A couple of weeks ago, I was absent for a short while as I went along to my church annual family camp. It was a great time of hearing God’s word, fellowship and ‘fai lo’ ship (local slang for sharing meals together). This year our venue was the town of Ipoh.
Ipoh is the capitol of the state of Perak in Malaysia. At one time, it was one of the richest cities in the region with scores of multimillionaires and resplendent with mansions on large grounds. It had grown rich on the back of tin mining. The city then fell into the backwaters when the price of tin fell catastrophically in the 1970’s.
Today, it is seeing a resurgence due to tourism. It is surrounded by beautiful limestone hills and caves including some interesting temples built into the limestone caves.
However, we were there primarily to receive spiritual food; teaching from God’s word. We had invited a Singaporean preacher who encouraged us not to be just pew warmers but to be true disciples of Christ, we had to be, well, disciples; following his example and obedient to his teachings and commands. Specifically, we were challenged to a) have compassion for others and be relevant in our community; b) have a real and living relationship with God through prayer and reading the bible; c) have a vibrant relationship with one another, helping and encouraging one another in our Christian walk and finally d) to obey Christ is actively sharing His Good News to those around us. We also looked into the book of Nehemiah and how different people (and not necessary the best qualified people) were assigned to rebuild different sections of Jerusalem’s fallen wall. The important thing was being willing and working as part of a whole effort.
But a very good secondary reason for going to Ipoh is to enjoy the food because Ipoh has its own well know cuisine. Some of it is shown in the photos above. Use your mouse to hover over the photo and you can read the associated caption.
Some of the famous Ipoh cuisine are said to be due to the qualities of the spring water there that is used in the cooking process. Hence, the Ipoh Hor Fun noodles is extremely soft and silky – unmatched anywhere else in Malaysia. Similarly, the Beansprouts chicken is great not just because of the way the chicken is cooked but because the special spring water has made the beansprouts particularly plump, crunchy and juicy. In the same way, the dessert – sweetened soyabean curd is silky smooth.
There are many more Ipoh food highlights including seafood, popiah (a type of soft springroll), beef noodles, Ipoh’s own white coffee, the pomelo fruit…….. the list goes on and on but it serves us all little good to keep talking about it here. Internet technology hasn’t reach the stage where you can enjoy the food remotely. You’ll just have to take my word for it ……or go there yourselves. But be warned, Ipoh is hazardous to weight loss diets.
Realm of the Lone Grey Squirrel 