Claypot Catfish @ 哥打泥鳅王 in Austin Food Zone, Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru

This is another "stumble upon" good food find J We were driving around the industrial part of Taman Mount Austin when we saw this large purple coloured banner proclaiming immodestly that they are the 泥鳅王 or  "King of Catfish".

 

Well, the banner's eye catching, sparkling catfish logo and self assuredness worked - it got us curious enough to get down from the car to test their claim. We walked into a large coffee shop buzzing with chattering customers and had to wait a while for empty seats. We did not mind waiting as this is usually a good sign that we had discovered a new good food find J

There were only two stalls here, besides the usual drinks stall. One was this stall 哥打泥鳅王 serving claypot catfish and the other was "MR Pau 包" a handmade pau stall. Seeing that most of the tables had a claypot, I knew we had found a "must try" dish.

The boss Candy had been running 哥打泥鳅王 for more than 10 years. Candy personally does all the cooking which was done completely at the front of the stall - this is the usual set up in Johor food stalls. Lots of ginger shreds and dried chilies were used in making the claypot catfish.

Candy stir fries the thick meaty chunks of rosy hued, fresh catfish with the ginger shreds and dried  chillies.

When nearly cooked, Candy added large dollops of special blend homemade sambal chili and dark soy sauce to the claypot of catfish.

Our large sized claypot catfish costs RM16

A quick stir with deft movements by Candy and the claypot of piping hot catfish chunks was ready to serve.

These catfish chunks may not look very photogenic, but the sweet tender meat with smooth skin on, was simply deletable. The ginger shreds, dried chilies, sambal chili and black soy sauce gave the dish a tangy and spicy hot flavour and taste. There was none of the "muddy" taste normally associated with catfish at all. As I like my food extra spicy, this was absolutely delicious to me.

Noticing that their yellow wine chicken 黄酒鸡 was also very popular, we decided to add it to our order. Candy poured generous dashes of rice wine to the claypot of fresh chicken chunks.

Small sized yellow wine chicken costs RM7

The fresh chicken meat was tender and naturally sweet. The rice wine broth had an extra robust rice wine flavour and taste due to the generous doses of wine.

We are very pleased with our latest good food find and highly recommend 哥打泥鳅王's claypot catfish and yellow wine chicken.


Restaurant name: 哥打泥鳅王 (no English name - literal translation "Kota Catfish King")
Address: 24, Jalan Mutiara Emas 5/20, Taman Mount Austin, Johor Bahru, Johor
Map: http://g.co/maps/3grmu
GPS: 1.551393,103.769055
Hours: 10:30am to 8:00pm (Mon to Fri); 10:30am to 3:30pm (Sat); Closed on Sunday
Non Halal

Date visited: 18 May 2012