Local food paradise: Special food in Kampar

From left : Elaine Lim Yeng Ruu, Yue Tze Yeng, Ng Sin Mun, the owner of Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun, Kiridaren Jayakumar, Loo Yet Fong, Chion Hooi Yee and Yew Jia Chie

I were visited two well famous food stalls at Kampar recently, the first one is "Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun” it was located at the old town of Kampar with the address of 27, Jalan 1, Aston Settlement 31900 Kampar, Perak which is near the SMK Methodist (ACS) Kampar. Ming Kee Chee Cheong Fun, was also known as Zhu Chang Fen. It is something like mixing the rice flour with water and steams it in a rolled form. At first, the old uncle had started selling it in the past then he taught his children on how to do and sell Chee Cheong Fan.

The front view of the "Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun "

The customers can actually visit the stall at around 7:00am until all the chee cheong fun have been sold out. On the day we visit the stall, we saw that there is a lot of customers are visiting them and the owner was busy of serving their customers.

Business hours

Way to make zhu chang fen

The owner is preparing the zhu chang fen

The Chee Cheong Fan is white in colour with chewy texture that is easily to chew. It is soft and smooth, once you chew on it, is like “bounchy”. They are three type of Chee Cheong Fan which are Chinese chives with dried shrimps Chee Cheong Fan at RM 3, dried shrimps Chee Cheong Fan at RM 2, and plain Chee Cheong Fan at RM 1.50 or upsize to larger one at RM 2.

The owner is cutting zhu chang fen

The owner is serving customers

The owner was preparing the chee cheong fan

The history of dish served by “Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun” is chee cheong fun. Chee cheong fun is a Cantonese dish from southern China; commonly it served as snack, small meal or as a variety of dim sum. There was a meaning for the name which chee cheong means pig intestine and fun means noodles. This is because the shape and size of the chee cheong fun is almost similar like pig intestine.

Rice milk in progess

The progress of prepare rice milk for chee cheong fan

The rice milk is milk with really smooth and nice to smell.

The ready chee cheong fan made form the rice milk

The dish can be served with variety of sauce such as curry soup, sweet sauce, soy sauce, green chili, chili sauce and shrimp paste. After apply sauce that we want, we also can add some sesame as topping. Besides, we also can choose some side ingredients. They have fried meat fish, fried Toufu, fried bean curd sheets and soon as a supplement to your dish. It prices range from RM0.40 to RM 0.80.

The ready dish with sweet source, chilli and toufu

The ready dish with curry sources

All the customers were given a very good comment on the stall and the food. Customer said that the chee cheong fun was nice taste and easy to eat by them. This is because the size of the chee cheong fun was thin and it would not be too long. Since there are many taste can choose by customers, such as red sweet sauce, curry, soy sauce and shrimp paste, therefore it was suitable for child, adult and also elder people. Customers also willing to wait outside the food stall on the early morning to buy chee cheong fun go back home.

The environment of the food stall will bring their customers back to the 50 years. They have the old cooking and dinning utilities that you seldom see nowadays. The uncle and his children are nice. They are welcoming and always with smile on their face. They will talk to you friendly. You will stay longer under this relaxing and friendly environment.

The interview of media

The photo of the owner with the host of Ho Chak programme

It is popular among the customers because the uncle has been selling it more than 50 years-time. In the past, the uncle will cycle around Kampar old town area to sell the food. So it is a memorable food for the local as they have it since they are young. Some local people will purposely go back to have this Chee Cheong Fan when they return from outside. They will flash back their childhood memory and taste when they are having it. It is well-known until they were being shown in 8TV food program called “Ho Chak!”. Besides, customers will come often is because the price is economic that people are affordable.

The article of Meng Kee on the China Press

For any inquiry or pre-order please contact : 012-5889280

You may reach the stall with GPS by the Coordinate below

The second shop that I went is a shop with name "Restoran Fook Kee". It is a very famous shop in Kampar that selling clay pot chicken rice which located at the Kampar old town nearby KFC.

Our group photo with the owner of Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice

A very famous shop which has appeared many times in local newspaper.

