MUAR JOHOR | South Food Trail by Best Restaurant to Eat

There are many blogs and TV shows featuring Muar in Johor as a food haven. With that in mind, we decided to make a trip down south to savour this offering.

There is a TV series which highlights Muar streets foo. Today, we will be eating street food rather than restaurant food that we normally featured. After a series of search, we have shortlisted a couple of some of the best of Muar Food to savour for this trip.

We started quite early in the morning at 6am from Kuala Lumpur as most of the food stalls are open for breakfast up to lunch hours. We reached Muar at 830am and drove around town trying to spot the Wai Sek Kai Along Jalan Haji Abu (between the junction with Jalan Meriam and Jalan Ali). 

We notice that there are streets with the colour theme like red where most building along that street is painted with red and yellow as yellow streets and blue streets. A true community spirit of the people of Muar to promote this town.

We took a walk around the main makan street and try to see what was that they were selling and also to find out where our shortlisted store is.

Our first taste was the fried carrot cakes; we saw a big queue already before the store was open. We look around to see what was being ordered by the other patron and decided to order one big packet with eggs to be shared. The normal price for a small packet is RM3.00. For the big packet, it is at RM4.00. The uncle told us his version is the sweet type version (which is black due to the thick black soya sauce) and we also got to know that in Muar there is a white version from one of the fellow patron which she also recommends some places for other Muar favourite makan place.

Taste wise it is, it is a little sweet and they don’t fry it like in KL where the pieces of carrot cake are cut to smaller pieces and a little crispier on the outside. Moreover, we can’t really taste much of the choy poh.

Next, we venture into a restaurant called Hua Nam. In this coffee shop, there is 2 main food served here i.e the popular Muar Laksa and the Teochew Pork soup. The shop was packed when we arrived and took us a while for us to get a table. We look around to see what was being ordered by the other patrons.

The Muar Laksa was noting great compared to the one we had in Kuala Lumpur. The broth was not thick and was not spicy at all. It was quite bland. The saving grace was the cockles which were very fresh and succulent.

Next, we savour the Teochew Pork (Chap Chye) Soup with white rice. This is a totally new dish for me as the one we had in Kuala Lumpur is the Mustard Vegetable Pork soup. Well, this dish is only for lovers of pork spare parts. Taste-wise, it was short of my expectation of a good pork soup.

In this coffee shop, it does allow outside food from the outside to be brought in to be eaten. There are a couple of streets store just outside this shop.

The first one that we ordered is the Teochew Braised Pork and Spare parts. We had the pork, pig skin, pig intestine, eggs and tau foo. Taste-wise, it is not very fragrant as it lacks the taste of spices usually used to cook this dish.

Lastly, we ordered the Woon Chai Koh, compare to those that you normally find from the Pasar Malam, this is a super small bowl and for RM2.00 you get 8 pieces of it. One of the main difference is the garnishing, which is boiling hot, unlike those found in Pasar Malam, which is usually cooked hours earlier. Taste-wise, the texture was quite smooth while the garnishing blended well.

The next to the shop is the coffee itself. Understand that there are many coffee merchants in Muar, so the one we had in the shop truly has strong aroma with the strong aftertaste in your throat. Worth the money you paid for many times over.

We tried the otak-otak on Avenue 4 food court but found it to be too spicy and salty. Not much to shout about. Probably being introduced to the wrong place.

We were told of the best wanton noodle in the area and when we reach the shop, it was beginning to open its shop, so we waited patiently for them to unload box and crates of dumpling, suikow and wantan noodles and the must-have char siew.

At first, we thought we were in a treat, how wrong were we after our first taste, of the soup then the noodles, then the sui kow and wanton. The only saving grace was the price. At 3.50 per bowl, it is a real bargain but I wouldn’t go for a second after tasting the best wanton noodles in KL.

As we were chilling before the lunch break, we wanted to sample the famous chicken rice Jit Fatt, we came about a place where we park our car, the place is Kala Chicken along the makan street, they served the Grass Jelly Tea at RM3.00 per shot. Feeling thirsty after all the food intake, we decided to try one. To our surprise, it was not bad and considering the price we paid for it was good.

