A dinner at Ananda Bhavan

Getting dinner at Ananda Bhavan. Snacks, chaat and thosai.

I've been wanting to try banana baji for a while and haven't been successful. For one, I don't know much places to get them and the other reason would be that they don't seem to be available all the time. Finally got some here. These weren't so much bananas than they were plantains coated in gram flour and deep fried. There's no sweetness and the texture was like potato or yam. So not something like goreng pisang like I imagined.

Got a serving of podi idly. These rice cakes were freshly steamed. Piping hot and you could taste that they had just gotten off the steamer just recently. The podi wasn't as aromatic nor as exciting in flavour as those we've had in Podi & Poriyal, Komala Vilas, Murugan Idli Shop or MTR. Probably not the fairest of comparisons but it was what it was. 

Rava ghee masala thosai - yummy this one. Thanks to the ghee, the pancake was both crisp and buttery. Not to mention also the delicious array of chutneys on the side. Left one has mint and I think ginger. Love the orange one.

The dahi puri made it to our table last because of a couple of screw ups. They gave us a samosa chaat the first time which we had returned. The follow up was a dahi puri that had coriander which I had been explicit on their omission. Third time was fortunately a charm for them. Anyways, I love these things.

The avocado cream and the cheese donuts from J.Co

These couple of donuts caught our attention at the J.Co in City Square (Level 1, Lot J1-07 & 08 Johor Bahru City Square, 106 - 108 Jalan Wong Ah Fook, 80000 Johor Bahru). Never seen these ones before so we got them

The one with cheese was savoury. Even the cream inside was so. Not bad this one.

Avocado Dicaprio was sadly not avocado-y in any way. I wouldn't have been able to identify anything about it apart from the chocolate. It didn't taste bad though.

Hai Kah Lang (海脚人), Taman Sentosa, Johor Bahru

Came to know of Hai Kah Lang (173 Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, 80150 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-1651 9813) by way of recommendation. They're a predominantly seafood soup kind of place with other small plates that one can also supplement on the side.

Had a couple of drinks while waiting for the food. This one was called I'm Not a Fool - there's lemon and cucumber and green tea in it. Pretty refreshing.

This other one was a sea bird nest jelly drink. I couldn't reconcile what I saw and tasted with the name so I'm not going to try. And yes, it's a baby blue drink. Tasted like coconut milk. A pretty delicious coconut milk if I might add plus some agar agar stuff in it.

Their mixed seafood soup was not bad tasting. Clear and oil free with a clean oceanic sweetness if you catch my drift. Seafood quality was pretty decent.

Noodles were nice. Texture was great and the flavour was just dark soya sauce. It was awesome with their sambal.

The sambal. A little sweet, lime-y and packed with invigorating heat.

What's impressive was their leopard coral grouper soup. We added milk. The fish was decent if unexceptional but that broth was outstanding with 花雕酒 flavour coupled with creaminess from the milk and a nice tanginess from pickled mustard and possibly tomatoes. Those and an added aroma/flavour from fried shallots. So good.

There was a stall at the entrance of the restaurant that sold durian ice cream of the premium variety - e.g. mao shan wang, wang zhong wang, blackthorn and I forgot what else.

We got the cheapest one which was mao shan wang. Not bad tasting.

Oriental Kopi, City Square, Johor Bahru

Wheeee....first trip to Johor in years. 🙌🏼 Breakfast at Oriental Kopi (Lot MB-07, Level B1, Johor Bahru City Square, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 18-262 6363) which is part of the Nanyang cafe trend that's been emerging in the past few years here and back home.

 

One gripe. These guys need work with their order workflow. Took us 45 minutes to get our food when they were just half filled.

Iced kopi cincau was pretty good. Coffee's robust, creamy and sweet. I like that for the morning. First time having them with cincau/grass jelly/fairy grass/仙草. I heard it's a Malaysian thing.

Butter kopi's not bad too. Butter's served cold on the side.

I wanted a go at their nasi lemak and here's one with chicken rendang. Chicken thigh's tender and the gravy was nutty but not as lemak compared the Peranakan rendition. Not bad though. I'm surprised I didn't dislike the ikan bilis - those weren't hard. Sambal was spicy and sweet, the latter not annoyingly so. Interestingly served with a poached egg.

What got our attention was their faint olive tinted rice. Sufficient coconut milk infusion and adequately salted. What's unusual, at least for us, were the tiny green beans sparsely distributed in the rice. On top of that, there was definitely cardamom and then a hint of lemongrass. 👍🏼

Dry curry chicken mee pok. Not the dry curry chicken I was anticipating.

Not bad tasting. Curry reminded me of the style from Hong Shun. Similar but not the same. Liked the mee pok which were the sturdier and wider variety. The chicken here was breast meat, not thigh. 

Pretty taken in with their crunchy peanut butter toast as well. Was altogether buttery, peanut-y, sweet and salty in a creamy layer over the crispy toast - which stayed crispy all the way. This tasted unhealthily delicious and we enjoyed it.

The Stamford Brasserie, Swissôtel The Stamford

Our first visit to The Stamford Brasserie (Level 1 Swissôtel The Stamford, 2 Stamford Road, tel : +65 6431 6156). While their name rung a bell, I've never noticed them until recently.

Just sweets.

Got intrigued by their vanilla bean cremuex which looked kinda like a cocoa bean pod. Couldn't identify the cake/cream fillings inside but the shell was dark chocolate. Also not getting any vanilla flavour from the cream as well. Did not taste bad but it's also a first and a last.

Their almond croissant also looked unusual with its scaly crest of toasted sliced almond. Those were held up by marzipan which was flavoured with, get this, Chinese almond (杏仁). Which I read are actually apricot kernels. There were more crushed sliced almond with some custardy thing stuffed in the middle of the croissant. Pastry was moderately buttery and pretty delicious as a whole. 

Coffee's ok. Moderate strength and bitter. Which was what we wanted.

$12 a pint during happy hour and for Erdinger Weiss on tap in Swissôtel, I guess it's a pretty decent deal. 

Wen Xin Fish Soup. Lu Wei (文欣鱼汤 卤味), Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre

Here's a bowl of sliced grouper with fish roe soup from Wen Xin Fish Soup (#01-40, Bukit Merah View Hawker Centre, 115 Bukit Merah View). This was so good! The slices of fish were thick and firm and I like the dried sole flavouring in the clear broth. Just next door to R&D. Will be back.