Doña Bakehouse, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

Doña Bakehouse (14 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 10-667 8625) is next door to that popular Hiap Joo Bakery known for their banana cake. Have tried the banana cake and did not think much of them. But I digress...

I admit to being lured in by the bakes on display. These guys I heard are apparently popular.

Dirty matcha's decent with a bitter thickness from the green tea.

Rose latte was pretty drinkable with an extra shot. Kinda like the creme de la rose from Lady M.

Bakes were...decent. Pastry has nice lamination but needed more butter. A lot more. So I'm classifying them as just passable.  Love the nuttiness from the pistachio rose croissant but where's the rose? Pretty impressed by the poppyseed crust of the poppyseed bagel but the texture felt more bread-y then bagel-y. 

What cemented my opinion of them was that I had explicitly requested for our pastries/bagel to be heated and they weren't. Having the bakes warmed up was the least we had expected of them, even if we had not request for it. We're of the opinion that they understood what they were serving to taste better at least warm. Apparently we had thought too highly of them.

Now we know they're just a pretty cafe with a bit of baking skills and a premium price tag. Just like countless others.

Meng Meng Roasted Duck (阿明帝皇鸭), City Square, Johor Bahru

We've tried Meng Meng Roasted Duck previously from their outpost at Ang Mo Kio. While it wasn't bad at all, it also wasn't as impressive as we've imagined after hearing the good things about their roasts. This meal (Lot MF21A-22, Level 3, Jalan Wong Ah Fook, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru) changed thing. It was kinda better than we imagined.

Chilled ginseng chrysanthemum tea was nice.

Because we wanted to try all of their roasts, we went 三拼. Duck's tender, deboned and had enough fat with the skin for flavour. Great crunchy crackling on the siew yoke and lovely bittersweet caramelization enveloped the fatty char siew. Meats were moist and rounded up with their sweet dang gui/Chinese Angelica/当归 sauce. 👍🏼

We asked for an extra portion of the dang gui sauce just for the rice.

These truffle char siew baos were outstanding. The buns were light and fluffy, barely holding themselves together to contain the sweet smoky char siew with sauce in its core.

Revisiting Ho Seng Kee (何成記)

Have been wanting to come back to Ho Seng Kee because we remember liking their noodles. The menu appears to have evolved since the last time.

Note to self : Yummy cincau fresh milk. Milk was lightly sweet and just delicious with the shreds of fairy grass. 

Got a serving of their Good Old Days Mee which was just noodles with fried lard and a couple of fried eggs. It was available in ghost pepper flavour.

I don't know if ghost pepper was used for their sauce but it was pretty spicy. Not anywhere on the Scoville near an actual ghost pepper I'm sure. What's bugged me just a little was the underlying sweetness that was in all that heat. Which I offset with pickled green chilli.

Muah otah here doesn't taste like how I remember them. These don't appear to be as tasty. They were dry. Will not get them again.

Triple K 牛肉面家, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Johor Bahru

Came across Triple K 牛肉面家 (48 Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru) in our traipse along the heritage street. It was the mutton noodle soup that got our attention.

Broth was a mix of herbal sweetness and flavour from lamb. Meat was reasonably tender. Teetering on the cusp of being something memorable but not quite transcending into until......

......we discovered what seriously elevated that bowl was a splash of vinegar. Said vinegar helped tone the sweetness down and added an appetizing tanginess. I could come back again for this.

IT Roo Cafe, Jalan Dhoby, Johor Bahru

We've heard about IT Roo Cafe (7 Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 7-222 7780) and their talked about old school chicken chop with biscuit crumb batter so we decided to get some. This was the one with two eggs and mushroom sauce.

Not bad tasting. The mushroom sauce has some sliced button mushrooms in it but the sauce didn't have any mushroom flavour. Potato wedges on the side were sweet and potato-y.

The pleasant surprise was their bandung fizz. Yes it was indeed a sweet, milky and fizzy rose flavoured beverage. I will come back here for this.

Restoran Hua Mui, Jalan Trus, Johor Bahru

We came to Hua Mui (131 Jalan Trus, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 7-224 7364) by way of recommendation for a slice of nostalgia. Place reminded me a little of Silom Restaurant in Bangkok. 

Here's their kopi cincau ice - coffee's more bitter, less rounded and less sweet compared to Oriental Kopi. Tasted old school Hainanese. 

Ditto for their butter kopi.

Fried chicken and egg sandwich was...a passable eat. Whole sandwich was dry-ish and the slice of fried chicken in the bread was pretty thin. Presumably, this fried chicken isn't of the same quality as the chicken chop that people say Hua Mui is known for. 

I don't know if anyone has noticed that their fried carrot cake isn't exactly fried carrot cake. They aren't made with radish. I'm pretty sure these are yam cake. Apart from tasting like yam infused with dried shrimp flavour, they're also heavier and denser. Actually tasted pretty good.

Nasi lemak was a little gingery and rice was somewhat lumpy. I'm not a fan. Needed a bit more salt methinks. Otah appears to be fried, not steamed.