Pancakes in Ipoh

Liew Choo Keng’s pancakes are so good that people keep coming back for more.

LIEW Chooi Keng is not your average pancake maker. At her customer’s request, she will happily mix the pancake filling with peanut butter, chocolate chips, bananas, cheese and even chicken sausages.

Crunchy delight: Liew Chooi Keng

dishing out her famous pancakes at

Restaurant Tim Shun Leong in Ipoh.

And the skin of the sweet and savoury apom balik that wraps around the fillings is made so thin that each crunchy bite is a delight.

Thirty-something Liew’s pancakes are so good that people keep coming back for more. Some come from as far as Singapore for her dai gau meen, as the locals call them.

“Once, a Singaporean ordered 100 pieces on the spot,” recalls Liew. “He wanted to treat his friends and family back home”.

Liew adds that some customers had even “scolded” her for not telling them that she had moved her stall to a new spot.

Liew opened her first stall in Ipoh Garden 18 years ago, but moved to a restaurant in Kampar Garden early this year.

“Like many pancake makers, I started out making the pancakes with crushed-peanut filling,” says Liew, who learned the trade from her father-in-law.

“Three years after I started my business, I began trying different recipes for my pancakes because there is a lot of competition.

“I wanted something different, so I added kaya and peanut butter to my growing list of different fillings.”

She was even inspired by her three pizza-loving children, who asked her to use cheese and sausages.

Inspired: Liew Chooi Keng’s pancakes

are made with many different fillings.

“It tasted good and I made it a permanent order on my menu.”

Liew once tried to infuse fruits like strawberries and mangoes with the pancakes but it was not cost efficient.

“They are quite costly and must served immediately.” she says Liew’s best seller is chicken-floss dai gau meen, which remains crunchy even after two days.

“But nothing beats eating the pancakes fresh from the pan,” she quips.

Liew’s stall is located in Restaurant Tim Shun Leong at 22, Jalan Peh Kee Koh, Kampar Garden, Ipoh. For details, call Liew (016-541 1365).