Nam Heong (南香) is a well-known name in Ipoh. The original outlet, known as Kedai Makanan Nam Heong (南香茶餐室) in Ipoh Old Town, is a popular coffee shop with several stalls selling traditional local fares with Nam Heong serving its iconic Ipoh white coffee, dim sum and signature egg tarts — I have visited the coffee shop several times on my trips to Ipoh.
Outside of Ipoh, the more than 68-year-old Food & Beverage chain is known as “Nam Heong Ipoh” with several outlets in West Malaysia. The Johor Bahru outlet in Mid Valley Southkey Mall is of a modern Nanyang kopitiam setting.
The kopitiam serves popular Malaysia and Ipoh delights and Nanyang cuisines on top of old-town Nam Heong’s three treasures — white coffee, dim sum and egg tarts. Other than varieties of nasi lemak, mee siam, fried rice, noodle dishes, traditional pastries, etc, there are Hainanese chicken rice, roasted chicken rice, honey-roasted pork belly and Western food, including Hainanese Chicken Chop.
Nam Heong’s signature Ipoh White Coffee uses roasted white coffee and added with milk before serving. It is an aromatic cup of traditional coffee with nice mouthfeel and just-right sweetness — best to have it without sugar on first try.
The signature Ipoh Tau Fu Fah (怡保豆腐花) is quite a big bowl and added with ginger and sugar. The velvety soya pudding has ultra-fine texture and is ultra-soft with mellow ginger-sweet flavours — no ginger-spicy kicks nor syrupy-sweetness. Nice to go for it as dessert after a meal.
Nam Heong’s Signature Wat Dan Hor (怡保滑蛋河), translated as “silk-smooth egg hor fun“, is served with big prawns, lean meat, fish cake slices, a fried egg and greens on stir-fried hor fun (broad rice noodle) and drenched in egg drop soup. The soup is slightly viscous and has nice flavours — the best tasting soup that I have tasted for wat dan hor so far.
Nam Heong Ipoh’s Signature Dry Curry Noodles (招牌干咖喱面) has an option to choose up to two types of noodle from choices of hor fun, yellow noodle or rice vermicelli — it may seem weird to those who have not tried Ipoh’s dry curry noodle before, that is because the original Ipoh-style uses yellow noodle with rice vermicelli, and those are my choices too.
The noodles are stir-fried before being drenched in a light, savoury sauce and splashed with curry gravy. Topping off the dish are tofu puffs, fried tofu skins, fat bean sprouts, roasted chicken, honey-roasted pork belly and garnished with a lime and fresh mint leaves. It is one dish with lots of flavours — sweet, savoury, spicy, citrusy and minty. The honey-roasted pork belly melts in the mouth with a light sweetness and the roasted chicken gives a firmer, tender texture. The tofu skins are crispy and the tofu puffs absorb all flavours of the dish. Delicious.
Nam Heong’s signature egg tart is very popular in Ipoh and is one of the must-tries when visiting Ipoh Old Town. It is a good opportunity to try it in Johor Bahru without having to travel to Ipoh. Other than egg tarts, Nam Heong has other pastries as well.
To try all of Nam Heong’s egg tarts and pastries in one go, one way will be to get the Nam Heong Majesty (南香天皇) set that comprises of 6 pieces of mixed pastries: 2 egg tarts, 2 coconut tarts, 1 Nam Heong chicken sou (char siew puff) and 1 traditional chicken sou.
Top-left: The Nam Heong Egg Tart (南香蛋挞) has custard, without burn marks, in layered pastry crust. The custard is smooth, soft and creamy and tastes nice with well-balanced milk-egg flavours and not too sweet. The crispy crust does not fall apart easily and is nice indeed.
Top-right: The Golden Coconut Tart (经典椰挞) has grated coconut in flaky layered pastry and baked until golden brown. The tart has nice coconut flavour and texture with low sweetness too.
Bottom-left: The Nam Heong Chicken Sou (南香鸡酥) is round-triangular in shape with char siew that is not sweetened with red char siew sauce. The pastry with crispy crust is topped with white sesame seeds and has its own nice flavour.
Botton-right: The Traditional Chicken Sou (传统鸡酥) has a different appearance with a different char siew filling that offers a different taste experience.
So far, Nam Heong Ipoh has just one restaurant in Johor Bahru — and a little kiosk in the basement of KSL City Mall selling its pastries only — so it is a great place to go for Ipoh delights when shopping in Mid Valley Southkey Mall.
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Address:
Mid Valley Southkey Mall, Level 3, T-040
1, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
10am to 10pm | Daily
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take BAS.MY J15 directly to Mid Valley Southkey Mall. Read JB Bus: To Mid Valley Southkey Mall in Kota Southkey.
Nearby:
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