The Ultimate Guide To Ipoh Ngah Choi Kai

I cringe every time someone said that they had the best ngah choi kai in Ipoh at Lou Wong. Ask anyone from Ipoh and nine out of ten would never eat at Lou Wong. I guess if you are out station folks, you may need more guidance in locating the real deal.

We Ipoh folks take the dish seriously. After all, you buy any tofu or bean sprouts from Ipoh markets, they are already very good. How not to have good hor fun when you live in Ipoh?

Oh, please do not ever, ever mistake kaiseehorfun with ngachoykai. The former is made with prawn head stock, has chicken slices and gauchoy. 

The Best Of The Lot ....

So, what makes the dish stand out from being average to being brilliant. Well, at least they must have the best hor fun and bean sprouts to start with, not difficult. Then its the soup base, here is where quality comes in, how much "stuff you put in and how long you boil it for". We always can taste some "MSG" at Lou Wong although they will always deny it.

Then its the chicken, it is not whether they look golden yellow (that is a cheap trick of bringing out a nice colour). The test is how smooth and easy they detach from the bone. Test: can you pop a chicken wing into your mouth and easily spit out the entire bone, seriously.

The final test is the soy sauce/cooked oil mixture, it has to be just right, not too salty and has that special something (which I think is fried chicken fat).

The locations of the 5 outlets are on the linked map, thanks to a reader:

http://www.savershub.com/my/en/business.php?input1=Ipoh+Bean+Sprouts+Chicken&input3=Ipoh&lang=en

There are 5 places you would know (or should know):

LOU WONG
Soup base: 7/10
Chicken: 8/10
Soya/oil Mix: 7/10




ONN KEE
Soup base: 7/10
Chicken: 7/10
Soya/oil Mix: 7/10




MEDAN KIDD (15 Tower) JUST BEEN INFORMED THAT THIS PLACE HAS BEEN DEMOLISHED AND THE OWNER DOES NOT INTEND TO RE-OPEN
Soup base: 8/10
Chicken: 9/10
Soya/oil Mix: 7/10
+ a tip here, they also serve probably the best stewed chicken feet, even better than Cowan Street outlet




KAM HOR (Ipoh Garden)
Soup base: 8/10
Chicken: 8/10
Soya/oil Mix: 8/10

COWAN STREET (#44 Cowan Street, random opening hours, priciest)
Soup base: 9/10
Chicken: 10/10
Soya/oil Mix: 10/10


There you have it, the ultimate guide. If you look at the scoring, you would know why we cringe when you say Lou Wong is sooo good.

p/s: photos stolen from various food bloggers, who always want to lynch me ...

http://ipohtown.blogspot.com/2008/07/food-glorious-food_14.html
http://www.j2kfm.com/fifteen-tower-tauge-ayam-ipoh/

http://www.j2kfm.com/kam-hor-ipoh-ayam-tauge/