Restoran Fook Kee operates from 5.30pm to 10.30pm daily and normally from 7pm to 8pm the shop will be crowded out. The price of the clay pot chicken rice is still affordable and normally people don't regret paying for it because of the quality of the food. For chicken rice, the price range is RM14, RM 12 and RM 7 for big, medium and small size respectively. The chicken rice with add-on ingredients is charged at RM 18, RM 16 and RM 9 for the different sizes respectively. The vegetables priced at RM 8, RM 7 and RM 5 from big to small sizes respectively. The shop has been operating for about 30 years and was started by her husband and now it is their son who is doing the business with advices of father who at times give a helping hand.

Range of price of foods sold in the shop

The clay pots used and the ingredients to do it.

The whole pot is full of different ingredients such as flurry rice, slices of waxed sausages, cuts of flavorful marinated chicken meat, slices of salted fish and spring onions on top that make the rice become more tasty. Mixed them up while you eat so that you can taste the different ingredients together and it usually serves with chopped chilies and soy sauce.

Flavorful marinated chicken meat

The recipe for a good clay pot chicken rice is flurry rice, slices of waxed sausages, cuts of flavorful marinated chicken meat, slices of salted fish and spring onions on top that make the rice tasty. We have to mix them up while you eat so that you can taste the different ingredients together and it usually serves with chopped chillies and soy sauce.This is the Clay pot chicken rice that I endeavoured and I enjoyed it pretty well with chopped chillies.

Chinese sausage meat used in the claypot chicken rice

Other dishes offered in Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice

The delicious Fook Kee claypot Chicken Rice

Fook Kee clay pot rice is really commendable and really worth of paying a visit because the texture of rice and the blend of the ingredients and meat are just perfect. It is not overcooked, not sticky and fragrant as compared to others shops. Besides, the food ingredients are all fresh so it will be tastier.

Varying age of customers in the restaurant

Different races who come and visit the shop and enjoying the food

It is popular because of the tasty food itself that able to attract customers to come back for it. They are able to control the fire well that rice is cooked just right. The rice is fragrant until you would like to have more of which. The chicken is so juicy and tender to eat. Even the shop is not open yet but you can see the customers are waiting for the door to open. It is well known that was being published in newspaper to promote for their food. No words can describe how tasty it is until you have a try on it.

Customer may follow the map below to reach the stall

Reasons of selecting the two places

There are many shops which selling different food products in Kampar, but what really attracted our attention are these two shops which are Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun and Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice. We got to know Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun stall through our friends and they recommended us to visit Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun to taste it ourselves. Even the place is far, they said it will be worth it. In addition, there are other bloggers who also mentioned that this stall's chee cheong fan tastes good and will be served with other sauces such as curry and sweet sauce. The main attraction in this stall have is their wide range of fried foods supplied with chee cheong fun.

This shop also appeared in a local programme "Ho Chak!" is a local programme created by 8TV television channel and they picked this stall and presented it on air. There is no better reason to convince us other than this. On the other shop "Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice", the main reason that we wanted to choose this shop is simply because we love claypot chicken rice. After that, we just search through online the best shop to get claypot chicken rice. Even though there are many choices in Kampar, many bloggers mentioned and recommended the best claypot Chicken Rice in Kampar is Restoran Fook Kee. The delicate chicken, great fragrant rice and the amazing composition of salted fish and chinese sausage made this claypot chicken rice taste unique and better than other competitiors in Kampar. So in a heartbeat, we decided to choose this stall.

Classification of e-commerce by the nature of the transactions or interactions

Both Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun and Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice are using Business-to-Consumer(B2C). Business-to-Consumer(B2C) e-commerce involves retail transactions of goods and services from business to individual shoppers. Sales cycle of Business- to- Consumer is shorter because it will reduce unnecessary phone calls, faxing and mailings.
and customers are encouraged to purchase the product immediately. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) model may eliminate middleman since they sell directly to their consumers. Both of Chee Cheong Fun and Claypot Chicken Rice is directly done and sell to the customers in brick and mortar style. Brick and mortar retailers refers to the retailers who do business in the non-internet, physical world in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Shop in the physical store may give customers the opportunity to really examine the product they purchase for quality and also give the change to interacting face-to-face with the store owner or employee. Thus, any issues can be handle immediately. Traditional retail store can enhanced the human contact which establishes a bond between seller and buyer.