We left the place to find the Jit Fatt 119-4, Jalan Mariam. Here like Melaka, the chicken rice is served moulded into a ball. Some say, it is comparable with the one in Melaka, so we ordered a small serving of 3 rice ball with a plate of chicken breast. If you really want to know whether the chicken is good, you have to try the breast meat, you can taste the sweetness of the chicken if any, the tenderness not soft, and the juiciness (breast meat have the least) and if any it will make the chicken especially nice and top quality. To me, it fails all the 3 test.

The rice balls were too hard and not much taste compared to those from Melaka, they are soft and fluffy even when moulded into a ball. I would say the size of the rice ball is also bigger than in Melaka.

It was a truly disappointing food trip and really out of our expectation. So we decided to cut short our trip and head to Melaka.

Before leaving, we remember we passed by a store where they sell this Bentayan Lemon Lime drink but it was in the midst of opening when we had our wanton noodle earlier, so we decided to make t trip there to try it out. The first sips were mesmerising, you can feel the sourish lime lemon flowing down your throat. It was very refreshing and can wake up your senses up if you are sleepy. It was also very intoxicating as you want to have more sips after the first. This is the saving grace of our trip to Muar, Johor. Next stop is Melaka.

Read about our Food Trail to Tangkak Johor

Read about our holiday at Desaru Beach 3D 2N Weekend Escapade, Johor

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Fancy Christmas Theme Cupcakes At Rolling Pin By Best Restaurant To Eat

I am no fan of cupcakes as I find most cupcakes that I have previously eaten to be extremely too sweet for me.

When a fellow blogger offered me the chance to review these cupcakes her friend made i.e. from Rolling Pin, I took the opportunity to test it out anyway as I was told that these cupcakes were a different in that, it was a Christmas theme cupcakes.

Fancy that, as you can see from the pictures, the beautifully decorated cupcakes was very pleasing to the eyes and it makes perfect gifts too and with the Christmas round the corner you could buy it as a dessert after the Christmas eve dinner too.

First to try out was the Santa Claus Cupcake. It looks so cute, that you wouldn’t want to eat it. The cake based was butter vanilla based. I find it was not overwhelming sweet but the cakes were a little hard, would have preferred it to be of soft and fluffy cakes. The topping was marzipan based and this is very sweet.

The next was a Christmas Tree theme cupcakes, with frozen green icing.

Followed by Snowman theme.

Followed by Snowflake theme.

Well, if you like cupcakes you can also ask them to custom made for your special occasion, it would be great and eye pleasing for your guest to enjoy it.

For more information on ordering you can http://rollingpin2u.weebly.com/

Photo courtesy of www.carmenhong.com

Original Homemade Japanese Udon at Manmaru Restaurant Mid Valley By Best Restaurant To Eat.

What is a good UDON? How do you know whether the UDON is freshly made? With all this question in mind, we venture into Manmaru Japanese Udon Restaurant located at S-045A, Second Floor, Mid Valley City Megamall, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The entrance was brightly lit with Japanese lanterns.

The concept is simple. It is a Japanese Fast Food Udon Restaurant much like in Japan. You decide the type of noodles (10 types) and choose your add on tempura (ranging from shrimp tempura to mix vegetables tempura or side dishes and move to pay at the payment station followed by cutleries and tempura sauce. This self service concept is similar in Japan but in Japan there are no sitting space, you virtually slurp your Udon standing.

So, what makes a good Udon? The ingredient to make the Udon is very important, secondly timing is everything. According to Richard, the manager, brief us that Udon, once cooked have to be consume within 15 minutes, after which it loses the firm bouncy texture.

At Manmaru, this becomes a very critical stage as it takes another 10 minutes just to cook the Udon. So, in order not to have too much slack time, it is very critical to ensure that there are Udon ready to serve but still able to maintain the texture. At Manmaru, if they are not able to serve and consume by the customers within the 15 minutes, the cooked Udon will be disposed off. Kind of waste but this is how Udon are to be served for the freshest and the best of quality when eaten.

There are 2 main types of Udon i.e. Cold and Hot, depending on your preference, probably depends on the time you eat it. On a hot day, you might want to take the Cold Udon, while on a cool night you might want to slurp up a hot Udon.

 For the night, we started off with the Kimchi Udon follow by Curry Udon, Kamaage Udon, Niku Udon, Bukake Udon, Kake Udon, Kamo Seiro Udon, Ume Udon, Zaru Udon and Cream Corn Udon. All in all, we had the privileged to try all 10 of it.

