Being an Ipoh-rian, delicious gourmet food is part and parcel of my life. Think about white coffee, kuey teow soup, wan tan mee, chicken rice, sar-kok liew, it's easily available whenever my stomach grumbles. Well, wasn't aware that they are so well known that people actually drive down to Ipoh to eat them; not until I set foot in Kuala Lumpur to study back then. That my hometown food is that delicious.
If you're craving for an authentic Ipoh Chicken Rice in Klang Valley, do drop by the 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant where they have a few outlets around the town. Thanks to Ivy Kam from Food Malaysia and 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant,I managed to know more about the in-dept journey of this humble restaurant as well as sampling the overall dishes from their menu.
Visited their outlet in Mid Valley Megamall and their outlet's location is a great convenience for shoppers who's craving for some authentic Ipoh food halfway through their shopping therapy. And I personally prefer to dine in a mall rather than driving out to a shop which is located few kilometers away for a meal, especially after my feet are tired from walking. Okies, I don't drive (hehehe) and you're in the same situation as I am, simply take a public bus or a KTM train to Mid Valley and you'll reach your destination.
1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice is located on the 3rd Floor of Mid Valley Megamall, near the Mid Valley exhibition centre. Their shop consists of 2 levels of dining area; ground floor which is the same level as their shop's entrance as well as another smaller area upstairs. No worries if you didn't spot a table from their entrance, because there's more tables upstairs.
One of the most important thing to do whenever you're dining in a restaurant serving Ipoh food is to order a cup of white coffee. Growing up in Ipoh, I'm used to drink a hot one compared to iced version and I personally preferred a hot one because you can taste omphness of the drink. It's just a personal preference okies.
I had their Nan Yang White Coffee (Hot) which is priced at RM5.50. It tasted good with a perfect balance between the sweet and bitter elements. And of course, the aromatic smell of the coffee beans especially from a hot cup of white coffee. I praised them for the water temperature used to make that cup of white coffee too. Just like my usual cup of drink during the weekends.
The star of the meal was of course the Organic Kampung Chicken dish. Kampung Chicken is whereby the little chick has ample space to roam around freely and which is also the reason that their meat texture is often said to be tougher and a bit hard to chew. Well, that's because their meat tend to stick harder to its bones due to the exercise done while roaming around :) Okies, correct me if I'm wrong yeah.
The Organic Kampung Chicken dish is available in different portions. A whole bird of Organic Kampung Chicken dish is priced at RM88 while half bird is priced at RM44. If these portions are too big for you, go for the Quarter (Lower part at RM26 and Upper part at RM20) or the Single portion (Wing & Breast meat set at RM10 while Thigh & Drumstick set at RM13).
Do you know that 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice offers complimentary deboning service for the chicken dish which you ordered? A deboned chicken means a chicken with its bones completely removed. This deboning is a complicated process and the chef requires a great skill & experience to complete without tearing/destroying the chicken skin throughout the process. A deboned chicken should have its skin still clinging to its meat without tearing apart from the sides and able to arrange them nicely on a plate with the skin on.
By opting to debone your Organic Kampung Chicken dish at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice, the chicken meat becomes more juicier and easy to eat compared to those where its meat still sticking to its bones.
You can now enjoy the true texture of an Organic Kampung Chicken dish. It's meat is not tough at all! And you can eat your kampung chicken more gracefully without the need to pull its bone out from your mouth. And of course, more child friendly too. Do give it a try and go for a deboned chicken at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant.
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| Before the premium soya sauce is poured on. |
And 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice only uses premium soya sauce in its dishes which is why their chicken dishes are so good. According to its chef, they only uses the premium soya sauce known as 'tau chau' in Cantonese. Tau Chau is whereby the soya sauce is obtained from the first pressing of its brewed soya beans. Thus, its soya sauce is light brownish red in colour with a lightly salted taste and is the best quality of soya sauce obtained throughout the making of soya sauce. However, this type of soya sauce is quite hard to obtain in the market, thus do try them at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice.
Their Organic Kampung Chicken dish is served with premium tau chau soya sauce mixed with a little bit of pure chicken oil which gives a smooth texture of meat in your mouth.
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| With the premium tau chau soya sauce. |
Now, this is the must-have rice which we normally called it oil rice in Cantonese. Okies, it's called Chicken Rice here and it's priced at RM2.50/bowl. It's called chicken rice because the rice is cooked with chicken oil instead of normal oil or butter. If you prefer a normal instead of an oiled rice, Plain Rice is available at RM2.50/bowl too.
You can't missed the ginger paste as well as the homemade chilli sauce to complement your chicken rice. They served as the perfect companion to your plate of chicken rice! And their ginger paste is not blended with machine, instead it is chopped patiently by their kitchen crew everyday. Thus, do enjoy their ginger paste to the fullest to show appreciate towards their hard work. And it is not a raw ginger paste but it is also mixed with minced garlic and both ingredients does undergoes the steaming process before it reached its end result. As for the chilli sauce, it's a homemade version with red chilies, garlic and lime. The sourish taste comes from the freshly squeezed lime which makes the sauce a perfect appetizing component in your meal.
