Ipoh, Malaysia - White Coffee at Nam Heong and Sin Yoon Loong
These two rival traditional Hainanese-Chinese coffeeshops faced off each other right across the road in Jalan Bandar Timah, Ipoh Old Town, and purportedly served the *best* Ipoh white coffee (怡保白咖啡) between them.
Nam Heong, which opened just after WWII, was the younger of the two, but the more enterprising one - it had franchised its coffee business into the popular Old Town White Coffee chain throughout Malaysia and Singapore these days. I visited the original outlet on Sunday, where a 1940s atmosphere permeated through the air, as much as the smell of freshly-roasted coffee. The popular coffeeshop was packed as always, with nary a vacant seat to be had. The food stalls lining the periphery of Nam Heong sold a wide variety of Chinese eats, from the popular "char koay teow" (fried rice noodles) to egg tarts. We opted for the "sar kok liew", a typical Ipoh snack (you won't find this anywhere else in Malaysia) of shredded, seasoned turnips wrapped in bean-sheets then deep-fried, before being cut into discs, and served with chilli sauce.
Sin Yoon Loong (Est. 1937) also offered a plethora of traditional Ipoh street eats like steamed radish cakes topped with minced shrimps & salted radish.
Both places offered unmissable rich, thick coffee, sweetened with a mix of evaporated milk and sweet condensed milk.
Address details
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Nam Heong
2 Jalan Bandar Timah
Ipoh, Perak
Tel: +6016-5538119
Sin Yoon Loong
15A Jalan Bandar Timah
Ipoh, Perak
Tel: +605-2414 601
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huiray
Mar 26, 2012 09:59 AM
Fascinating.
Hmm, you went to Sin Yoon Loong (新源隆) and not Sun Yuan Foong (新源豐) next door to it. What does your Ipoh Guide say about the other shop, if anything? I read that it's a couple or some other related pair who run the two twin shops, and you can order food from either shop but presumably *only* the kopi from the shop you are sitting in? :-D
http://www.mywisewife.com/sun-yuan-foong-the-best-ipoh-old-town-white-coffee.html [Of course, the poster is making a joke about the pairing "隆豐" (yale lung4 fung1) standing in for dragon (龍; Yale: lung4) - phoenix (鳳; Yale: fung6) ]
http://www.vkeong.com/2009/02/toasted-bread-sun-yuan-foong-coffee-shop-ipoh-old-town/
http://www.applefoodees.com/ipoh-whit...›1 Reply-
re: huiray
klyeoh
Mar 26, 2012 05:17 PM
Not too sure why the food-bloggers above concentrated on Sun Yuan Foong, whilst all the publications/printed guides by the Star Malaysia, etc. highlighted the older, better-known Sin Yoon Loong. Maybe the bloggers mixed up their 'i's and 'l's :-D
Anyway, both Sin Yoon Loong and Sun Yuan Foong allowed food from the food stalls outside their eateries to be brought into either place.
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