Every traveler dreamt of the encounter of small town cafe serving honest and tasty local food. Bidor, located between Ipoh and Kuala Lumpur via the North South Expressway is often related to seedless guava, durian, gai zai beng (crispy chicken biscuit) and duck noodles. City dwellers often stopped by for these local products.
I’ve always wanted to bring Kampungboy to Bidor for the duck noodles, Tanjung Malim for the baos, Teluk Intan for the chee cheong fun, even after he had tried the addictive Kampar curry chicken bun and succulent Tualang fresh water prawn. During Kampungboy’s department trip to Pangkor Island last month, they made a pit stop at the infamous Pun Chun, now that I can strike it off from the list.
Pun Chun Chicken Biscuit and Restaurant is a typical Chinese kopitiam with high ceiling, mirror flank on one side of the wall, old school fan and waiters yelling from one end to another.
Contrasting to the quaint little town Bidor, Pun Chun is full of hustle bustle where it is packed to the brim. Patrons are spotted everywhere; sitting and savouring their bowl of duck noodles, or standing and waiting to grab a seat.
It is fascinating to see various types of cookies pastries and tidbits scattered on the wooden rack. Pun Chun is well known for the gai zai beng (crispy chicken biscuit) and egg sat kei ma (egg flour biscuit coated with caramel). Holding stacks of individually wrapped cookies, everyone queues up obediently at the cashier.
The dry version where the noodles are tossed with sesame oil, dark soy sauce and soy sauce is served with an individual pot of herbal duck soup too. Everyone tuck into the noodles and soup happily.
To negate the heat and steam from the hot herbal soup, one can opt for the springy wantan noodle topped with char siew (barbequed pork) or roasted chicken.
The duck noodles (ngap pei meen) is serve in simmering herbal soup with ginger, dried longan, and wolfberries. The slender looking noodles were cooked al dente too. The duck is soft and tender after long and slow cooking process, you can just scrap the meat off the bone by using chopstick.
There’s this fruits galore along Jalan Besar where fruits are aplenty, fresh and offered at attractive price at the ongoing. The seedless guava from Bidor has a very pleasant aroma and is sweet and juicy. I have more than a few small town stories to tell, what is yours?
Pun Chun Chicken Biscuit and Restaurant
Address: 38-40, Jalan Besar, Bidor, 35500 Perak (Opens from 5 am to 10 pm daily)
Tel: 05-434 1554, 05-434 1562
Got to say we adore their herbal duck noodle. They are gorgeous. We always make sure that we have this on the way back to Ipoh. As for the fruits… great variety based on season also but the price goes according to the market price, don’t think you can get good bargain at this stalls. Hey, kampungboycitygal, do drop by my new food blog:
http://www.havefoodwilltravel.blogspot.com
http://www.bigboyskitchen.blogspot.com
You didn’t try their famous yummy yam puff aka wu kok? Very very nice, a must have for me.
yalor, like precious pea, my fave at pun chun would be the very mouth watering woo kok..*drools*
kinda think pun chun is overrated…on my way back from pangkor in feb took a detour to try it out…the wantan mee wasn’t that great…much better stuff at malacca or pj…but their wu kok was really yummylicious…so got small ounce of hope…:)
Long time never stop by here. Travelling companions kept saying the taste has deteriorated due to mass production. =P Will insist next time.
Hmm.. I have never try any of the food there coz my family never stop by there. Hmm.. I wonde how’s the chee cheong fun in teluk intan? Any good?
Aargh! Drooling over those noodles as they look good. Time to make a road trip for this.
I want crispy chicken biscuits!!! and duck noodles too.. I just blogged abt them and looking at your pics just makes me more hungry.
my first taste of herbal duck noodles was in Penang. I was hooked immediately!
That picture of the tender duck pieces with noodles looks very very appetizing.. yummmm
I love buying fruits there. Reasonable price and always very fresh and sweet!
I always make it a point to buy guavas from the stalls selling outside the shop. Somehow, they are consistently very good. Crispy and sweet.
Reminds me of the days before the highway was completed, my parents always drop by on our way to Ipoh for CNY. Their duck noodle is sooo yummy…and also will buy bags of Sak Kei Mah and Chicken Biscuits before leaving. Should definitely go again when am back in Msia the next time.
can i follow u back to Ipoh next time??
bbo: hahaha..but i seldom use the north south trunk road to travel anymore..usually we will make it point to turn in just for the noodles
pea: no worrr..sold off dy :P..love the velvety yam
sc: it was my favourite too..hard to get such gd taro puff elsewhere
sbd 18: haha..they are not consistent..sometimes the noodles is good but sometimes its horrible..haihhhhhh
tummythoz: hmm depends on ur luck..if luck is on ur side u’ll get tender duck n springy noodles
cutie: yeah..ccf in teluk intan are not normal plain ccf, they stuff some sengkuang and dried shrimps inside
boo: hahaha..go up north to iph n penang for all the gd fd
beenee: i never know tat pun chun is tat old…
daphne: ooo reli? pg has nice duck noodles too? hmmm must find out
teckiee: ya esp the seedless guava..gd stuff
my coffee: it was my favourite too,we are spoil for choice as they r many fruit stall around
wai sik mui: now u can get their sat keh ma n chic biscuit fr yee hup at ipoh town too
jackson: sure la..mari mari
i can’t really judge quality of food for my own hometown, but this duck noodles really not as good as years ago. i still eat some sat keh ma nowadays, but for our seedless guava, i can’t find any competitor yet 😉
I agree with tekko as the quality of the food aint that fantastic. Maybe for first timers. After my third time, it is just ‘ok’. Plus the price is on the high side for almost everything in their menu. But the white coffee, hot, is something that coffee lovers can try.