Famous Taiping Popiah or Fresh Spring Rolls

Popiah or fresh spring rolls are delicious. They are eaten with a sweet sauce such as a bean sauce, a blended soy sauce or oyster sauce or a shrimp paste sauce and with hot chilli sauce before it is filled. The filling is mainly finely grated and steamed or stir-fried turnip or mengkuang which has been cooked. Other ingredients include bean sprouts, French beans, and lettuce leaves, grated carrots, thinly sliced fried tofu, finely chopped peanuts or peanut powder, fried shallots, and shredded fried eggs. Other common variations of popiah include include pork (lightly seasoned and stir-fried), shrimp or crab meat. Some hawkers will add fried pork lard.

In Taiping, you will find the best popiah at the Air Kacang Taiping coffee shop at the corner of Jalan Panggung Wayang and Jalan Kelab Cina. Say hi to Ah Kuan, second generation popiah seller who inherited this delicious recipe from his mum who made Taiping popiah famous at the Tai Chien restaurant during the early 60s.


In mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan there are "popiah parties" at home, where the ingredients are laid out and guests make their own popiah with proportions of ingredients to their own personal liking.