Our Story | icarimakan

Who We Are

My brother and I hail from Ipoh, a small sleepy Malaysia town situated in a valley surrounded by limestone hills; known for its bevy of beauties. When we reminisce about the fondest memories of our childhood growing up in the 1960s to 1980s, it is always about the food and the person behind it.

The ice cream man in his loud colorful blazer on a 3-wheeler cycling around under the hot and humid weather whom we thought was crazy.

An old uncle who peddled his tau foo fah (bean curd) which was so silky and tender which qualified me as an Ipoh girl as many believed the reason for our beautiful complexion;

Ipoh's signature mushroom chee cheong fun (flat rice flour noodles) peddled by siblings who only operated late at night next to a dark football field; which attracted stories that they were ghosts and some claimed they had seen headless ghost eating at the makeshift tables and chairs;

Our favorite sizzling hot peanut apong (pancake) laced with plenty of margarine and sugar made on the spot by an arrogant uncle parked next to a building in Ipoh Garden who has no time for small talks.

The kacang puteh man who peddled his variety of nuts on a bicycle where we would try to sample as many as we could and ended up buying only one packet of peanut which left him fuming mad.

The beautiful Indian lady in her saree who would call out “nasi lemak” cycling around the neighborhood in the wee hours of the morning peddling her aromatic coconut milk rice with anchovies sambal chilli wrapped in banana leaf are just some of the favorite food and people that we grew up with.

I had many happy moments with my best friend discussing about the hot male Physics teacher whom we both had a crush over a steaming bowl of hot and spicy assam laksa after school which was next to a drain along the street in town.

The pride of Ipoh besides many others is the well- known home-made Nancy Chong butter cake. No birthday celebrations can go without her delicious and sinful butter cake laced with sugar icing.

Our memories of these local delicacies never left us, even though it has been more than three decades since we bade goodbye to our beloved hometown and relocated to bigger cities.

In these cities, we discovered many more delicious street food but most of the time, we need to go in search for them and usually by word of mouth - the ever crispy fried nian gao (glutinous rice cake) sandwiched by sweet potato and yam in Petaling Jaya, the goreng pisang (banana fritters) in Tanjong Bungah and Apong Guan at Jalan Burma in Penang. We know there are many more of such hidden gems yet to be uncovered.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we would go on an annual “culinary throwback road trip” with our children and siblings to Ipoh in the hope of reliving our best memories.

Over the years, we noticed that while some made it big and went on to open restaurants and shops, others continued to cari makan rain or shine, depending heavily on word-of-mouth to promote their business. Despite these challenging conditions, these street hawkers continue to strive hard to make a decent living. Little did they know that to us, their food catapulted us straight back to our childhood and beyond that plate of well known Ipoh nga choi kai (beansprout with chicken), they served up comfort, joy and nostalgia.

The pandemic has caused disruptions to lives and many of us struggle to adapt to the new way of living. But we believe there is a silver lining behind every cloud. When restrictions on dining out were imposed, there was a sudden emergence of hidden talent, with countless mouth-watering home-baked and home-cooked food being proudly shared on social media. With their new-found popularity, some have decided to become home bakers/chefs and make a living by doing something they enjoy and love, while at the same time, providing us with more options to choose from than what is offered on other platforms.