Homemade Chocolate Cakes at Chocolicious House in Johor Baru, Malaysia

Chocolicious House was started by an enterprising young couple Yan and Aida early this year.

Word about Chocolicious House's delicious chocolate cakes spread quickly through word of mouth and on the Internet.

 

The lusciously delicious chocolate cakes were spongy soft, moist and not overly sweet. (I am eating them as I wrote this :) ) They are definitely addictive and people have found them very hard to put down, once they've started.

 

The little cakes are made using Yan's mum's own recipe. Yan has been watching and helping his mum make cakes at home since he was a child. So, it is little wonder then that Yan is so passionate about his cakes.

 

Aida too has learnt the fine art from Yan and his mum.

 

The freshly steamed chocolate cakes.

Customers order Chocolicious House's chocolate cakes to enjoy at home, and the large orders are for functions like weddings and corporate events. For functions, Yan put these bite size chocolate cakes in pretty little boxes that make attractive door gifts and souvenirs. Yan has an artistic flair and he painstakingly hand decorates each pretty little box. (I must remember to take a picture of these boxes, next time.)

Yan and Aida are getting more catering orders for functions now as word got around about their delicious cakes in pretty little gift boxes.

 

Yan and Aida are very enterprising and accommodating to customer requirements. For example, they can set up dessert tables for functions according to customer specifications. Yan and Aida already has plans underway to expand their range of cakes to include baked items. Chocolicious House will also be launching special goodies for the coming Chinese New Year. They plan that far ahead :)

Chocolicious House has orders from JB (of course) and also from as far away as Malacca and KL. Orders have even come from Singapore.

As no preservatives were used in Chocolicious House's cakes, it is best to eat the cakes within 3 days of purchase. Yan and Aida have never heard of any problems with that as Chocolicious cakes are so irresistible, they won't be around for that long anyway.

Restaurant name: Chocolicious House
Contact: Yan on 0127100886 or Aida on 0172211231.
Halal

Johor Seafood - Star Chef Seafood Restaurant 星名廚 in Gelang Patah (near Legoland), Johor

I have been wanting to visit Restaurant Star Chef 星名廚 ever since they moved (on 12 Oct 2012) to their new address in Gelang Patah (from Skudai). This afternoon, we were at Restaurant Star Chef at the gracious invitation of Alex, the boss.

Unlike the air conditioned premises at Skudai, here at Gelang Patah, Star Chef is an open concept restaurant, airy and more spacious. The ambiance is informal, relaxed and comfortable - the perfect setting for easy, casual dining with buddies and family.

Locating Restaurant Star Chef was a breeze as it is along the same stretch of road with many seafood restaurants. Restaurant Star Chef is highly accessible from Singapore via the Second Link at Tuas/ Gelang Patah. As good foodies, once we arrived, we quickly got down to the serious business of eating without much ado :)

When at Restaurant Star Chef, I always have their braised duck and roast duck as Star Chef is one of the few places that still uses live ducks for cooking. And, as always, Star Chef's ducks always pleases. The braised duck was tender, savoury and naturally sweet. The roasted duck had that herbal taste and flavour, was tender and the skin was nicely crispy. (Update: Live ducks are no longer available in Johor.)

Plate of braised duck, roast duck and char siew RM15

Today, Alex also wanted us to try his char siew. I purposely indulged in a couple of slices of the fatty pieces and they were well worth the cholesterol. Soft and luscious with BBQ pork flavour.

When ordering crabs, we decided to be adventurous - rather than the usual safe choices of chili crab, black pepper crab, and crab cooked with salted egg yolks we tried two styles that we never had before. These were Restaurant Star Chef's signature crabs.

This was on the menu as the King of Crab - well, with a delicious name like this, we just got to put it to the (taste) test :P The crab arrived in a puffy bag made with aluminium foil.

The staff carefully slit the bag open with a pair of scissors and tah... dah.... there was.... another bag. This time made with a large dried lotus leaf.

