For some in Ipoh, Muslim-friendly Chinese restaurants trend decades in the making

IPOH, Aug 11 — The popularity of pork-free Chinese restaurants catering Muslim tourists here may seem recent, but some of these establishments go back decades.

And while the trend now is to capture some of the Muslim-friendly tourism pie, those such as Restoran Vegas in Canning Garden here first embraced the concept out of necessity.

According to its founders, the husband-and-wife team of Yoong Ong Swai and Maggie Yee, Restoran Vegas had started out as a sundry shop in the 1980s but struggled to compete as shopping centres began growing in popularity.

Yoong said they then noticed that most of their customers were Malay, as there was an army camp, Federal Reserve Unit base, and a police station in the area.

The couple then decided to convert their sundry store into a Muslim-friendly restaurant offering Chinese style cooking.

An undated file photograph shows Yoong Ong Swai and wife Maggie Yee with local singer Datuk Sheila Majid (right) at Restoran Vegas. — Picture courtesy of Maggie Yee

“From their feedback, they said they like eating Chinese food, just that they could not find food that is halal,” Yoong said, adding that the 15 stalls at the restaurant filled that void.

Yoong said that except from the drinks station, the hawkers at his restaurant only bought ingredients from halal-certified suppliers.

For Canning Dim Sum co-founder Ceylyn Tay, the journey was more recent.

According to Tay, her father-in-law has been producing dim sum for more than four decades, but had previously only focussed on the non-halal segment.

“All this while, there have been requests from the Muslim community that he make halal version of dim sum but he dared not venture into it until we set up Canning Dim Sum in 2018.”

Tay also said Canning Dim Sum offers over 100 types of halal dim sum compared to the 40 or so typically found at non-halal outlets.

Canning Dim Sum co-founder Ceylyn Tay said there is great demand from Muslims for halal Chinese food. — Picture courtesy of Ceylyn Tay

She added that Canning Dim Sum, as one of the biggest halal dim sum producers in the state, also incorporated Malaysian elements into their offerings in order to appeal to all communities.

“For instance, we have the sambal siu mai, carbonara chicken ham pau with mozzarella cheese, pau made from curry puff filling and also durian lava pau that uses the D24 durian filling,” said Tay.

Cakoi seller at New Hollywood Canning Garden Benny Teh said Muslims often visited for the authentic Hainanese kopitiam environment.

On the type of food that is popular among the Muslim customers, Teh said chee cheong fun, char koay teow, roti goyang and his cakoi are among the crowd favourite.