Would you drive to JB for Wantan mee? Featuring Poh Kee Wantan Mee

Wantan mee. Some wars are fought over this little bowl of noodles. Do you like the Malaysian style with springy noodles, black sauce, or the Singaporean variety with chilli and tomato, or the Hong Kong style with thin wiry noodles? Each have their preferences. For me, I love them all!

When the occassion arose to drive up north into Johor Bahru to sample one of the famous ones with some of my friends, I went.

Occupying a shophouse, the restoran (or restaurant as it is spelt in Malaysian Malay) is nice, comfortable, offering an air conditioned dining room. A respite with the weather being as it these days...36C being the norm daytime temperature, sometimes soaring to 40C.

We ordered and were served quickly. Large wantan mee, dry.

The char siew was nothing to write home about. Lean, a bit dry. But the noodles were rather nice. Springy, perfectly doused with boiling soup, it was almost al dente. The sauce which smothered the noodles was black, and mildly salty with a tinge of sweet.

The bowl of noodles was accompanied by a small bowl of wantan swimming in broth

The soup was rather tasty, the wantan soft, smooth, delicate, but lacks the punch one gets from the robust flavours offered by wantan purveyors in Hong Kong. Still, rather enjoyable.

We added an order of deep fried wantan

Same wantans, but deep fried to a beautiful crisp. Not greasy at all, but nice and crisp crunchy. The flavours of the meat stuffing did develop a bit more through the deep frying than in soup. At RM2.50 (about S$1) for 10, this was quite good value.

We also added an order of stuffed tofu

I rather enjoyed this...minced meat, stuffed into half a taukwa...a heartier, heavier and harder version of the tofu.

For dessert we spied some lapis cake...which the owner claimed they made inhouse...so we tried some

Certainly not as fragrant or as smooth as the best from Indonesia, but rather nice. I guess about comparable to what we can get in Singapore in the likes of Bengawan Solo.

Overall, quite nice for wantan mee. But for me, not good enough to warrant a journey. But if you are in the neighbourhood, perhaps worthy of your time and tummy space.

Poh Kee
52 Jalan Harmonium 23/13
Taman Desa Tebrau
81100 Johor Bahru