Restoran Xin Quan Fang has been around for over fifty years and is known to serve one of the best curry noodles in Ipoh. The locals affectionately refer to it as ‘Ma Ta Liu’ because the original shop lot was located opposite a police station. It has since shifted across the road. A lot of people swear by their curry noodles and there is often a huge crowd at the shop even before it starts operating at 7:30am. They usually sell out by late morning around 12pm, so do try to get there early if you want to sample their famed Curry Mee. Besides, they close for a week about every two months, so do call and check before heading out to avoid disappointment.
The interior of the
shop is quite crowded with around 11 tables and patrons can often be seen
standing and waiting for an empty seat. The rule there is to wait for someone
to serve you instead of going to the counter or calling for a staff. If you do
so, you might get an impatient response. Those quirks aside, the Curry Mee there
is definitely worth a try. The broth is light with little trace of coconut milk
but aromatic and well-flavoured with spices. It is not unbearably spicy either.
You can choose to have the soup with all kinds of noodles such as yellow
noodles, flat rice noodles (hor fun) and rice vermicelli (mee hoon). You can
even have a mix of two.
Do order their Meat
Platter to go with your noodles. It cinsists of shredded chicken, roasted pork,
pork ear, char siew, prawns and fat, succulent bean sprouts. The little bowl of
curry paste that comes with it is tangy and goes well with the curry broth.
