Food Hunting Journey at Tong Sui Kai Ipoh（怡保糖水街）

Late night, sudden sweet craves?
 Ipoh’s dessert street is THE PLACE.
 Deserve with the Cheap and Good desserts and foods!
 No wonder Ipoh folks love their town.
 Desserts Street comes alive from 5.00pm onwards until midnight.
Till midnight!!
 Due to the intense competition of similar stalls, stall operators offer better quantity and quality.
 So, you will definitely get a worthy bowl of ice.

Tong Sui Kai (Tang Sui Jie, 糖水街) is food courts which provide variety types of foods and beverages.

 It also known as "Dessert Street”, which have the delicious foods and famous desserts that much familiar among the locals and travelers.

The following is the location:

Address: Jalan Sultan Ekram, 30300 Ipoh, Perak.
GPS Coordinates: 4.595333, 101.087308
Direction: Tong Sui Kai is located opposite the Ipoh Parade shopping mall and beside SMJK Sam Tet. 

History of Tong Sui Kai

“Tong Sui” means dessert in Cantonese and “kai” means street in Cantonese. Therefore, the name “Desserts Street” was granted to this stretch of hawker stalls occupying the street off Brewster Road in the heart of Ipoh Town. Ipoh’s dessert street is the place that are more savoury street food options available from 50-odd stalls compared to stalls which actually focus on beverages and desserts.

Besides, Tong Sui Kai, or "Dessert Street" is a street with a row of full of the food stalls, around 50 of stalls in a row. The name came from the whole food stalls mostly popular selling the desserts. It located at Ipoh which next to Sam Tet High School. Most of the stalls had been operate more than 20 years such as the stalls, Cheong Kee's Beef noodles, wanton noodles, and dessert stalls as well. 

The food stalls in Tong Sui Kai open until the midnight or the foods had been sold out at all. Tong Sui Kai is the place where the locals and tourists can grab their meals and desserts in the night and midnight. The food stalls occupy the whole road of Jalan Sultan Ekram that off to the Jalan Sultan Idris Shah. Unsurprisingly, the parking lots are quite full of cars during weekends and public holidays.

There always been crowded with full of cars and you may require to park far away along the road. In the late night some areas is quite dark and it is also near the nightclubs over there, so you must be careful and looking around on you, despite of walking alone.

Beware! Tong Sui Kai has TWO parts!
This part has less people and the hawkers will keep asking you to come.
 If you are looking for nice desserts and foods, pass this area and go to the part opposite Rainbow City kopitiam. But I heard there are other shaved ice stalls and food stalls too. 
So, perhaps you should try other stalls as well if you have time and money.

People mountain people sea  >___<

You must order Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice from stall 41!

We highly recommended the Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice from stall number 41 because it is not so sweet compared to others stall. The appearance is simply awesome due to have so many fruits in a single bowl. A bowl of Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice comes with mango, watermelon, longan, honeydrew, dragonfruit, peanuts, jackfruit, sago and etc. It is likes a mini fruit buffet.

Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice with Ice-cream 什果雪 (RM 6.00)

The stall provides options that are with ice-cream and without ice-cream. The price is RM6.00 for a bowl of Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice with ice-cream on top while RM5.50 for without ice-cream. That means add a scoop of ice-cream with only additional RM0.50. We decided to order a bowl of Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice with ice-cream due to we are ice-cream lovers. 

 Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice Without Ice-cream (RM5.50)

Anyways, we waited quite long for the seat that near the stall 41. This is because only has few seat and table in front of the stall 41. After waited for seat, we also need to wait about 20 minutes for Mixed Fruit Shaved Ice. Since there were many customers, they did not have enough manpower and the fruits-digging took them too long time. Therefore, my advice is visiting Tong Shui Street after your dinner , then you have all the time to wait if you only craving for desserts. 

 

Besides, the stall 41 also has provided various type of food like sotong kangkong, kerang, rojak and keropok.

Obviously, we had ordered all of these stuff also XD~!!!!

