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

Treasure in JB: Restoran Peking

Once a whle, a bunch of friends would take a leisurely drive to Johor...especially during durian season to eat some durians, relax, and eat a nice meal before returning home. This time, we made our way to Parit Sulong, then to the little town of Muar, before returning to Johore Bahru for dinner.

The dinner was at Taman Sutera, not far from either the Causeway or the Second Link...so quite a convenient location for Singaporeans to drive to.



The restaurant was huge...a bit like Jumbo, but on first impression, more luxurious and up market. The prices, being in JB, are more down to earth for various seafoood than the sometimes expensive stuff we get in Singapore.

We had a full banquet, these are a selection of some interesting dishes:

Brocolli with sea cucumber and chicken:



Quite superb. The brocolli was a beautiful dark hue of green, and was still crunchy. The sea cucumber was already rendered in a braising stock separately till super tender, then chicken stir fried in a hot wok with the brocolli and sea cucumber. Superb.

The sambal sotong with celery was also great:



Fresh squid...very smooth, creamy, sweet and also still crunchy. The sambal was quite powerful, and goes well with the bits of crunchy celery. Another beautiful dish.

The Peking duck was next:



This was a slight disappointment...not that it did not taste good...but the recent spate of great and superb peking duck for me has raised my natural palate standards considerably. While many would consider the peking duck to be good, for me, that evening, I thought it underperforming. The duck slices were a bit too large. The skin not crispy enough, the pastry too thick.

But we actually came for the soft shelled crab:



This was superb. The whisps of egg, stradelling the soft shelled crab bekons. The aroma is wonderful, and with each bite, juxtaposition of crisp egg, slightly crunchy shell, and the creaminess of the crab is pure pleasure.



I often find soft shelled crab, deep fried in this style to often be very oily...the crab and egg batter absorbing a lot of fat. But this was light, and not greasy at all. Very nice.

Overall, this is a superb restaurant. For me, I will avoid the peking duck, as there are plenty of better examples of this art around (the Imperial Treasure Super Peking Duck in Paragon is the grandmaster of the art). But the seafood is fresh, expertly cooked, and tastes superb...all for a price you cannot get in Singapore.


Restoran Pekin @ Sutera Utama
NO.1, JALAN SUTERA TANJUNG 8/4,
SUTERA UTAMABIZ CENTRE,
TAMAN SUTERA UTAMA,
81300 SKUDAI, JOHOR.

Map marks Sutera Mall, the restaurant is in adjacent building left of the mall.




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San Low: JB Cze Char

with ASG

JB is famous as a playground for Singaporeans...a short drive North, cross the border, and suddenly everything is about 50% cheaper (including petrol). As a result, many Singaporeans flock to eat seafood, cze char and restaurant food.



San Low, a place somewhere near the Causeway at JB is one such place. On a typical evening, one sees many Singapore plated cars parked on the sides of the restaurant. The place was quite busy, patrons on almost every table...the staff buzzing.

We started off the meal with their famous San Low Char Bee Hoon.



This style is similar to the one I ate at JB Ah Meng. Bee hoon, infused with seafood stock, pan fried, egg, chives, prawns; flattened at the wok under high heat, and served. The Ah Meng version seemed to have a bit more flavour infused, perhaps due to better stock. While the San Low one is not nearly there in terms of flavour, it makes up in terms of the more springy texture of the noodles.

We also ordered a Sting Ray in Assam sauce:



This dish was quite special. Very fresh stingray, cut into nice steak slices, cooked in a piquant - salty, sour, spicy sauce. The stingray was fresh and fatty, especially just under the tender skin. And the meat was smooth, almost creamy texture, and very nice tasting. The smothering sauce provide a counterpoint which not only complemented the fish, but brought it to a separate whole level above. Very nice.