Alex then personally cut open the lotus leaf bag, and inside was the large crab baked with a spicy, tangy sauce and lots of pepper corns, onions and a bit of chili. Most of us liked the spicy, tangy taste with the juicy crab meat though one of us felt it might be an acquired taste.

This was the Butter Cream Crab with Coconut Milk. The taste and flavour was similar to butter crabs and with the twist of fragrant touches of fresh coconut milk and shredded coconut flesh. The butter and coconut based gravy was creamy, tacky and sweet. We all liked this as it went very well with the thick and juicy crab meat.

Crab prices are, of course, seasonal. For today, it's RM68/ kg for the medium sized ones.

Tong Po Pork RM13

One of us had a craving for classic Tong Po pork and ordered it immediately on seeing it on the menu. When the Tong Po pork arrived, I was thrilled by the glazed and giggly tender look of the braised pork. We were all mouth watering but everyone had to indulge me as I took my usual amount of time to get my best pictures. Sorry guys, I know, I am slow :P

When we finally got the chance to sink our teeth into the Tong Po pork, we were all well rewarded by the savoury sweet soft meat.

Alex offered us this Seafood in Pumpkin soup which was an off menu item at RM36 (for 4 to 5 persons). It's savoury sweet creamy pumpkin soup with chunky pieces of button mushrooms, grouper fish meat, scallops and fish maw. It's like seafood chowder with cream of pumpkin soup.

Fried Yee Mee RM12

To round up our meal, we had an obligatory carbo dish - a simple Fried Yee Mee cooked with seafood broth. I liked this el dente noodles so much that I unknowingly ate more than what was necessary and polite :P

Our meal came with this complimentary herbal broth. I was not crazy about this, though the ladies were full of praise for it. They loved the  dang gui 當歸 flavour in the soup.



Gelang Patah is a very crowded field with more than a dozen seafood restaurants established in the area. Now, lucky foodies from Johor and Singapore are further spoilt with another attractive choice with the entrance of Restaurant Star Chef.

Click on the pictures to view my earlier posts on Star Chef Restaurant (when they were located in Skudai).

Click on the map to see my earlier posts when Star Chef Restaurant was in Skudai

Restaurant name: Restaurant Star Chef 星名廚
Address: 51, Jalan Gelang Emas 1, Taman Gelang Emas, Gelang Patah, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/qTJV6
GPS: 1.450726,103.585367
Hours: 09:30am to 10:30pm (Closed on alternate Thursdays)

Non Halal

Date visited: 28 Oct 2012

Return to Johor Kaki homepage.

Spinach Mee Hoon Kueh @ Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 in Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

I always like lots of greens with my meals and so when I heard about Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店 which blends spinach into their noodles, I immediately decided that I must try this.

We were expecting a buzzing restaurant as Spinach Noodle House is, after all, located in Taman Johor Jaya - one of Johor Bahru's eating hot spots. So we were pretty surprised to see a rather quiet restaurant at about 9:00am on a Wednesday. Spinach Noodle House seemed to have had its heydays and business looked decidedly slow.

Nevertheless, we did not let that dampen our enthusiasm and decided to still give Spinach Noodle House a try.

 

I requested for a spinach mee hoon kueh. These were roughly hand torn pieces of flat sheets of flour dough with real spinach blended into the flour. Spinach mee hoon kueh had that pretty slight greenish tone, which looked invitingly delicious to me.

 

The broth was clear and loaded with fish balls, pork balls, fish cake slices, fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles.

The spinach mee hoon kueh was good. It was floppy yet el dente. The clear broth was not oily and it was savoury, being helped along by the fried ikan bilis and shallot crackles. 

Spinach Noodle House also serves yong tau foo to complement the mee hoon kueh or noodles. We, however, opted for a bowl of spinach in soup.

 

The spinach soup turned out to the highlight for me. I loved the taste of fresh spinach, plain simple, nice and healthy.

 

The light broth and shallot crackles brought out the spinach's fresh flavours really well.