My personal favourite are Niku Udon, I love the beef slice and the springy Udon and it complimented well with the broth. One thing about Beef Slice, you have to consume it quickly as the beef slice will be a little overcook if not eaten quickly.

 

My next favourite is the Cream Corn Udon, a cream based which looks quite similar to carbonara sauce, but here the cream is of a light cream which is very nice. This dish is a very simple looking and delicious Udon.

For Tempura, we were served the Enoki Tempura (golden needle mushroom), Ebi Tempura (Prawn), Yasai Kakiage Tempura (Crispy Mix Vegetable), White Fish Tempura, Kabocha tempura (Pumpkin), Satsuma-Imo Tempura (Sweet Potato), Renkon Tempura (Lotus Root), Nasu Tempura (Brinjal) and Green Pepper Tempura.

My personal favourite was the Enoki and Yasai Kakiage, as it was not too oily and as usual, you have to consume it as quickly as possible failing which it tends to loose it crispiness and become soggy.

And for the Karaage, they have the Ika Karaage (Squid) and Tori Karaage (Chicken). I personally find the Karaage to be a little too salty, but if you are eating with plain Udon, I suppose should be able to neutralized the saltiness.

Finally, is the side order dish of the Hanjuku Tamago (Soft boiled eggs marinated with soya sauce). This side order to me is a comfort food as I love to eat stewed eggs of all types, but personally, it lacks the kick compared to the Taiwanese version that I had previously.

The parting experience from this Udon expedition, the keyword is FAST, i.e. is you really have to eat fast to enjoy a real Udon meal in Manmaru. No time for chit chat during meal.

eCurves Damansara Top Quality Steamboat at Pak John Steamboat and Yong Tau Foo

Talking about steamboat, quality ingredient is of utmost importance. This is because steamboats are cooked and eaten cooked straight from the steaming pot, therefore if the ingredients are not of the freshest and top quality, this will be the biggest turnoff.

We had the opportunity to try out the new outlet, which was opened just 2 weeks ago (although the first outlet is more than one year old) Pak John Steamboat and Yong Tau Foo which is located on e-Curve. As usual, we were very sceptical of new steamboat restaurant as to me, not many make the grades. 

To me, there are a few key things to a nice meal of steamboat. Of paramount importance is of course the fresh and qaulity foods (especially seafood), which is followed by the soup base that are served and lastly the complement sauces. Sometimes it is very hard to get the perfect balance.
 

As you know, most good steamboat are outdoor steamboat shops and normally we end up feeling very heated up with all the hot stuffs (sauces, soups and etc) taken in especially if you have chosen the Tom yam variant.  But since Pak John is in e-Curve, the place was very cool with good air conditioning system and you can eat in a relax atmosphere which, is very conducive for steamboat.

At Pak John, they offer 3 soup bases, the normal chicken, tom yam and their own creation Miso soup base. We tried all the soup base and ended up with our preference accordingly being Miso the best, follow by chicken and lastly the tom yam (which to me is a tad of being a little too sourish). 

Besides steamboat, Pak John also allows for grilling on a special pot which they use. The good thing is that this grill plate can easily be change with a fresh plate if it is already burnt out after many round of BBQ. 

For the sauces there are four types, namely the Thai Green Chilli, Thai Chilli, sweet sauce and Belacan. The Thai Green Chilli sauce is an own creation by its chef, is sourish based and not too spicy, but my preference was on the Belacan. 

Pak John offers a few specialities item which, you can either BBQ or put into the pot. There are Smoked Duck Breast slices, New Zealand Lamb slices, Australian beef slices and Abalone surimi. For the price that they charge, I considered this as a very premium add-on that this restaurant offers. My personal top preference was the Duck meat as when I put in on the grill, the smoke taste was just right and I can taste the wonderful flavourful of the meat.

Next, we had the fresh seafood, which consists of prawns, squids, lala and clams. The squid was very fresh and springy i.e. after cooking into the pot, it still has a firm and bouncy texture. The prawn was very fresh, but the type of lala that was used was not so suitable for steamboat, as chances are you will overcook it and it become very tiny. Well you could also BBQ the prawn, which I did and if cooked at the right temperature you can taste the sweetness of the prawns.