Because WE ARE THE FOOD HUNTER!!!!!!!!! ･ิ≖ ω ≖･ิ✧

Keropok (RM1.20 nett)

We all love this keropok so much, so had ordered 3 pieces in once… 

Sotong Kangkung (RM 8 nett) 

Sotong kangkong, taste not bad, but really not recommend to order if you guys have go there next time.

Clams – small (RM 6 nett)

STRONGLY recommend with this!!!!!!

 It is fresh and juicy and you will never want to dip any source to destroy its freshness taste (even though have chilli source provided).

Unfortunately the portion of dishes is really small and it was not enough for us (5 girls) to satisfy our appetite.

LOOK! The little hog was enjoying “its” delicious calms XDDDD~!!!!

After that we move to the next station, STALL 47, Cheong Kee Beef Noodles.

According to the locals said, the number 48 food stall has been operated almost 20 years, the stall had long gone, but there was two famous beef noodles around the Ipoh area, one is the Buntong Restaurant, suspect moved from Buntong by the name, and one is Cheong Kee food stall at Tong Shui Gai, the Ipoh famous food street.

So this time we had took the advantages for this opportunity to taste one of the famous beef noodles in Ipoh.

The beef brisket had been cooked for a long time until made it be tender and juicy. The essence of brisket infiltrated into the broth so that the broth tastes very nice.

All the workers rush for the orders. The staffs were all elderly; we assume they were husband and wife, the others… who knows? (ﾟДﾟ≡ﾟДﾟ)?

The meat ball look nice and delicious, but it’s already sold out because we come late!!!!!

Beef brisket noodles – small (RM4.50 nett)

From the first taste of the soup, we believe they really are the best in Ipoh.
 The soup was so delicious, with the sweetness of the meat and the goodness of all the herbs combining, developed into a complex yet perfectly delicious and aromatic soup.
 We tip the bowl for the last drop!
 And the brisket was cooked to tender, yet chewy in some part which is the texture we enjoy the most.

Since all of the stuff as mentioned above still not enough for us to eat, so we had order food from another stall.
(WE WON’T FEEL SHY, BECAUSE WE ARE THE FOOD HUNTERRRRR!!!!! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA~~~~~~ >///<)

We have buy marinated duck foot (鸭嘴包) from STALL 24 and also called as Restaurant Leong Pui Kee. 

 The stall owner is a very nice uncle, when we said want to take photo for the stall he just give us a smile and invited us pictured together with him.

 But since we all are the shy girl <3 (bull shit =_=|||) so no one dare to take photo with that nice uncle.

Marinated Duck Foot (RM1.50 per one)

Good taste and the fleshy were tender and juicy.

Since we saw many people ordering porridge from STALL 18, therefore we ordered one bowl of fish porridge with fried chitterlings from there.

Fish porridge with fried chitterlings (RM6 nett)

The fried chitterlings were crunchy and the filet fish was fresh with the smooth porridge. No wonder many people line up front of stall for buying this. ‵(*∩_∩*)′

People lined up in front of the stall.

Finally, we order the after meal dessert from STALL 40. 
 We all forgot to take photo... 〒△〒

After “struggling” for a long time (too many choices let us to choose LOL), we decided to order one bowl of mango dew sago and two honeydew ice. 

Mango Dew Sago & Honeydew Ice (RM4.50 per bowl)

Honeydew Ice - The first bite was full of surprise as this was the first bowl of ice that reached our table. You can taste honeydew in every mouthful of honeydew.

Mango Dew Sago  - Very refreshing. All the girls love it and we couldn’t stop eating it. Even the guys like it. A little more sourness than sweetness but it’s just awesomely tasty.

WE ARE ALREADY FULL XDDDDD~~!!!!!!

⎝( OωO)⎠⎝( OωO)⎠⎝( OωO)⎠⎝( OωO)⎠⎝( OωO)⎠⎝( OωO)⎠

Feedback from customers:

   (A) Your group opinion and why selected these two places

Based on our group opinion, we decided Ipoh Tong Sui Kai as our target of local food. This is because the foods are much attractive compared with Kampar.  The food stalls in Tong Sui Kai usually crowded during the business hour from 6pm until midnight.  Regarding this situation we are expected to visit and try the foods and beverages in the Tong Sui Kai.

