opening of establishments such as that of Legacy Pork Noodles, New Ocean 新海 KL Pork Noodle and Fish Head Noodle, and Uncle Beh Pork Noodle situated within EatAlley. The stall is named Ipoh Street 怡保街小吃, and is situated within the Wonderful Coffee Shop that is located at Blk 22 Sin Ming Road; the coffeeshop it is located is at the far end of the entire block that is closest to the vehicle repair workshops within the area. A stall that serves up Malaysian fare, the focus on the menu at Ipoh Street seems to surround around their wanton / dumpling noodle offerings, as well as that of their pork noodle offerings. For those whom are not into noodles, Ipoh Street also serves up Pao Fan items as well.

Despite having a namesake that is rather specific, Ipoh Street does allow for its patrons to pick their desired staple dishes to go along with their Ipoh Pork Noodle (Dry) — other options of staples available would include the likes of rice and Kway Teow; we opted for our order to come with the usual yellow noodles. Opting for the dry variant would see the noodles coming in a separate bowl away from the bowl of soup that comes with all the other ingredients. Whilst the menu of Ipoh Street does not describe on the elements that came with the dish, it can be observed from our order that the bowl of noodles for the Ipoh Pork Noodles came with yellow noodles and pork lard, while the bowl of soup came with all the other elements which include pork slices, minced pork, pork liver, pork meatballs, fried pork lard and greens. Giving the noodles a good toss, the noodles do come with a black sauce base that gave it sufficient flavour; the noodles providing a good chew with a slight savouriness from the sauces and being pretty flavourful from the pork lard as well. The chunks of fried pork lard were also done crisp and not particularly greasy.

Digging into the bowl of soup, we liked how there is an underlying sweetness amidst the savouriness of the soup — whilst carrying a good contrast of flavours, we also enjoyed it given how it also did not feel particularly heavy to have as well; very appetising on its own. None of the pork elements that came with the soup carried any undesirable porky stench; the pork slices were easy to chew through being all springy and tender, while the crispy pork lard still surprisingly carried a crunch despite being soaked in the broth. We usually aren’t a fan of innards, but we did find that the pork liver slices did not carry a particularly strong flavour that we would have found to be difficult to enjoy. The greens also added a refreshing crunch when all gets a little too meaty. Having tried the Malaysian-style pork noodles from several establishments now, we do find that Ipoh Street does serve up a rather decent bowl of Malaysian-style pork noodles — whilst the flavours aren’t exactly as bold as the more notable ones around, we do find that these folks are taking a slightly nuanced approach with their variant; their variant is certainly not too bland as that of some other establishments felt for us as well. Something which we do not mind having if we find ourselves being in the area.