Revisiting Tiong Bahru Bakery @ Raffles City

Been a while since we were last at Tiong Bahru Bakery - mostly because I never liked what I had that much from them previously. Menu's updated a little since.

There's a coconut pandan financier (for SG61) and another one with hazelnuts. Pleasantly surprised that both these were kinda nice. They were buttery enough and I liked the pandan infusion from the former that wasn't overshadowed by coconut. Also liked that saltiness we were tasting from the hazelnut one.

Pretty pleasant custard-y canele.

Found a cream shio pan - gotta admit that I rather liked it. It's a little different from the one from Noci Bakehouse. Something about the cream maybe.

Okay-ish houjicha latte. This one was actually kinda smooth going down and a little more milky rather than a more robust tea flavour I was hoping for.

Taste Ipoh, Raffles City

Some food from Taste Ipoh (#B1-81 Raffles City, 252 North Bridge Road). As the name of the eatery would suggest, they're doing Ipoh styled food and according to them, the menu's a "celebration of Ipoh's culinary heritage".

Tried their crispy poh piah which has dried shrimp (hae bi) flavour in it. We like this rendition better than the one from Auntie Mei's Crispy Popiah even though it didn't have as much crunchy bits. Did have more sweet sauce and was more competently wrapped.

That's something called Fragrant Spicy Dry Curry Chicken (Varuval) Bee Hoon Mee - not bad. Not understanding the 'varuval' part in the name but I'm guessing it's got to do with the chicken. Texture from the noodles were pleasantly firm and we kinda enjoyed the dark gravy flavoured with curry from the "dry curry" chicken.

Pretty good tasting Ipoh white kopi c. Coffee's fairly robust with adequate fragrance.

Dapo’ Khaleeda, Taman Abad, Johor Bahru

Big breakfast at Dapo’ Khaleeda (102, Jalan Dato Sulaiman, Taman Abad, 80250 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 18-776 6853).

This place serves breakfast/lunch and sells frozen cooked products.

A few items are on self service. Like their nasi lemak which one can help themselves with before heading to the counter for payment. Got one with paru belado, fried egg, fried chicken and some serunding daging. The last item's beef floss. Rice looked like basmati. Pretty tasty in an old school-ish way.

Lontong's also self service. Pretty lemak gravy there. This was topped with serunding daging as well. Not bad.

Satay can be ordered from their menu. That's chicken and maybe mutton. They're chunky and the meat on the skewer is alternated with chunks of fat. Gravy was deliciously thick and nutty with crushed peanuts.

One of they items they're known for is roti sarang burung. It's a variant of roti canai shaped like a bird's nest with a couple of eggs in the middle. One can get the regular version or with topping. This one's has sardines. Not bad tasting. Can't really make out what's that curry on the side.

Underwhelming teh tarik.

Chocolate banana cake from Secret Recipe @ Mid Valley Southkey

Stopped by Secret Recipe (LG-046, The Mall, Mid Valley Southkey, Persiaran Southkey 1, Southkey, 80150 Johor Bahru) for a slice of their chocolate banana cake. Came with a teh tarik as part of their tea set. Teh wasn't good. Tasted like it came from a packet rather than freshly brewed.

Kaya toast and drinks from Roast & Coffee - Retro Garden 1968's

Ducked into Roast & Coffee - Retro Garden 1968's for some drinks and sanctuary from the sweltering heat.

Ice lemon tea was suitably astringent, robust and lemony. I don't know if anything else here can top this for the weather.

Carrot milk's not bad. Got this sans ice. Creamy, carrot-y and cooling.

Not a fan of their kaya toast. Felt flimsy. Not using pandan kaya aside, the thin strip of butter was just sad.

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.

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.

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.

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.