patchouli

From my experience I would like to add that Bienlich's hamburger is a bland joke. Hackney's can be decent but is inconsistant. If you truly wish to know the commercial burger's potential, try the green chile cheeseburger at Bobcat Bite in Santa Fe. (ten onces of prime ground chuck with asadero and hatch green chiles). To my shock I ordered a second one to see if I were dreaming or not. I wasn't.

Hi Laksa :-) Thank you for the "Welcome To eGullet" note. Good to know that you have many Ipoh- mali friends too. I am a little surprised to know that you tasted a hint of belacan in a lot of the CKT you sampled during your last trip to KL. Could it be due to fish sauce or something? Shiewie... Wish I could be more informative when it comes to food finds in Taiping. The last time I was there was many many moons ago. All I know is CKT is great anywhere and their seafood tom yams especially are excellent. Fresh seafood arrives from a nearby fishing village so you can imagine. I moved to the US a number of years ago but I can share with you some info on where to find what food in Ipoh. Hopefully all these places that I'm about to mention here are still there. Ipoh is a place you can never get enough of some of the tastiest foods. The place I mentioned earlier for example, the Ipoh Garden stadium food court, has a wide array of reasonably priced, great-tasting food. Apart from CKT, try the chicken/lamb chops at Johnny Walker's. Lookout for fabulous konloh mee served with wanton soup, claypot mee, fried rice, and chicken satay (the latter at a Pak Cik's stall). Near Bank Bumiputra, there used to be a fantastic thosai stall (my favorite is the ghee paper thosai) with coconut chutney and spiced lentil curry. Another hot spot in town is the gluton's square. It is located near Bank Simpanan Nasional. Yummy nyonya kuihs, stir-fried pepper crabs, lobak, and most of all, ikan panggang or grilled fish. The grilled skate or ikan pari is just out of this world! Then there is Old Town for hearty breakfast foods and good coffee, and last but not the least, Greentown for some of the best chicken/char siu rice. Hope this helps.

trillium is right. Curry powder is definitely not one of the ingredients used to prepare CKT. Although Penang is one the best places to sample all kinds of Malaysian delicacies including CKT, I would also suggest excellent CKT in Taiping and Ipoh. Since I am from Ipoh ( or rather *Ipoh mali*), I highly recommed the one and only CKT stall at the Ipoh Garden stadium where a young Chinese couple man the stall. This simple but delicious flat-rice noodle dish is freshly prepared with cockles, prawns, eggs, chives, and bean sprouts and served with a wee bit of sambal belacan on the side - mmm just perfect. I always end up downing this dish with my favorite cup of hot kau kau or "strong" local Ipoh coffee.

GREETINGS TO ALL ESPECIALLY TO THE MOST HELPFUL * misstenacity * ludja Reporting Good Eats and Not-So-Good-Eats GOOD EATS Gold Street Cafe - As many said, the thick-cut chile bacon is out of this world. I tried the BLT, as I was too late for breakfast. Coffee was great, but service was problematical. Duran's Pharmacy - Outstanding. I had green chile and ham breakfast burrito. Generous portion, wonderful flavors, excellent service, clean and homey. NOT-SO-GOOD-EATS Bangkok Cafe - I only sampled 2 dishes: shrimp sate with the so-called peanut sauce, and combo fried rice. The shrimp was dipped in thick, overly-salty soy sauce and the peanut sauce was nothing but a bland concoction of sweet chile sauce topped with ground peanuts. For a full-blooded Malaysian foodie like me, this is what I would call "cheating cheating cheating." As for the combo fried rice, I ordered it with moderate heat. The rice had absolutely no heat and had been over-cooked to where the rice was so soft and mushy. I could not distinguish individual grains. Since it was so tasteless, I asked the waitress for some hot chile sauce, and all I got was the same sweet chile dipping sauce for the shrimp sate except that this time, there were no ground peanuts but it had millions of red chile flakes floating on top of the sauce! While no restaurant should be judged by only two dishes, I assumed that the many people who complimented the restaurant may have been unfamiliar with authentic Thai cuisine. Frontier Restaurant - The tortillas used in the breakfast burrito were the best, for they were soft and fluffy! However, the green chile cheeseburger was mediocre at best. Additional Suggestions For an excellent green chile cheeseburger, try the Horseman's Haven in Santa Fe. The meat is thick and of high quality and the green chile is hot, very flavorful and out-of-this-world! Guadalajara Grill in Santa Fe - Keep driving up the mountain to the Taos location of this restaurant. The food is anytime better tasting and much fresher at the higher altitude location. Service is friendly. The pork chimichanga we had had pico de gallo and cheese inside and we topped it with the zesty-tasting salsa. Food at the Santa Fe location is just a pale shadow compared to the Taos location.

To : misstenacity ludja You're great!!! Appreciate both your input. They were unbelievably informative. Some of the restaurant reviews and suggestions rock. Will be leaving for Alburquerque in a couple of days and God, can't wait to treat myself to tons and tons of great New Mexico *Christmas* chiles!!!

I will be in Albuquerque in early February. I am interested in inexpensive to moderately priced ethnic restaurants especially but not exclusively Mexican. I am also interested in good breakfast spots. Thank you.

JC is right. Grilled fish is one of the killer seafood dishes in Malaysia. I know one particular stall located in Ipoh (well known as the Woollys Food Square in Ipoh Garden) which used to be my favorite family jaunt. Other than grilled fish, you may also want to try their grilled stingray, calamari, and shrimp - all for a very reasonable price. Just a few stalls away, you might find another stall that specialises in stir-fried crabs. Tell the proprietor how you want it prepared or you may ask him for suggestions. I would also strongly recommend butter prawns and stir-fried clams with eggs. If you happen to visit Sarawak (in East Malaysia), you may want to try "umai" which is raw shrimp marinated in lime juice. Wish you a pleasant trip!

Yes, there is such thing as Chinese curries - in Malaysia that is. The so-called Straits Chinese or Peranakan community do make great curries - which is an interesting amalgamation of Chinese and Malay dishes. Their delicious spicy curry dishes (such as Coriander Chicken and Red Cooked Chicken) can be eaten with plain hot steaming Jasmin rice rice wherelse others such as Nyonya-style Curry Mee (Noodles) is served with yellow or thin rice noodles.