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.

Clams Man 91 (六楼啦啦煲91), Taman Majidee, Johor Bahru

We found out about Clams Man 91 online. They're a clam hotpot establishment (126, Jalan Kebun Teh, Taman Majidee, 80250 Johor Bahru, tel : +60 11-1035 1319) with skewers on the side...

...and a modest fiery theatrics that accompany some of the hotpot orders.

Not forgetting also - unlimited 花雕酒 to zest up your hotpot.

Some apple aloe vera drink which didn't have much aloe vera. Not great flavour from the apple as well.

Ordered their clam shrimps pot which was filled with shrimp paste stuffed clams. Broth's okay-ish but once the 花雕酒 gets swooshed in, it's all good.

Clam meat still in the shell neath the shrimp paste. Not bad tasting and nothing unexpected from them.

Added some fatty beef on the side which wasn't really fatty. Meat was tender but didn't have much flavour.

Good thing there was a nice coriander lime sauce.

Had some grilled scallops too. For some reasons, I thought they would be naked. Maybe with just salt or light soya sauce or something. These came with some spicy and really garlicky sauce which was pretty good tasting,

And lamb skewers that were spicier than appearances suggested. Meaty with some fats but not so tender and not enough cumin. 

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.