From our research, the food stalls of Tong Sui Kai had been recommended by 8 TV ‘s program, HoChak before. The foods and beverages is very delicious as described by the moderator of HoChak which is stall 41 the Mixed Fruit Shave Ice with ice-cream. It is comes awesomely good with the variety of fresh fruits all in one bowl, sweet and cooling. The fruits are mango, honeydew, dragon fruit, watermelon, longan and more, besides there are topped with a scope of ice cream on top and smooth shave ice at the below, this is bites and bites of satisfaction. Due to the hot weather we have high intention to have a try this mixed fruit shave ice with ice cream.

The price of the each food stalls is reasonable and affordable in turns of attracting a lot of customers. Due to the fair price which below RM10 per item that drives us to select Tong Sui Kai as targeted local food in Ipoh. It located opposite the Ipoh Parade shopping mall and beside SMJK Sam Tet which easily to find the location and there are available many of parking slots. Besides that, many people always introduce Tong Sui Kai through the social network like Facebook and Instagram. And also they gave a lot of positive comments about the food stalls in Tong Sui Kai so that we will be more interesting on visit the food stalls in Tong Sui Kai.

(B) Classification of ecommerce by the nature of the transactions or interactions

E-commerce model in Tong Sui Kai is considered as business to consumer which is the one of four categories of e-commerce. It also means that Tong Sui Kai is selling the products and services directly to the individual customers. Business to consumer is the most effective way to the customers who already have a positive experience and reputation with the each of the food stalls in the Tong Sui Kai. The customers who are satisfy and happy, they are more likely to buy more and introduce the foods and beverages to their friends. In addition the customers also can enjoy the delicious and fresh meals directly ordered from the Tong Sui Kai’s foods stalls. The hawker of Tong Sui Kai began know their own customer needs and wants, and what the customers respond to.

In the Tong Sui Kai there have variety types of food and beverages for each individual customer to choose based on their own preferences and taste. The customer can choose and enjoy the foods such as mixed fruit shaved ice, rojak, beef noodles, curry mee, fried kway teow, porridge and others. The transaction of payment is made immediately when the foods are served on the tables and the customer only can pay by using in cash therefore this transaction is done without complex system. 

Each food stalls in Tong Sui Kai provides innovative and collaborative concept development, meal design to their own customers, by this way the attractive design of the foods and beverages aimed at helping their own customers stay ahead of changes in consumer expectations for dining experiences. Through business to consumer practice, Tong Sui Kai is offering the fresh foods and beverage by providing the friendly services as the key to success in the businesses and build strong level of customer loyalty.

(C) Its business models

Business model is nothing else than a representation of how an organization to generate profit. It has covers all matters of interest and to be intuitive. It helps the entrepreneurs improve their capacity to manage their business continuous development and quickly respond to the business environment changes by adding new idea into their own business model.

The method of Tong Sui Kai doing their business by value proposition and revenue models which to generate the revenue to sustain itself in this competitive market. Firstly the value proposition can be defined as how an organization’s products and services fulfill the customers’ needs and wants. The foods stalls in the Tong Sui Kai have more than one value proposition which involves pricing strategies, customer service, availability of foods choices and quality of foods.

We had visited the food stalls of Tong Sui Kai which provide us better value proposition due to the food stalls are selling special, fresh, and delicious foods and beverages to each customer. When the food stalls get order lists from the individual customer, then the hawker only will prepare the food and beverage on the spot by one plate per serve due to they want to maintain the high standard and quality of the foods.

Secondly revenue model purposely use in determines how an organization generate revenue and how the organization’s function and operation. It is a well thought out model in differentiate between organization’s loss and profit. The food stalls of Tong Sui Kai earn their profit by concentrate on the quality of customer needs with reasonable and affordable price. Therefore this is one of the ways to attract diversity area of customers and keep the existing customers. 

The other alternatives of the food stalls adopted are the availability of seating capacity. Tong Sui Kai’s food stalls revenue is depend on the number of seats provided for the customer having their dinner or supper in their own stalls. During the peak period, there are less available of seats for the customers, so that the hawker will pursue the customers to wait for the seat in order to ensure that the customers can enjoy the foods of the stalls only. This is the way of the hawker generate much profit compared to other stalls.

