Restoran Moon De Moon

Ipoh’s kai si hor fun (shredded chicken hor fun) is one of the city’s most famed dishes. Check out Moon De Moon, a favourite with Ipoheans.

This coffee shop is packed to the brim even when we visited on a Thursday morning. You got to wait for your food up to 45 minutes on some days. And the food sells out pretty fast.

So how did the food taste? You can’t go wrong with the kai si hor fun (RM 6.50). By looking at the orange hues of the broth, you can see a good amount of prawn heads went into there. As it’s actually a mixture of prawn and chicken stock, the broth was very rich and flavourful exuding a tinge of sweetness. No drop was left behind.

The kway teow was so smooth and velvety that I enjoyed it even more. The water in Ipoh indeed makes a difference to the texture.

Toppings wise there’s a few slices of soft and tender poached chicken, two slices of prawns, choy sum, spring onions and fried shallots. We did order a side of tauge (bean sprouts) since we were in Ipoh. The bean sprouts were plump and juicy unlike those that we eat back home which pales in comparison.

We also ordered a variety of fish balls (regular and Foochow fish varieties), tau kee (dried beancurd skin) and pork balls (pic 3; RM 1 each). These aren’t to be missed and make a good side to share with the table. The fish balls were fresh and springy and we could tell they were homemade. The meat balls are decent but it’s something that you could pass on.

It was a bummer that the dry curry mee was sold out by the time we went but I’ll be back here on my next trip to Ipoh

Not many tourists come here (yet) but “Moon De Moon” is the quirky name of the spacious casual restaurant (actually it’s a coffeeshop) where you can find a few stalls selling different types of food. The biggest of the lot is the main magnet. People flock here for their “Kai Si Hor Fun” (Chicken Koay Teow Soup) which has Ipoh’s iconic very narrow, translucent and ridiculously soft rice noodles served with chives, fresh prawns and chicken in a superb concentrated chicken and prawn broth (RM 5). If you plan to visit, do aim to arrive early (before 10am is safest) because their broth is a precious commodity. The later you arrive, the less of it you may find in your bowl of noodles because rationing begins when they edge closer to the official closing time of 12noon. There are occasions when they even sell out before that.
The other dish from the same stall that I enjoyed a lot is the Dry Curry Chicken Mee (RM 5). In terms of aroma and taste profile, the thick-from-spices (not from coconut milk) gravy is closer to that of Indian curries than Chinese. The default carbs is yellow mee with beehoon which I recommend getting as the mixed texture works well with the heavy, complex curry. This dish comes with a few pieces of bone-in chicken which are fresh and because of the thorough spice marination, are fragrant and flavourful.
Another stall I didn’t get to try but intend to do so on my next visit is the one selling different kinds of fried noodles. When I spoke to the friendly lady manning it, she happened to be stirfrying a plate of Belachan “Lou Shu Fun” (this rice noodle is very short, cylindrical and taper to pointy ends) that was temptation personified. It automatically got on my list for what to eat when I’m back in Ipoh.

Address: Moon De Moon.
148 Hala Wah Keong,
Taman Mirindi, Ipoh.

[ Opens Wednesday to Sunday ]

Here the version is clear and clean tasting. Slurp worthy and a nice way to start the day

Take the humble curry mee or Kari Mee for instance. Different towns in Malaysia will have their own version. A marriage of the Chinese noodles culture with a spicy curry either from the Malay or Indian heritage. The version is thick, rich with coconut milk. The calamansi lime and mint leaves cut the richness really well. A tad heavy for brekkie but so satisfying. This sells out fastest at this stall. Go early! We were so happy we scored the last two plates

The stall is manned by a cheerful and polite young man. Nothing like a bright smile to wish you happy Sunday!