Prawn and Chicken Hor Fun @ Thean Chun Restaurant

Back to more than half a century ago at Yau Tet Shin Street in Ipoh, there was a stall that sells 鸡丝沙河粉 and chicken porridge. Bean sprouts boiled and mixed in chicken soy sauce and sprinkled with some pepper became a popular dish that was affordable by all. With the development of the mining industry, people who are a little bit richer would order, besides the bean sprouts, 白斬雞肉 sliced cold chicken, a bowl of meatball soup, and also 滷雞腳 chicken feet. Over the time, this had became the eating style. 芽菜、雞 Bean sprouts and chicken became the popular dish and 鸡丝沙河粉 chicken Hor Fun became just 雞湯河粉 chicken soup Hor Fun. Actually, the 鸡丝沙河粉 that sold today are slightly different that those sold in about half a century ago.
It is said that due to geographical and lifestyle reasons, prawn soup that was made from the heads and shells of big prawns was added into the chicken soup to increase the flavour. Besides that, prawns and onions and also prawn oil were also added, and thus became the current version of Ipoh 鸡丝沙河粉.

The older generation who sold Hokkien Mee (prawn noodle) in the early years, in order to suit the taste of the majority Cantonese people in Ipoh, added the option of 沙河粉 Hor Fun in addition to Bee Hoon and  Mee (yellow noodle). Hor Fun was popular among Cantonese people. Thus, 福建虾河粉 was created and became popular overshadowing Hokkien Mee in Ipoh.

Here's the location of Thean Chun Restaurant.

Tricyle prawn and chicken Hor Fun has a history of 70 years long. The current stall owner is a 68-year-old man named Leong Ah Chai 梁亚仔. It all started by his grandfather who came from Fujian, South Annan and sold prawn noodle. Over the years, the Hokkien Mee 福建面 or prawn noodle had evolved to chicken Hor Fun 鸡丝河粉 in order to suit the taste of the majority Cantonese people in Ipoh.

Prawn and Chicken Hor Fun 虾鲜鸡丝河粉 RM4.00
The Hor Fun 河粉 used by this stall is specially made for them. It's a thinner than the common 河粉. You can't find it elsewhere.
Besides this, according to the stall owner, they chicken slices in the noodle is prepared only when they start their business of the day, unlike other stalls which prepared a whole lot of chicken slices for the day before they start their business. This will maintain the freshness of the chicken slices.

Bean sprout RM3.00

Custard 炖旦 RM2.30

Founding year: 1942
Thean Chun Restaurant 天津饮冰室
73, Jalan Bandar Timah, Ipoh, Perak
Tel: 012 - 510 9365 (阿坚 Ah Kin)
Business Hours: 9:30am - 4:30pm (Closed on Thursday)