Friends Favourites: Johor Bahru Eats Part 2

Part two of the walking tour of Johor Bahru conducted by bloggerTony Johor Kaki.

I started the walking tour with Tony, who is passonate about steet food in Johor...not only because there is plenty of excellent food to be eaten, but also so few are documented. He draws out the hawkers and writes their stories, as well as make recommendations on the food.

We continue today with the walk in old town Johor Bahru. Next is a heritage shop, selling bread and cakes.

Only two of these bakeries exist in JB. Equipped with a wood fired oven, similar to the pizza ovens. The baking is done in a stone oven, fired with wood. The products, fragrant...with stuffed breads, and what we went there for...Tony's favourite banana cake.

We started to queue for this amazing cake, and were third in the queue...amazingly, the cakes are baked two cakes a time. Hot out of the oven, cut and put into packages...by the time we bought our 3 packets, that round from the oven was finished. People in the queue behind had to wait for the next oven load.

The taste was sublime. A bit smoky, especially the nicely crisp top, but within, very moist, beautiful aroma. Very nice.

Next stop is the highlight of the day for me. Kway Teow Thng...

This is not your run of the mill variety Kway Teow Thng. This is one with the works. All for a princely sum of MYR16...about S$6.50.

Chock full of wonderfully fresh ingredients...beautiful, magnificent oysters, pig kidneys, fresh pork, pork liver.

Cooked in a wonderfully flavourful broth made with huge pork bones slowly boiled over a charcoal fire. Magnificent.

Even the noodles are special..smooth, soft, luxurious. Magnificent. Must try. BTW, they have versions for as little as MYR5.

And to cool down, we dropped by a shop selling a brew not found in Singapore...toddy...a fermented brew from the nectar of the palm.

A bit sourish, served at room temperature. The brew was surprisingly cooling during the heat of the day. And very refreshing and thirst quenching.

I have tried fresh, chilled toddy in Penang once...it was an even more wonderful drink...served cold, it was like a cold beer on a hot day...lighter in flavour than the one I tried in JB.

Thus ended our first JB tour with Tony. Certainly not our last. There are so much to explore. And our only regret was we could only eat so much in a day...we will be back. Soon...I hope.

Hiap Joo Bakery and Biscuit Factory
13, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, 80000 Johor Bahru
Map: http://g.co/maps/nf7rs
GPS: 1.456931, 103.764222
Daily 8:00am to 6:00pm (Closed on Sunday)

Ah Hua 亚华 kway teow soup (Restoran Sekee 司機)
30, Jalan Segget, Johor Baru Town
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/jWIa
GPS: 1.458202,103.764383
Daily 7:30am to 2:30pm (closed on Saturdays)

Kedai Tuak Awam
Along Jalan Sulaiman, downtown Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/zYeC
GPS: 1.464262,103.761633
10:00am to 5:00pm