Experiencing rendang fatigue? Dying to get away from nosy relatives? There's plenty of great food places in Ipoh to hideout at. One of the enduring favourites is Restoran M. Salim. It's got a few branches but the one near MGS is still the best to get your fish curry fix at.

The best thing about going back for Raya is you get to cruise around all your childhood eateries and gorge to your heart's content. Let's face it after 2 days of ketupat, lemang and everything rendang your tum would be hankering for other kinds of fare. Being an Ipoh girl this is when I hunt down my chee cheong fun haunts (I had 3 breakfasts on 3rd day Raya + a Funny Mountain Tau Fu Fah), make pit stops for apom, taugeh chicken and hor fun.

"What? You ran out of roti canai?" It was barely 10.30am. Sadly the reality of coming back for Raya is that everyone has the same idea as me. Food runs out FAST as those who were deprived of daylight eating descend upon favourite eateries with the tenacity and demolishing power of ravenous locusts. At about 8pm, most taugeh chicken shops would have run out of chicken. I once queued for 2 hours by the ditch at Merdeka Garden for a bowl of kari mee in the dark. Man, what are these people doing in my hometown?

So thus M. Salim, a favourite place of mine for a roti canai fix with fish curry ran out of roti. "You can have tosei and briyani got, but you have to wait 10 minutes," the server grinned. So I ordered tosei changing my order last minute to chapati (only to be the told the last one was snapped up moments before). Fine... tosei with curry then because folks, the fish curry at this place is damn fine. It's the right thickness, not too oily with firm ocra and slightly mushy eggplant. Because the fish curry here is so popular too, you pretty much get it fresh most times of the day. It's slurp-worthy and with a bit of roti to sop up the gravy, I can drink it like soup.

"Come here for killer fish curry"

Super.

Salim's of course specialises in fish head curry but I am not in the mood for work. Normal chunks of fish in the excellent gravy is the way to go for me. I guarantee you'll order another plate. Also good here is the daging hitam. The meat is nice and soft. Right about now, the briyani rice is ready for the lunch punters. Why not? I ordered a plate of pipping hot fresh briyani and in Salim it has that edge of fragrant spices. Of course if you are eating fish curry, nothing beats simple white rice to match it.

After this, all you need to do is order up some teh tarik. It's just right here. Not too sweet and hits that lovely spot at the back of your throat, a worthy chaser to the killer curry. Salim is very popular to locals who moved away and they keep coming back. Last time a mate of mine ate here, Michele Yeoh was at the next table with her family. So it's pretty cool to know that no matter how worldly or big a star you can be Ipoh lasses are still hometown girls at heart.

Price: Plate of fish curry- RM3, Fish Head Curry- RM25 upwards
Rotis and such ranges from RM0.90- RM2

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Restoran M. Salim

                   

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