JustWant Dessert (佳旺甜品), Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru

With a name like JustWant Dessert (10, Jalan Abiad 1, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 12-584 4662), one would typically assume that it's a dessert shop and wouldn't normally think that it'll be the place to come for nasi ayam gepuk. One would have made the correct assumption. But it was their nasi ayam gepuk we came for.

What's special about their nasi ayam gepuk was that it is a pistachio nasi ayam gepuk. Yeap, that nut trend hasn't died yet. It's ordered from their menu as a regular nasi ayam gepuk with an add-on of a tub of their house made pistachio sauce.

While I wouldn't use the word ingenious, I thought it was a good idea that was competently executed. The sauce was nutty and aromatic on its own. With the sambal and gajus sauce, the nuttiness was upped by a notch though the pistachio specific flavour took backstage. Very nicely done. Love the moist tender rice.

That fried tofu on the side was chilled. I don't know if that's how they roll normally but I liked that.

Prawn noodle's no slouch with its sweet and spicy crustacean-y broth. Prawns were fresh and sweet. I could discern the freshness just by peeling them.

Tried their pistachio paste. Good effort, not exactly impressive by my measure and overshadowed by the pistachio sauce from their nasi ayam gepuk.

Pine Chicken Rice (松香鸡饭), Taman Melodies, Johor Bahru

Heard good things about Pine Chicken Rice (161 Jalan Beringin, Taman Melodies, 80250 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 13-715 3211).

Lemon tea's pleasantly astringent.

Coffee's pretty decent too. Not as aromatic as I usually prefer but it's pretty robust.

That one sauce that we've never encountered before at chicken rice shops/stalls is the green one.

Got ourselves the lower quarter of their poached chicken which was basically dark meat. Bird's smooth, firm and tender. Nice.

Rice was nicely flavoured from their stock and not excessively greasy. There's adequate savouriness that one could inhale with or without the chilli sauces. Soup's pleasantly herbal.

Speaking of sauces...the red's not like the one back home. It's less punchy, less sweet and didn't seem to be lime-y but still pretty good tasting. The green one's deliciously lime-y. Nice.

Egg.

Otah's pretty good. Heard it's not made in house but that don't make us think lesser of it. Plenty of little chunks of fish in it.

In essence, Pine Chicken Rice was nothing short of competent. Would not mind coming back at all.

Murtabak Majid Special Cheese No.1, Kampung Kurnia, Johor Bahru

We came to Murtabak Majid Special Cheese No.1 (38 Lot, 5581, Jalan Kurniawan, Kampung Kurnia, 80250 Johor Bahru) for their murtabak. They are known for ones with cheese.

There's a choice of chicken, mutton or beef. Sadly, they were out of mutton when we visited 🥲. So we ended up with the beef. One can choose between biasa (regular/small), special (medium/double layered) or jumbo (presumably large). This was the special daging cheese.

Not as cheesy as what we saw online but still pretty cheesy. Appearances reminded me just a little of the murtabak that one can get from Zam Zam minus the mutton crusted exterior. Pretty good tasting, hefty portioned and not overly oily.

What I particularly liked were the finely diced onions in them which resulted in a mouthfeel and taste which I enjoyed - similar to the ones at Zam Zam.

There's some vegetable dal and sliced cucumbers that you could help yourself to.

Bandung. 

Yit Foh Restaurant (益和云吞面), Taman Abad, Johor Bahru

Read about Yit Foh's (153 Jalan Harimau, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru) wanton mee and it seemed that there were polarised opinions on them despite descriptions that sounded pretty good to me. We came for breakfast to find out for ourselves. 😬

The wanton mee comes in 3 sizes. This was the small. Note to self: get the medium next time. One can choose between mee pok...

...and their regular egg noodles. Both are made by Yit Foh and have great texture. Saucing was light and savoury and their chilli packs some heat. Nice. Char siew's....they are what they are. Soak in sauce for better eating.

Wantons were light (as opposed to densely packed) and actually not bad. 

We got a side of chicken chop. Wouldn't say that it's no good but I don't think we liked so much crunch on the batter.

Kopi's decent. Hainanese style, not the most aromatic but pretty thick.

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.