Business models

The e-commerce business models used by Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun and Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice is viral marketing model. Viral marketing model is when an individual spread an information on something to other individual and influencing them in making decisions.

Viral Markething Method

This method can be dominant to exponential growth in the number of people who get it. Both shops will be able to enhance brand awareness or generate sales through inducing people to send influencing message and informations to other people. It is another type of word-of-mouth advertising albeit through web based. The key to create positive word of mouth viral marketing is to concentrate on customer's satisfaction. When they are happy with the product, they will inform their friends, family and also other co-workers about it without any incentives. A lot of customers engage in social medias such as Facebook and Instagram and will be a good choice of ways to promote.

Basic approach used in marketing and advertising

I have found out that Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun and Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice are using ways like interview, food documentary and articles about the details of their shop which posted on domestic newspaper can increase its publicity and these allow all the locals are well informed of their food product. They are actually publishing their food in a very cheap cost but the results that they are getting after that are too huge. This is because, thier publishing in social medias are too convincing which attracting the customers to try their food. Some outsiders and tourists are also coming to their shop to try out their food. Thus, we realised that this is a very effective way to reach the public because they share a lot of videos, audio and images during the interview to promoting their shops and food in social medias which is a very good marketing strategy because customers are being aware of their speciality of the food and shop. Apart from that, considering this shop is one managed by the local folks, it should make use of relationship marketing which is able to help retain customers for the long term. The owners who run the stall and the staff can try to build good relationships with customers by engaging in friendly conversation. Customers are more likely to feel comfortable and warmth dining in at the stall. Such good relationship can help customers to stay loyal and also stimulate word of mouth which they introduce their friends to the restaurant run by none other than their friends also.

Recommendations to improve business through e-commerce

Even though the marketing style of both Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun and Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice is effective, there are few disadvantages that we would like to share.We found out that Meng Kee Chee Cheong Fun is quite separated far from the majority of Kampar population. We recommended that by implementing e-commerce in their business which allows them to sell their food online and deliver their foods to customers so that customers able to receive their food at their doorsteps. Most of the university students simply do not have the luxury of own transportation which allows them to travel to this stall even if they love to.

A simple taxi trip from Kampar New Town to this stall costs RM6. These is a great customer potential to tap in to as most students have access to internet at all times and have options to purchase these delicious food online to tantalise their taste bud from other regular foods. Selling their food online will help the consumers to save a lot of time which will be crucial whenever they are dealing with tests and exams. We also recommended that they can considering setting up a Facebook page to attract online customers and keep them informed of the latest updates of various promotion and new additional menus since Facebook is the social media most used by everyone. This method also helps them to reach out on new students who just got relocated to the place by encouraging their friends to recommend the page to them.

In other shop Restoran Fook Kee Claypot Chicken Rice, a big problem that face by them is the shop has quite bad hygiene as it is close to the road side. These has led to many customers to think twice before consuming here. It will be another way to increase their revenue if they also can sell their food online and deliver them to their customers. This can tackle the issue of hygiene as customers able to enjoy the food in their own environment which is comfortable for them. We also recommended that they can relocated to the place that are more likely to attract the major population of the Kampar city. This strategy are proven to work and able to generate sharp increase in the revenue of the restaurant. The stall also can introduced the stamp card reward system that has led to great success and sales. By providing the customers reward cards and stamps upon purchase and allowing them to get a free food after certain amount of purchases is able to stimulate saves and will definitely encourage repeat purchases.

A small map of Kampar New Town and Kampar Old Town

We also found out that these shops are very famous among the locals in Kampar but less known among the students. The student market in Kampar is gigantic and the awareness of the shops must be focused by the shop owners as this allows them to get more revenue especially from those living in Kampar New Town which is quite some distance from Kampar Old Town where this shop exists.