However, the food stalls’ staff mostly will serve the customer who available in front of the stall’s table which to ensure that the customer can order the foods and beverages from that food stall rather than other. Thus it can improve the customer satisfaction due to the foods can be served in the shorter period of time. Furthermore the customers are more willing to having their meals at the food stall since it is much convenience, this is the way that the food stall earn their money based on their good customer services.

(D) Its basic approach used in marketing and advertising

The approach of marketing and advertising applied by Tong Sui Kai is viral marketing and blogs. Viral marketing is specific information that leads public to spread the message further and by tapping into the social websites effect, through this can earn far more value than cost of advertising.  The customers can promote the food to their friends and family after they gain higher satisfaction about the food and beverages. 

The key to developing positive word of mouth method is to concern about the level of satisfaction of the customers. Since the Tong Sui Kai do not have invested any advertisement in promoting their food but they are selling the food in high standard therefore in reality their customer will promote their food to surrounded people. Most of the customer will visit the Tong Sui Kai which they are recommended by their friend without any incentives or promotion.

However, the Tong Sui Kai has been recommended by the TV program is called 8 TV (Badukongjian) which is the most famous food hunting program of Malaysia, HoChak. Through this mass media, the moderators of the program will introduce and promote the best foods in Tong Sui Kai and this can put a high opportunity to attract a lot of customers from difference geographic area especially the travellers.

Furthermore, another ways of viral marketing is viral blogging which done by a professional blogger. After the blogger tried the food in Tong Sui Kai, they mostly will spread the marketing message in their own blog about food description. Nowadays, social networking connected by everyone through worldwide as one of the free marketing and advertising tools.

(E) Recommendations to improve business through e-commerce

In our opinions, Tong Sui Kai can improve the business through e commerce such as create Facebook page, Twitter account, Instagram account, and other social networks. The hawker or staffs of the food stalls can appeal and attract the customers who are the users of the social network for supporting their official page or account by click the ‘Like” button and shares the post in their own page.

For the customers who have click  “like” button, the hawker may offer free drinks to them as an incentive that helping them in doing free advertising. Besides that, Tong Sui Kai’s hawkers can create a photo competition so that the customers can post the photos with the foods and beverage in their own Facebook account and tag those food stalls’ official page in order to win a prize in the competition.

In addition, the Tong Sui Kai can create a personal blogs with a professional design and description of their food and beverages. Since the blogs consider as a popular social media that enables the seller have a free advertising toward the public and it must be continuously updating. As providing a marvelous content is a key success in social media, Tong Sui Kai should post and updated regularly at least on a daily basis, so that the customer will get the latest information and promotion of the food stall. The customer will bear in mind about the food stall so that the customer will visit the food stalls regularly during their dinner and supper period. 

Reference: 

·         Life with yen. (2015). If you want something bad enough, you’ll somehow find the time to do it, to have it, to hold onto it. Food review. 20 February 2016. Retrieved from https://lifewithyen.wordpress.com/2015/01/27/dessert-street-ipoh-tong-sui-gai-%E7%B3%96%E6%B0%B4%E8%A1%97/

·         Julie Bawden Davis . (2014).7 excellent way to attract new customer. 8 March 2016. Retrieved from https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/7-excellent-ways-to-attract-new-customers/

·         Andrea Ovans. (2015) What is a business model?. 8 March 2016. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/01/what-is-a-business-model

·         Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong. Word of mouth, social media and viral advertising. 9 March 2016. Retrieved from http://marketing-made-simple.com/articles/word-of-mouth-advertising.htm

·         Houssem Daoud. (2014). Essential elements of a social media marketing strategy. 9 March 2016. Retrieved from http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/essential-elements-social-media-marketing-strategy/

·         Ruth S. Raubitschek. (2000). Product sequencing, knowledge, and e commerce. 9 March 2016. Retrieved from http://digitalstrategies.tuck.dartmouth.edu/cds-uploads/publications/pdf/Paper_ProductSequencing.pdf