The huge dining room is host to a few street food stands that sell fish head soup, steam buns, and flat fried noodles. More than the food, come for the atmosphere. The room is decorated with old Chinese paintings of samurai wielding swords, beautiful girls being wooed by kings in a garden of flowers and symbolic phoenixes. The owner speaks little English but he tried his best to explain that although this isn’t a museum he is a fierce collector so it is almost like a gallery. Restoran Central has been featured in several Chinese newspapers noting the extensive collection of antiques, but as of yet this little gem has never been mentioned in an English travel guide.

Madame Leon’s Yumcha house has been open for over 100 years. She inherited the business from her grandfather and is proud to be selling the same recipe of black bean buns as he did. The small teahouse is open from 5AM-3PM; here you will find mostly men, sitting alone, and enjoying a pot of Chinese tea. The café is incredibly atmospheric, and a wonderful place to while away an afternoon with the curious and entertaining Madame Leon.

After trying Omar’s famous popiah, you should try the roti chanai at the stand next to him. The man who fluffs up these particularly tasty rotis has a special skill, treating the dough with care and even reverence. He also makes a great murtabak, stuffed with sardines or chicken. This stall seems to be consistently busy and he works without a break from the early morning until 2PM.

This Buddhist restaurant sells typical Chinese food, such as BBQ ribs and lobster, but everything is made from meat substitutes like tofu and seitan. The large canteen serves up a buffet for lunch and a la carte menu for dinner. It’s a bit more expensive than eating in the markets, but worth visiting to try their incredibly authentic mock meat.

Eat a buffet lunch or sit down for a meal, this is an extensive selection of fantastic quality south Indian food.

The oldest Cendol shop in Taiping opened its doors in 1993. This small café is Taiping’s most famous place for the traditional “cendol” dessert, offering the perfect balance of grass jelly to ice and kidney beans to soy milk – head here after a furious day of sightseeing.

The unimposing café rents out stands to hawkers selling a variety of typical Chinese-Malay dishes. We recommend a bowl of wan tan mee made with springy egg noodles.

As one of the oldest kopitiams in Taiping, you can expect plenty of delicious food to try. We highly recommend the ‘tofu pop’, deep fried minced meat wrapped in bean curd sheets. If you rather fancy freshly pulled noodles, try “the noodle explosion”, crispy yee mee noodles topped with egg gravy, chicken, prawn and vegetables, or just stick to the typical breakfast fare of kaya toast with a half boiled egg and teh tarik.

Kuey teow is typical Chinese-Malay street food; flat rice noodles are fried in pork fat with dark soy sauce, chilli, shrimp paste, whole prawns, de-shelled blood cockles, bean sprouts, chopped Chinese chives and either chicken or duck eggs to add a rich, creamy texture. What makes this particular stall so special is that Ah Soon has been frying his noodles for 50 years over a hot charcoal fire, using a small fan to make a show of sparks and flames. The char kuey teow is served on traditional “kam yuit” green leaves (“simpoh air” in Malay) which grow in the wet marshy lands surrounding Taiping. The stall is situated right along the Simpang main road, opposite the McDonalds (you can’t miss this one iconic symbol, a little piece of Americana framed by the mountains) and next to a big mini market.