Restoran Md. Salleh, Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru

Breakfast at Restoran Md. Salleh (22 Jalan Pingai, Taman Pelangi, 80400 Johor Bahru).

Found their tea a tad too sweet for my liking. The flavour was also reminiscent of roobois tea.

Roti telur goyang - a kosong with a telur goyang with their dal kuah. In English, a plain roti canai with a wobbly half boiled egg and their lentil gravy. Gravy's a little thinner and less punchy than what I was expecting.

I was wondering if their roti sardine was similar to the sardine prata from Prata Saga Sambal Berlada. It wasn't. There's onions in it so it turned out to be more akin to the sardine murtabak. Sardine's finely minced and spread out so while it wasn't bad, Prata Saga Sambal Berlada's sardine prata beats this. I mean like hands down.

Lontong gravy was on the thin side, lacks the richness and viscosity as the ones I normally prefer back home. But I guess that's how they roll here.

Tried a kosong and telur. As roti canai/prata went, they were competent enough. Hard pressed to find something about it that is memorable though.

Ke Ren Lai (客人来), Mid Valley Southkey, Johor Bahru

Came across Ke Ren Lai (Lot TM-030, Third Mezzanine Floor, The Mall, Mid Valley Southkey, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru). They do Hakka cuisine and for some of the dishes, updated representations of them.

One of those updated representations was their ice thunder tea milk (独创擂茶撞奶). I'm gonna agree with the innovative description in the name. It's milky and sweet with a herbal/liquorice profile.  As a 茶撞奶, I totally get it. And I like it.

There's lei cha fried rice (爆炒擂茶饭). The taste didn't veer much from regular thunder tea rice because the ingredients were mostly the same. What made this was how savoury it was. A little oily perhaps, but still got us spooning mouthful after mouthful.

Their Hakka abacus seeds were not nice. In fairness, the minced meat and tofu bits were deliciously salted and savoury. The yam nuggets were chewy, somewhat akin to mochi and didn't taste particularly yammy. Also more oily than I'm comfortable with. I'm guessing it's the ratio of ingredients that we didn't agree with.

Smoked kampung chicken (炭火烟熏盐焗土鸡). Bird was dry-ish and not tender. Required some jaw work. Was smoky though. That lightly fried tofu and the yuzu goma salad on the side were the highlights and I meant that in a good way.

Enjoyed their dang gui milk with peach gum (当归桃胶蜂蜜奶). 👍🏼

That green stuff was lei cha yoghurt (清轻擂茶酸奶). I thought it was a good balance of those lei cha-ish flavours with the the tanginess from the yoghurt. A third stealing of thunder if you would. 😬 Also nice with those cold frozen berries and candied nuts.

Oriental Kopi, Mid Valley Southkey, Johor Bahru

We ended up at Oriental Kopi at Mid Valley Southkey (No 1, LG-054, The Mall, Mid Valley, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru) for lunch.

Got their iced chocolate royal because we remember liking it the last time we had it at Bugis Junction. It's as good.

There's a new taro polo bun on menu. I quote them "...crispy #purple sweet potato crust, velvety smooth #Taiwan Dajia taro paste, and a refreshing layer of #thick-cut cold butter. Hot meets cold, crispy meets creamy, a flavor explosion in every bite!?". Oh hell yeah this was good. I haven't heard of Dajia taro until now. As I'm typing this. Pedigree of the taro aside, the execution of the bun was well thought out.

I've been curious about their mala ban mian for a while now. Tasted like how I imagined it. Not bad but also not special.

Their prawn fried rice was very eggy. Very.

Pretty decent tea. The flavour's reminiscent of Thai tea and they don't try to kill you slowly with sugar here.

Heng Wah Kopitiam (興華老店), Holiday Villa, Johor Bahru

Breakfast at Heng Wah Kopitiam (260 Jalan Dato Sulaiman, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru).

Kopi's not bad. Pretty nice brew even without the gao.

Wanton mee's nice. Love the texture of the egg noodles flavoured with rendered lard (猪油). Unfortunately their fried lard (猪油渣) was stale and lau hong. Pity cuz I liked the rest of this.

There's nasi lemak. Decent rendition with nice toasty peanuts and a slightly watery sambal that appears to have the taste of sardine. Hmmm...

The fried chicken thigh that came with the nasi lemak was chunky, crispy on the skin and was flavoured with turmeric. I thought I detected cumin as well. Meat's moist underneath all that golden brown. Nice!

Steamed bread with some milky dip that had pandan kaya inside. Not bad.

Like Mee Noodle House (贊麵館 豬肉粉), Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru

Pretty impressed by what we had at Like Mee Noodle House (6 Jalan Austin Heights 8/2, Taman Mount Austin, 81100 Johor Bahru).

Ice kopi's pretty good. Flavour's robust even with the ice and milk. That monkfruit/luo han guo/罗汉果 tea wasn't as thick as I was imagining though.

Tried their 猪肉粉/pork noodles. This one was the option with mixed pork parts which included sliced pork, liver, some deliciously flavourful pork patties and check out those stuffed intestines! Both meat and offal were well prepared without residual stench. Soup's cloudy and packed with a clean pork flavour, layered gently with lard.

Flavour of said soup was intensified and further aromatised from a generous shot of shao xing wine (绍兴酒).

The other bowl we had was fish paste noodles. Not that fish paste noodles. This bowl was noodles that came with slices of fish paste. Tasted like tender fish cake. The soup was fortified with evaporated milk and more shao xing wine. Reminded me a little of that milky soup bowl from Go Noodle House. Hell yeah this was good! 👍🏼

Tried their fish popcorn. These were kinda like mini fish cakes. Kinda because it wasn't the same but I couldn't put a finger to what made these different.

Would love to come back.

More food from from Meng Meng Roasted Duck (阿明帝皇鸭) at City Square

Stopped by Meng Meng Roasted Duck at City Square for food before heading deeper into JB.

Discovered that their salted vegetable duck soup (咸菜鸭汤) was not bad. Liked it enough that I'll want to get it again the next time.

Tried asking for 半肥瘦 for their char siew. This was it. Tasted kinda like the last times we had them. The meat was more tender than it looked. Not Char Siew Yoong standards obviously.

油饭 doesn't have that much salt so the flavour intensity isn't high. Which makes it great pairing with their lime-y chilli sauce.

Mango Pomelo from Oriental Kopi

Mango pomelo dessert (杨枝甘露) at Oriental Kopi. Pretty decent rendition here. Would have been great if there were more pomelo. Mango's sweet and fragrant. Couldn't tell what's that white stuff in there though I suspect it's milk.

Some dim sum stuff from Meng Meng Roasted Duck (阿明帝皇鸭)

While we were at Meng Meng for some of their roast meats......

Tried their meat stuffed tofu. This not bad. Dried fish flavour in the meat.

Har gow's passable. They don't do delicate skin here.

Siew mai's not great. Felt like it was stuffed with meat paste rather than minced pork and mushrooms.

Palates & Bagels by T.A.M., Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru

Came by Palates & Bagels (10 Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-2101 0150) to try their pistachio kunafa croissant.

Looks like minced tuna but it's kadaifi/kadayıf.

The inside of the croissant was stuffed with the pistachio flavoured pastry. Not bad tasting - a little nutty with milky sweetness and the texture was very crunchy.

Grapefruit peach sparkling oolong. Less ice, less sweet.