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Jotaro's Food Review

Colonial Nosh @ Durbar at FMS

Ipoh, Malaysia - April 2022

It was by a stroke of fortune that we landed up eating dinner at Durbar at FMS. We had arrived at Ipoh earlier for a short get away break from stressful work in Kuala Lumpur. After visiting several places of interest around the city, and freshening up, we drove to Ipoh Old Town to look for good eats, perhaps their famous beansprout chicken, etc.

But....... Lo & Behold! To our horror, all the foodie places were closed. Desperate we went to their Tong Sui Kai (Desserts Street), but that too was closed. We drove around Old Town a couple of times but same old, same old ..... all were closed; it seems that most eateries and shops in the old town are closed on Tuesdays!

One of our kakis recalled noticing some a couple of shops being opened during our double loop AND we made a bee-line for the older part of old town, straight to the junction of Jalan Sultan Yusof & Jalan Idris Shah!

Our misfortune turned out for the better, for Lady Luck has led us to a place with good food with a nice throw-back colonial ambiance, she has led us to Durbar at FMS! The FMS stands for the Federated Malay States of the country's colonial era, i,.e. British Malaya.

When at restaurants in Ipoh, one MUST NOT miss their Wat Tan Hor!
"Wat Tan Hor" literally translate to "Smooth Egg Flat Noodles" and in Ipoh one will really find good ones that are smooth and tasty; and here Durbar it's fried the old way by their Hakka chef!

A closer look and one can see that the hor fun (flat noodles) are fried with a good wok-hei before the beaten egg gravy is poured on. The last time I had fun eating good fried hor-fun was Nibong Tebal!

Next to come was Inchi Kabin!

This Nyonya fried chicken dish has a peculiar name, probably derived from a ship's galley cooking something for the captain (that is Enche or Inchi i.e. Malay for Mister) and delivered to his cabin (Kabin), hence Inchi Kabin! Basically it's a chicken dish which is seasoned with several spices and then twice-fried to make the chicken more crispy. The first deep-frying is at a low-medium heat to cook the inside, and the second frying is at a high heat to make the outside crsipy! But my mom does it differently, instead of twice-frying, she has the seasoned chicken sun and air-dried for an hour, and the deep-fry it only once.

But what's then the colonial connection? It's in the dipping sauce that comes with this dish. See, once of the ingredients for the sauce is Worcestershire Sauce. For Mom, it's not just any Worcestershire Sauce, but a similar thicker brown sauce made by HP Sauce.

So how was the Inchi Kabin here? The chicken itself was tasty with a good range of spicy under-flavours, but their dipping sauce was not up to par. I found it too thin, perhaps they didn't use HP Sauce 😅.

The grilled fish was this halibut, nicely done with crispy skin and as expected of a white fish the flesh was tender and had hardly any fat. Overall a good dish, except for the mash potato which was rather soft.

Let's take a break from the food, and enjoy the ambiance of the place. The walls are filled with many photos/paintings from the colonial era and nice chandeliers hang from the ceiling. The floor is lined with terra-cota tiles and a tasty ornate timber display case is on one side.

Patrons eat on wooden chairs around \white marble tables ala coffee-shop style. All these set us in a mood to be transported decades back to colonial Malaya. At on end a short staircase led up to a mezzanine.

View from the mezzanine.

That's us! When we arrived, after our spins around an empty Old Town, the restaurant was packed. The captain Susan led us to this table at the far end, set slightly away from the rest of the tables. This is actually their staff table and it was most kind of them to take us in and making room for us.

And right at the centre, a portrait of a young Queen Elizabeth II looks down on us, reminding us to be on our best and follow proper English Etiquette. No talking in loud tones, minding our P's & Q's.

HaHAha...HAH! Ooops...... not supposed to laugh so loud..... hi hi hi hi hee.

Susan was very proud of the place, and took us up for a quick look at the mezzanine where there is a large table to cater for large groups. More importantly on the walls were hung many black and white photos from Ipoh's past.

Paintings of Old Ipoh, and Hale Street done in sepia, they brought back nostalgic feelings of gone-by days while also indicating the names the old colonial names of Ipoh roads.

A nice water-colour rendering of Durbar at FMS.

Up here too, smokers (or ex-smokers like yours truly) will get nostalgic on seeing displays of old cigarette boxes, some of brands that are no longer existing or no longer sold here - brands like Capstan, Rough Rider, State Express 555, John Players, & Matterhorn, etc.

The quick tour jogged our appetite and we continued with a favorite - Baked Stuffed Crab!

They have two varieties here, the regular or the traditional - the former is baked with mozzarella cheese.

Worldwide there are many recipes for baked stuffed crabs. I love the ones here, not spicy but made with local flavours; we opted for the traditional one. Even without the cheese, it was creamy and flavourful!

Banana Fritters with honey.

This is another dish that should not be missed! Our quintessential Malaysian favourite, Goreng Pisang is given a nice twist and served with a dab on honey and scoops of ice-cream.

The ones here uses Pisang Raja, a must for good goreng pisang, and the batter used is just adequately thick and fried to perfection - a golden crisp without being overly crunchy.

They usually serve this with a couple of scoops of vanilla ice-cream, seeing how much we had enjoyed their food they served it with scoop each of vanilla and coconut ice-cream; AND seeing how much we enjoyed they ice-cream, they served us an additional two scoops of their coconut ice-cream..... what more can we ask for 😋😋😋!

I believe their coconut ice-cream is made purely from santan; and not like other places whose coconut ice-cream are fallaciously made from milk cream ice-cream with added toasted shredded coconut flesh.

Good food and good times here!
A memorable "mirror' selfie of us, Susan is left-most, and Wee Liam (the owner) is far-right.

Established in 1906, FMS is the oldest bar-restaurant in the country; older even than Coliseum (KL) which was established in 1921. FMS closed in 2008, when the latest generation of the founders did not continue on the business. Wee Liam, a trained architect, took over and re-opened it under the banner Durbar at FMS.

Aren't we glad he did! Now many of us can continue to savour these enjoyable food from days past!