Even the tapiocal leaves in sambal belachan was nice:



A pet peeve of mine regarding the sambal sweet potato leaves dish is that somehow, store owners select very old leaves. The older leaves might be more flavourful, but they are less tender, and do not have the bite and succulent taste of younger leaves. San Low's serving that evening was excellent...nice young shoots, tenderly fried in a concoction of sambal and belachan. Excellent.

We also ordered a yam ring.



This is a fairly typical cze char dish. A cylinder made of yam is deep fried till a crisp crust envelopes the mashed yam insides. Within, the pot is filled with chicken, peppers, onions, prawns, French beans, carrots and the whole mixture is stir fried on the hot wok. Deep fried crispy vermilicili is used both as a garnish as well as to provide a neutral platform to taste the yam and insides. The San Low version is good, but not above average.

As the final dish, we decided to try the fried rice.



The fried rice looked very promising...each grain is individual, no clumping, each grain seemed to be coated with egg. The fragrance was exceptional. Bits of salted fish seemed embedded in the strategic positions within. On tasting, it confirms powerful wok hei, and wonderful fragrance and flavour. But it lacked salt. Easily fixed, though with a sprinkling of soy sauce. On second thoughts, perhaps salty fish sauce might worked better, but we were blissful with the soy sauce. As you chew the rice, each bite on the salted fish seems like a mini-explosion of flavour in your mouth. Fried rice paradise?...maybe...


San Low Seafood
Jalan Biru, Taman Pelangi,
80400 Johor Bahru.
07-332 3869 / 334 3623
Business Hour : 4.30pm - 1.00am

Latitude = 1°28'21"
Longitude = 103°46'29.7"


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Anna's Kitchen: Penang food in JB?

with ASG
This is the blog's 100th post...so we celebrate with Penang Food...

Another soapbox moment for me...having grown up in Penang amidst the wonderful food in the city, I often lament the lack of good Penang styled food elsewhere...comfort food like Penang Char Kway Teow, Penang Hokkien Mee, Pasembur, Joo Hoo Eng Chye (cuttlefish with eng chye), Penang Laksa et al.



Anna's Kitchen is a quaint little eatery, tucked in the basement of a row of shophouses. As one enters the shop, a row of bright red stairs lead down to the eating area. Homely would be my best description of the decor. Magazines neatly laid out in various places, tables and chairs neatly arranged.

And right next to nature.



There is an airconditioned section inside, but the weather was fine, though a bit hot, we decided to eat outside.

First up...the Penang Char Kway Teow.




The CKT looks very good...nicely fried, with wok hei. The smallish prawns were a bit disappointing, but they looked fresh. A lot of see ham (cockles), well cooked. And superb wok hei. So how is the tasting. First taste, after the whiff...authentic. This is authentic Penang CKT...but at a level which I would describe as typical Kopi Tiam standard...my mom's home cooked CKT is similar. The top hawkers like the Goggle Lady at Lorong Selamat, the Sisers at McAlister are leagues ahead. But Anna's is nice enough if Penang is too far.

Penang Hokkien Mee is more similar to Prawn mee than Singapore's vrsion of Hokkien Mee. For starters, the Penang one is soupy...a pork bone based soup, but also boiled with prawn heads, and prawns..with tons of other ingredients...some kangkong, yellow noodles mixed with bee hoon, in a steaming bowl with fried shallots, and perhaps a small slab of pork ribs...Wonderful.



Again, authentic, as all the ingredients are there...But the taste lacks the punch and oomph. The best from Penang like the one at Kek Seng in Penang Road, have a soup packed with crustacean flavours, with noodles done just right...which is a bit softer than the Italian al dente. And fresh boiled prawns, fried shallots, and a hard-boiled egg.

Joo Hoo Eng Chye is just that...cuttlefish (joo hoo) and kangkong (eng chye)



The Penang ones, like the hawker at Gurney Drive would have thick slices of cuttle fish (large dried cuttlefish which is rehydrated by boiling and sliced), mixed with a wonderful sweet sauce made with the hawker's own recipe of secret ingredients, chilli and generously sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Again Anna serves the authentic one. But like with the CKT and HKM, she fails to deliver when compared to the yardsticks set by actual Penang hawkers...if she sold the same food in Penang, it would be perhaps average or just a bit above. Put it this way, if she was selling this at Penang competitive prices (the prices at Anna is about double of Penang's), I would eat if I were nearby, but not drive more than 10/15mins just to sample the food. I would drive 30m for the best Penang examples...in fact am planning a makan trip to Penang to do just that.





