Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger : Year Twenty

What? It's been twenty years already? Or at least that's what it looked like.

99° Durian Culture (榴莲文化), Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru

Came across 99° Durian Culture (14 Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru) by chance and were intrigued with their durian stuff. Like beverages, nasi lemak - or one can simply just eat durian here. I'm guessing that they're relatively new since we didn't recall seeing them the last time we were in the area.

Taro MSW milk. The proprietor mentioned using durian dust. Couldn't taste durian in it but it was a decent taro milk.

The other drink we had which I was initially skeptical about was their MSW coffee. The coffee looked thin and weak. But hell yeah this was awesome.

The espresso they put it was pretty strong, in spite of appearance, that the flavour of the coffee was well balanced with the milk and MSW pulp. I'd come back for this. 

I mentioned nasi lemak earlier.

This was their MSW nasi lemak. The durian was folded into the coconut rice.

Was bittersweet with a light savoury undertone and reminded me of Peranakan kuehs. Love the discernible MSW flavour in it. Not to mention that they did much much better ayam berempah here than Ayam Gepok Anakmak.

Restoran Sekee (亞華粿條), Jalan Segget, Johor Bahru

We've walked past Restoran Sekee (49C Jalan Segget, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru) a number of times while we were in the vicinity and have been curious but haven't stepped in until now.

Cooking is still being done with charcoal here. 

What they're known for is kuey teow soup. Or kuey teow dry if one prefers so.

The dry option came with some vinegary chilli sauce. That and light soya sauce, some lard and fried shallot oil. Love those smooth slurpy kuey teow. There's a nice rice-y flavor to them.

Pretty darn good with their sliced chilli.

The pork soup that came with the kuey teow has pig liver, sliced pork, minced pork and pig kidneys. We were told that one can swap the latter with oysters which we did. The proprietor mentioned that these oysters were from Muar. They were fat, briny and bursty with no strong or off putting oyster-ly flavour. Nice.

Broth was light with a porcine sweetness.

Crab Bro Noodle House (蟹哥哥), SKS City Mall JBCC, Johor Bahru

We recall seeing Crab Bro Noodle House (L2-01 & L2-01 (AA), Level 2, SKS City Mall JBCC, Jalan Storey, Bukit Senyum, 80300 Johor Bahru) on socials and happened to chance upon them while checking out SKS City Mall. Curiosity got the better of us.

The item that called out to us was their supreme tu huang you rice (至尊禿黄油饭). This was basically a set that came with a serving of crab roe with rice and some kimchi with pickled long beans on the side to help with the richness. For those that love crab roe, I'd reckon this would be a no brainer.

There's a cup of ginger tea to help balance the coolness with the heat.

One just has to fold the crab roe with the rice and eat. Loads of briny umami in this one with a crustacean savoury sweetness. And if that wasn't enough, that shot of that vinegar on the side made it even easier to inhale the bowl. Nice. 👍🏼

Fried rice with more crab roe and crab meat was pretty good eating too but between this and that supreme tu huang you rice, the latter kicked more butt.

Decent lemon tea.

Nasi Lemak Strawberry by Zaza @ Banafee Express CIQ, Johor Bahru

There's a strawberry flavoured nasi lemak which we came across at Banafee Express CIQ (LOT A1 aras 3 bangunan, JB Sentral, Jln Jim Quee, Bukit Chagar, Johor Bahru 80300).

Certainly warranted a double take. We did. And more.

Not entirely sure how this worked. Tried the pink rice on its own and I wasn't quite sure what I was tasting. Maybe it was just a strawberry flavour I was imagining. The sambal was spicy and also a bit sweeter than usual. Don't know if the sweetness from the sambal brought out the strawberry flavour in the rice or that the sambal itself has strawberries.

In any case, there was a discernible strawberry flavour if you ate the nasi lemak with the sambal.

Annapoorna Pure Vegetarian, Kitchener Road

First time at Annapoorna (#01-26, 320 Serangoon Road, tel : +65 9680 9577). We've seen it a number of times while in the vicinity. While the address is Serangoon Road, the place is actually accessible along Kitchener Road somewhere across the road from Toast Box at City Square Mall.

Vadai's so so. Light, crisp and freshly fried. We've had vadai a number of times from different shops/restaurants around the area and while it wasn't bad, we didn't feel the ones here were as tasty as others.

Something called deepawali idli, which was basically a couple of idlis in a vegetable korma with some cashews. I liked this one.

Milaga podi cashew idiyappam sevai. Shredded idiyappam with presumably podi, ghee and cashews. Not bad. Tasted better with the coconut chutney.