You must not missed this Ipoh's signature dish which is the Ipoh Bean Sprouts which is priced at RM10 for a Small portion or at RM15. Ipoh is famous for its juicy and crunchy bean sprouts and the team at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice sourced their bean sprouts all the way from Buntong, Ipoh. Their signature Ipoh bean sprouts which are sourced from Buntong, Ipoh are crunchy, juicy and huge in size simply because of the traditional method used to water the bean sprout plants. According to the team at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice, its bean sprouts are being watered manually between 11.30pm till 1.30am midnight when the weather is cold to produce a good quality bean sprouts. These bean sprouts are also watered with clean underground water pumped from the well. It is not any underground water, but water from the limestone hills that is rich in vitamins. Hence, the texture produced is quite different in Ipoh.
And the best part is that the bean sprouts sold at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice shop is taken from the bean sprouts which grows in the middle part of the huge bins. Well, bean sprouts grow in a huge plastic drum sized bin and can be divided into 3 parts, the top, middle and bottom layer of the bin. Basically, they grow stacking on top of each other and the top part, which means those near the cover of the bins are normally exposed to light or sunlight when the bins are opened for checking or watering process. Bean sprouts from this part of the bin received too much light and too little minerals as the water are not usually filled till the top of the bin. On the other hand, those bean sprouts which grows at the bottom has plenty of minerals but received no light at all, hence the bean sprouts produced from these 2 parts are not that of great quality compared to those located in the middle layer of the bin which have the best of two worlds. Thus, the next time you're buying bean sprouts in the wet market or from bean sprouts supplier, do try your luck in getting those which grows in the middle of the bins as they are quite hard to source in the market. :)
According to Ipoh Echo here, these bean sprouts are still being produced traditionally from the backyard of their house till today which I'm quite impressed. Would love to visit a traditional Ipoh bean sprouts producer if there's a chance.
You can also compliments your chicken rice with some barbecued side dishes such as the Roasted & Honey BBQ Pork which is priced at RM20. The Roasted pork is the siew york while the Honey BBQ Pork is the char siew. I love the roasted pork as it comes with crackling pork skin and the Honey BBQ Pork is great too with a rich savory sauce brushed on its meat.
1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant also offers some traditional home cooked Chinese dishes to complement your meal. The Fried Roasted Pork (RM25) tasted good and we finished them within a few minutes even though it's burning hot in our mouth. The roasted pork is stir-fried together with garlic, capsicum as well as light & dark soya sauce, a classic Cantonese dish. It made you feel like home.
Dishes or food with salted-egg yolk is the 'in' thing now and you must not missed this dish either. Do order this Buttermilk Fish Fillet (RM25) as the sauce is made from a combination of traditional buttermilk and salted egg yolks. The salted egg yolks enhanced the texture and taste of the traditional buttermilk sauce and you can truly taste the salted eggy in their sauce for the ommph feeling. You'll be guaranteed to be satisfied with this place of Buttermilk Fish Fillet. Do grab some curry leaves from the dish for that extra kick.
Oh-la-la, the Stir-Fried Lala with Superior Soup is priced at RM25. The lala is super fresh and the soup really compliments the dish well. Their special superior soup is made from chicken soup, Chinese wine with minced bean paste or known as tau ban cheong in Cantonese. A must-order when you're dining here.
If you're looking for something light to compliments your meal, do go for their signature Pork Balls (RM2.00/each) where it is made from 100% pure pork meat and dried cuttle fish (tiu pin). Their pork balls taste exactly the same one as you can get from Ipoh where their texture are meatier and harder due to the fact that there's no presence of flour in it, but pure meat paste. If you miss the Big Tree Foot or Tai Kar Rock yeong tao foo Ipoh, do come to 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice to satisfy your cravings!
If you're driving down all the way to Ipoh for its Ipoh Hokkien Noodles at Tuck Kee, Ipoh; you can now satisfy your cravings at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice because they do sell the Ipoh style Fried Hokkien Noodle (RM14.90). Unlike the Klang Valley style of hokkien noodles, the Ipoh style is more wet and do not have the bitter or burnt taste in it. This Ipoh hokkien noodle at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice also have lesser pork lard to provide a healthier option of hokkien noodle to its customers and yet, the taste is superb.
Being an Ipoh-rian, the dishes at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant truly presents the quality and standard of Ipoh style cuisine. Even if they are not 100% equal to the one that you had at your usual restaurant or coffeeshop in Ipoh, the dishes sold at their outlet do satisfy my craving of hometown food because the taste and the method of cooking are the same. Do visit 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice Restaurant for a true homecooked taste. They have a few outlets in Klang Valley which are located at Jalan Gasing, Damansara Jaya, Sri Petaling as well as in Mid Valley Megamall.
The team at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice shop is also generous to share with us the steps to debone a chicken.
For more information on their latest promotions, do follow their Facebook page at 1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice.
1977 Ipoh Chicken Rice (Mid Valley Outlet)
Lot T-013D & 061, 3rd Floor
Mid Valley Megamall
Lingkaran Syed Putra, Mid Valley City,
59200 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
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