Anna's Kitchen
18K Basement, Jalan Abdul Samad
80100 Johor Bahru
+6013-7422168

N 1°27'57.18"
E 103°44'35.88"

Restoran Ah Meng, Johor Bahru

with Kennard, Ken, Alice

We found ourselves in Johor Bahru, a grand diversion with multiple stops, but actually the excuse to go try out a few eating places. Our first choice was a Teochew restaurant near Pelangi, reputed for their Ohr Nee. But we were a bit late in arriving...about 3pm, and we settled for an air-conless restaurant a short drive away. Ken, the native Johorian recommended this Cze Char shop.

Their signature dish is a flat, dry fried bee hoon...some say this is the chow tar bee hoon, some simplly call it flat bee hoon...I call it delicious.



The bee hoon must have been fried with a rich stock, imbuing some magical taste powers to the strands of rice noodles. Chives, some vegetables, chicken, eggs make up this interesting dish.



The noodles were soft, slightly flattened in the wok and slightly charred by the immense heat of the wok. Wok hei is there in spades. Shiok.

We also had the pork rib curry.



Some regular readers might know that my mom cooks a mean Nyona curry, be it chicken, fish head, squid (real power curry! Really to die for), and pork rib. But Ah Meng's version is not too far behind...I loved the rich, coconut gravy. If they used curry powder, it was not evident...no powdery taste this one. The rich shallots, lovingly tumis to fragrant golden brown form the backbone for such flavoursome gravy.

The potatoes are first fried to slightly crisp/charred/caramelised before being inserted into the curry. The pork rib is from succulent ribs, and floating ribs - rendering the meat soft and tender, and the cartilage almost edible. (indeed they were crunchy and good bite).

Steam fish, with chye por was next.



The fish was fresh. Steaming done just right. Bits of fish around the backbone remain just slightly rare to require a small amount of force to seperate it from the bone...the meat was tender, and sweet. The chye por added crunch and punch.

We also ordered the ngor hiang.



Innocent looking enough. The skin was translucent, and this was the first hint that this ngor hiang was going to be special. Pick up a slice, and the roughly chopped ingredients gives the second hint. This was not mass processed ngor hiang. This was bodering on artisanal.



The ingredients are quite ordinary for a ngor hiang. A quick fry in hot fat seals in the taste, the outside is golden brown crispy, the vegetables inside still slightly rare and crunchy. Each mouthful is full of flavour - the crunch of the crispy skin intermingled with the carrots, meat, seafood (I think there is some seafood...prawns in the mix).

Of course, the must have vegetable...polisang choi (hmmm how do you spell this?) was lightly blanched and drizzled with some oil. Al dente to the bite, the cook demonstrated great precision in his cooking.



For dessert, Ohr nee.



This is a signature dish of a Teochew restaurant. Made with fragrant yam, steamed, mashed, stirred with generous amounts of pork lard, and served with boiled, smashed pumpkin and ginko nuts. Ah Meng's version is not as fine as those typically found in the great Singapore Teochew restaurants like Hang Kang. The yam was discernable as bits, offering a rough-ish texture...not quite rough enough to feel individual bits, but not quite a smooth paste. The dish was not greasy...perhaps lack of pork lard caused it to lack something in full flavour.

Total price for 4 persons: RM90.


Restoran Ah Meng
38 Jalan Sultan Aminah
Taman Iskandar
Johor Bahru, Malaysia


Photonotes: no theaterics were attempted. Usual equipment, typical workflow. Shot inside the restaurant on a wet rainy day. No flash, no tripod.