Seafood Porridge @ No Name Stall near Lee Biscuits Factory in Pontian

After becoming acquainted with the boss of Tian Seng coffee shop in Pontian, I asked him for good food recommendations. He immediately shared with me a no name stall selling fresh seafood soup and porridge which he had been visiting at least twice a week.

Luckily, this no name stall is not hard to find as it is just across the road from a prominent local landmark, the Lee Biscuits Factory.  As there were other similar stalls in the vicinity, the kopitiam towkay told me that the seafood soup stall owner is known by the nickname Yau Kwai 妖怪 (Hokkien for monster). Towkay also reminded me to make sure that it is the seafood soup stall next to the chicken rice and roast meat stall, and not any others.

With these directions, I found Lee Biscuits Factory easily, parked my car nearby and explored the area on foot.

I found a popular seafood stall with many customers in a rustic, makeshift looking food court with only two stalls – a no name seafood soup stall and a chicken rice/ roast meat stall. This must be bingo :-D

But the friendly person running the seafood soup stall didn’t looked anywhere near being a yau kwai 妖怪 or monster :-D   

Anyway, looking at the steady stream of customers coming and going even when it was not yet lunch time, I knew it was a safe bet – not much risk to my calorie quota.

The stall serves seafood and fish prepared in a variety of ways including cooking it in asam (tamarind). I opted for seafood porridge cooked in the Teochew style. I also saw many customers ordering the asam fish.

Haha.., it pays to listen to the locals, especially when the local is a kopitiam towkay :-D

Just look at this bowl of seafood porridge – doesn’t the vibrant colours of the fish slices, shrimps and lettuce say it all? Everything in here was super fresh. The pork bone and seafood based broth was naturally sweet and aromatic. Everything here including the rice was refreshingly sweet and had just a delicate, subtle natural saltiness. This was the nicest seafood porridge that I had tasted so far :-D

And, by the way, Lee Biscuit Factory is also just beside the Pontian wholesale fish market – this is where the no name stall gets its supplies. So the seafood is super fresh and at near wholesale prices. My superb seafood porridge costs RM8 or SGD3.30.

Finally, after I was acquainted with the stall owner, I popped the inevitable question – “Do people call you Yau Kwai 妖怪?” The stall owner replied in the affirmative while beaming a broad smile. So I asked further, "Why would a nice guy like you, be called such a name?" Yau Kwai 妖怪 replied that it is because he was a “bad boy” once. My response was all of us had been “bad boys” some time in our lives :-D

->> We can get premium fresh fish easily from expensive restaurants but it just feels more special to me when we get the same thing at a humble stall :-D 

Restaurant name: No name stall (the “food court” has a sign that says “PAC CORNER”)

Address: Along Jalan Kukup, Pontian, Johor (directly opposite and across Jalan Kukup from Lee Biscuits Factory)

Map: http://g.co/maps/v7evf

GPS: N 1.47535, E103.39440 / 1°28'31.3"N 103°23'39.8"E
Hours: 7:00am to 2:00pm (closed on Mondays)

Non Halal

Date visited: 4 Apr 2012

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.