Normally, I won’t take much of fishball or surimi when I eat steamboat as I dread the feeling to eat something that is processed with a huge amount of flour mix into the fish or surimi. I taken the liberty to try one piece of each of the item and found that it is very different especially in the area of taste. The flavouring was strong and the texture was just right. Some of these surimi fishball have filing too like cheese in it, example are the seafood taufoo and dumpling, while the sotong balls have real pieces of squid in it.

 For me, I find the mushroom offering aplenty as they have many types namely the Shitake, Oyster mushroom, King mushroom , Enoki, Straw Mushroom and so forth. Also I found the “mien kang” a little bigger than the normal size and I really like it, in that when cooked in the pot the soup taste is immersed into the mien kang.

 As in many steamboat buffet, Pak John also serve side dishes like Fried Bee Hoon, Fried Black Pepper Udon, Curry Chicken, Fried Rice (for non steamboat fans). They do have kiddies food like French fries and Chicken Nuggets too. 

There is a waffles making station. For kids, waffles is a nice option for them. They can choose their filling and of course, can be topped up with ice cream of their choice as well. For ice-cream, they have chocolate and green tea serves from the ice –cream machine which is smooth and not lumpy. 

Finally, Pak John also offer ice-cream potong which came in many flavours i.e. durian, jack fruit, yam, cendol and green bean with durian. For me, this ice cream potong is a little too sweet. I will stick with the ice-cream.

I was satisfied with the meal and will not hesitate to pay another visit, when I have another craving for steamboat and BBQ.

Pak John is now offering a special price of RM28.00 (Monday to Thursday) for dinner buffet and RM36.00 (Friday to Sunday). At this price, it is a good bargain comparative to the quality of the food serves here. Let’s hope they will continue providing top quality, fresh food and good services.

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Sungai Penchala TTDI - Asrama Penchala Romantic Escapade

Are you looking for a Romantic restaurant to do your once in a lifetime proposal to your lovely one, or just looking to restaurant to have a candle light dinner in a romantic setting? You will find the Asmara Penchala located at 2933, Jalan Sungai Penchala, Kampung Sungai Penchala, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the place to be.

The restaurant is Balinese theme, and has previously won many accolades for the best romantic restaurant. Indeed when you arrive, you could see why. If you happen to visit Bali, Indonesia before, this place will reminiscent that feeling.

There are 2 hut, that you can pre-book, again this is similar to the one in Ubud Bali (we ate the bebek – duck) where you can dine in specially design huts with the right atmosphere. You can get the similar feeling here.

We have a number of dishes that evening; firstly, we were served the Asmara Fruit Punch. They have crafted out a love insignia from watermelon, while the base drink is made up of watermelon juice, with orange puree and rose syrup (to give the drink a distinct red – much like Bloody Mary minus the alcoholic). Unfortunately for me, it was a little too sweet for my liking.

Next, we had the appetizer which is Thai Fish Cake. This restaurant chooses to present this dish as a cocktail, for one, it looks cute and secondly it is very easy to eat – just put all into your mouth, you don’t have to put up a fight to savour it.

Lamb Masala was next on the table. The Lamb shoulder was quite nice, as the herb used have infused into the lamb meat. Although a little bony, we suggested to the chef to try to give more meat to the dish. This dish is best eaten with white rice.

Next dish for the night is the Assam Pedas Tenggiri. The assam pedas gravy was not overly spicy, just the right balance. This is another dish that goes well with the white rice too. I was a little disappointed in that, the ladies fingers that was served, was a little too old, while the brinjal and tomatoes was half cooked – much like ulam style. Taste wise, the gravy was good for a second helping of white rice.

Creamy butter prawn was next. It is a little different serving style for the prawns compared to others. Here the prawns are battered coated and fried before putting a layer of creamy butter sauce on top of it. This way, the sauce is not blended into the prawn like some other restaurant Butter Prawns. The only advantage is you can taste the crispy prawns by itself – you can literally eat the shell as well (only if you really like it).

 For desserts we had the Sago With Gula Melaka and Vanilla ice cream as the topping. The combination was just nice with the cold ice cream mix with the sugary gula Melaka and sago.

They offer a candle light dinner package i.e. at the main hall or at the specially decorated hut. Apparently, this package is in high demand and you have to pre-book so that they can decorate it accordingly. The package includes either local or western set dinner.

 As this restaurant is quite big, they do cater for special functions and can sit up to 1000 pax.

For Best Dining Deal

http://www.mydeal.com.my/dining/kuala-lumpur