Hey Hive!
If you missed the previous post, we started recounting another vacation where we went just across the border for a few days to Johor Bahru, Malaysia! This was back in July 2023, when it was too hot to travel elsewhere and we just needed a short getaway.
Last week, we went exploring in one of JB's biggest malls - AEON Mall! They had some interesting shops including a Finnish indoor theme park that also houses an adjacent restaurant, making it the perfect place for families!
We were tired from all the walking we did so we decided to go for a light early dinner and had some healthy soup and veggies at this Chinese restaurant called Souper Tang.
We chose the Aged Black Garlic Chicken Soup with American Ginseng and had some sauteed broccoli and fried beancurd knots that were actually really tasty!
It was a very appetising meal but we also wanted to save stomach space since we were going to a night market later so we killed some time and let the food digest while we perused the very fancy and huge supermarket in the mall.
There's only a little left to this day so let's continue!
15 July 2023. Saturday.
We decided to check out a night market for supper! It's quite common in JB and it's where a lot of people go for some authentic Malaysian street food.
The night market we went to was packed! There were street cart/stalls flaked on either side of this long street that was blocked from traffic, with plenty of tables and chairs in between for patrons. It was probably the most crowded we've ever seen JB, even more packed than the mall.
There were so many different stalls, specialising in various street food dishes. It was tough to choose which one we wanted to try. We meandered through the tables looking at the different stalls while also trying to find an empty table.
Each street cart stall had their own kitchen attached to it, and we could see the stall owners hard at work preparing all the orders.
There were all sorts of dishes but grilled seafood was definitely a popular one and it was really fresh, since you can see them grilling the seafood they had on display on the spot.
Many of the stalls also had food runners and they'd give you a number so they can identify which table it was. This was a lot more convenient than having people crowd around their stall.
Only some stalls had that kind of service though, others you did have to queue up for, which was less convenient. But I guess if the food was really delicious customers wouldn't mind.
I think some people would argue that these street stalls are not the most hygienic but ask any Asian and they'd say that's the risk of having cheap and good food.
The night market was truly quite a sight and it was actually a bit overwhelming for me too. I had quite a sensory overload but thankfully we weren't very hungry so we could take our time and wait for a table.
Thankfully it didn't take us long to find an empty table. Sean went off to order some dishes he thought would be good to try while I waited.
The first dish to arrive was this Char Kway Teow that looked and smelled so delicious! You could clearly see it was very nicely fried and definitely had plenty of wok hei (or breath of wok).
It came from this street stall called simply Penang Fried Kuey Teow. It looked like a humble street cart stall so definitely legit.
It tasted really good too! There was definitely plenty of wok hei and it was seasoned nicely. Maybe a tad too much oil but it was still very delicious and appetising.
The next dish we tried was Wantan Mee (or wonton noodles) which came with plenty of fried lard, a side of green chili and a bowl of wontons in soup since we ordered the dry version where the noodles came with sauce.
The dish came from this stall which looked pretty legit as well, just like the kind of stalls you'd see in hawker centers with long queues.
Even though we had dinner not too long ago, the aroma of all the cooked food everywhere was started to whet my appetite, and with these two dishes in front of me I was starting to get hungry again.
The wantan mee was good too if a little bit generic? It was alright; the noodles were slightly chewy and had plenty of sauce but I would've liked more chili sauce mixed in for sure. The meat was also a little lackluster, it was kind of dry and not really tender. But it was still okay.
We had two more dishes coming and waited for them after scarfing down the wantan mee and char kway teow.
The first one was colloquially known as chai tau kueh, or stir fried carrot cake which was actually radish mixed with flour and fried with egg. It's one of my favourite dishes and in Singapore they have black and white versions, black having sweet sauce.
This dish came from this stall, and the portion was also quite small even for the smaller size.
This one was just a mix so it was slightly sweet but also a bit generic. It was definitely lacking in chili which I thought it would be fried with or at least have some on the side. On its own it was quite sweet but the radish cake was soft and slightly bouncy so it was still alright.
We also ordered some chicken satay which came with the classic peanut sauce, along with some cucumbers and onions.
This one came from this Satay stall which was in front of a hawker center. We were surprised to still see a hawker center here since we figured all the food stalls in the area would be within the night market.
The satay was pretty good; chicken was tender and the peanut sauce was sweet and savoury - the perfect complement. It could have been charred a bit more but it was still delicious.
After we were done eating we promptly left the table so other people could use it, and also to dodge the heat since it was sweltering within the night market with so many people and stalls cooking up a storm.
We took a look around the hawker center that was behind the satay stall to see what other stalls were here but found most of them closed anyway.
There were only 3 stalls open and there were tables in here that would've been nice to sit at since there were fans in here. But I'm not sure if we could have brought the food we ordered outside in here.
After that we ordered a car to bring us back to our hotel for the night.
We were staying in a boutique hotel which was along a line of shops and cafes, and now that it was night time it looked like this street was more alive than when we left in the afternoon.
There was an ice cream cafe and I was hankering for some dessert after all the savoury foods we ate so we decided to try it.
It was quite a nice cafe, and they had ice cream cakes and ice cream that came with waffles as well. But I think we were too full for a waffle so we settled for sharing a waffle cone.
There were quite a lot of flavours to choose from, and they had some interesting flavours too.
After we got our cone, we went into the cafe to sit down, and it was actually quite a bit bigger than we thought.
The inside was quite spacious with some sofas, chairs and small tables. The place was also colourfully decorated with some interesting artwork.
We took a seat to enjoy our ice cream and cool off in the air conditioning as well.
I don't really remember what flavour we ordered but it seems like a mix of Taro and Unicorn? It was quite sweet and I think I preferred the Taro flavour but they weren't bad.
They also had this very apt sign and Sean wanted me to take a photo with it.
And with that come the end of this first full day in Johor Bahru! Tune in next week for more!
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
[//]:# (!worldmappin 1.54925 lat 103.79531 long d3scr)
Check out my previous post in this series!