Bak Chang & Mural Hunting in Ipoh

When I came out from Restoran Ipoh Central, after having my breakfast on the second day of Chinese New Year, I spotted a truck selling "chung" or "bak chang" (glutinous rice dumpling) across the street by chance.

On closer inspection, I saw that this chap (a young guy) was selling a lot of bak chang and when you know he can sell such a large quantity of it, it'll probably be good.

Each bak chang is sold at RM6.  I told him that's pretty expensive...even more expensive than the ones I get from KL at RM5.  He smilingly said...it's the new year....so, I don't know if that meant it's pricier during the festive season!  So, I bought 5 to try.  Up close, they're a lot bigger than the ones I bought in KL though.

This was the one with "lok tau" (split green beans or mung beans).  It was filled with a chunk of pork meat (which is more fatty than lean), dried shiitake mushroom, salted egg yolk, dried shrimps and lok tau. 

I had one for lunch and found it to be quite good...just not as good as the KL ones I buy from my neighbourhood wet market (or the Pandan Perdana market).  My preference would be for a leaner pc of pork meat and the lok tau to have a more mushy and softer consistency.  A family member tried one and liked it so much that he requested if we could get more the following day.

So, we went bak chang hunting the following morning at the same place but his truck was no where to be found.  Luckily, I made some 'small talk' with him the day before and I remembered him pointing to a nearby coffee shop where he says he sells his chung.  We found Kafe Wah Nam and were relieved to find him there with stacks of chung. 

I bought another 5 lok tau and 10 "mei tau" (black eyed peas) as he had run out of lok tau (as I got there much later this time).  I definitely preferred the lok tau as it tastes better.

My Ipoh brother-in-law also took us mural hunting for the wall art murals drawn by renowned Lithuanian street artist, Ernest Zacharevic.  He is, of course, well known for his interactive street art in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kuching, Ipoh....and, of course, the now infamous and controversial Lego Thief in Johor Bahru.  He started his month long project in May/June of 2014 and painted a total of 7 murals in Ipoh.  I managed to get to 4 of them before the heat got to me....hee...hee.....and here they are:

Old Uncle Drinking (White?) Coffee (from a traditional coffee cup) on the side wall of Old Town White Coffee Outlet facing the Ipoh Padang.  This (to me) is his best piece of work among the 7 murals!  [#Note: Initially, there were rumours that the Ipoh City Council (MBI) wanted to repaint the mural after several complaints were raised about the old uncle's resemblance to the late communist leader Chin Peng (but the council later denied it).  What morons!!  What utter nonsense!!  The old uncle actually turned out to be an 80-year old man living in Penang (check it out here).]

2 Kids on a Paper Plane takes us on a trip down memory lane (I'm sure all of us remember playing with paper planes when we were kids).  This mural is within walking distance from Old Town White Coffee.

5 Packets of "Kopi-o Ping" (iced black coffee) in the open space car park along Jalan Tun Sambanthan (in front of Maybank).  The question on everyone's mind....why black coffee and not Ipoh white coffee, right?  This was my favourite one of all.  His previous mural of a small pack of kopi-o (opposite Sekeping Kong Heng and Plan b) started it all.  [#Note: If you check out Ernest Zacharevic's Facebook, you'll see that he has painted variations of these 5 packets of coffee...there's one where the packet drinks are in various colours (syrup drinks, maybe?), one with goldfish in them and one that even looks like iced teh tarik!]

Little Girl tiptoeing on a stack of red plastic stools while reaching for a cage of birds on a wall in Jalan Bandar Timah.  This piece I found to be rather "plain Jane", so I didn't take a photo of it.

The other 3 are murals of a hummingbird, a trishaw and a tin mining town.  Yet, I've not seen his biggest one (which he painted in 2 weeks in April 2014), spanning a massive 4-storey high on Wisma Allianz building wall in Jalan Gereja, that's closer to home )....lol!!

Let's hope there will be more of his beautiful and creative murals sprouting up in the near future! ;)