The food at Spinach Noodle House was pretty tasty but somehow, it was not pulling in the crowds. I could only speculate that perhaps, spinach noodles and spinach mee hoon kueh are not as appealing nowadays, and are pretty much niche items.

Well, I'll continue to support Spinach Noodle House as I like the food here and spinach is good for me :)

 

Click on the photo to view the video feature on Spinach Noodle House by Fatbook Production.

 

Restaurant name: Spinach Noodle House 菠菜面专卖店
Address: 51, Jalan Dedap 7, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/ayDBg
GPS: 1.541205,103.804793
Hours: 07:00am to 6:30pm (Closed on Monday)
Non Halal

Date visited: 26 Sep 2012

Hong Kong Porridge 粥 Congee @ Kaka Lok Restaurant 家家樂 in Johor Jaya, JB

Hong Kong styled porridge 粥 or congee is one of my favourite comfort foods but I didn't see many stalls selling this classic Cantonese dish in Johor Bahru. Kaka Lok restaurant in Taman Johor Jaya is one of the few and fortunately their Hong Kong porridge or congee is good and popular :)

Nasi Lemak & Soto at Warung Kurniawan in Taman Suria, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

^ Click on photo to view latest post ^

Throughout Malaysia we can find warungs or street side food stalls which are popular places for a tasty and affordable meal with family and friends.

My friend Joe brought me to the famous Warung Kurniawan in Taman Suria.

Warung Kurniawan was typical of the thousands of warungs across Malaysia.

Warung Kurniawan is well known for its nasi lemak, sup tulang and its soto which can be eaten with bee hoon (rice vermicelli), yellow noodles, or rice cakes.

The soto soup at Warung Kurniawan was clear, not oily and mildly flavoured.

The generic yellow noodles were also somewhat bland.

Add a dash of their spicy sambal and the soup and noodles were instantly energized and perked up. As my friend said, the secret of Warung Kurniawan's soto is in their sambal. So, the flavour of Warung Kurniawan's soto is basically mild, and customers can adjust the spiciness to their liking by just adding their special spicy sambal. I also liked the crispy shallot crackles generously sprinkled on top of the noodles.

Warung Kurniawan's popular nasi lemak come tightly wrapped in these banana leaf and brown paper wraps.

For RM1.50, we get a fistful of fragrant coconut flavoured rice and sambal, slice of cucumber, half an egg, and a couple of small salted fish to go with it.

My friends and I liked this nasi lemak very much. This small package was packed full of delicious kampung flavours.

Come again? Yes! I want to try those enticing sup kambing and sup tulang!

->> Rustic street side dining at it's delicious best.

Restaurant name: Warung Kurniawan
Address: Along Jalan Kurniawan opposite Sekolah Agama Kebun Teh, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/bYc28
GPS: 1.498475,103.758637
Hours: 12:00pm to 7:00pm

Halal

Dates visited: 2 Oct 2012, 8 Oct 2012

Return to Johor Kaki home page.

Fish Head Steamboat at Restoran Dragon Village 龍鄉 in Taman Universiti, Skudai, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

We were circling Taman Universiti for a light lunch and remembered we had wanted to try the old style steamboat at Dragon Village 龍鄉. It was already nearly 2:00pm when we arrived and there were still a few tables with customers.

Loke Tien Yuen Restaurant 乐天园酒家 in Mersing, Johor, Malaysia

Our friend Bryan Anthony (of Food & Fun Johor) wanted to show us this special restaurant in Mersing called Loke Tien Yuen 乐天园酒家. So, six of us set off yesterday on the two hour drive from JB to the most famous restaurant in Mersing.

WGOIJB Second Makan Blitz @ Cedar Point Food Centre in Taman Century Garden (Near to Hotel Paragon), Johor Bahru, Malaysia

Cedar Point food centre in Taman Century (near to Hotel Paragon) was the venue for our second WGOIJB (What is Going On In JB Facebook Page) Makan Blitz and it was great to see our Johor Kakis grew quickly in numbers!

We had a great time making new friends and trying out Johor hawker food together.

 

There were so many food stalls at Cedar Point that we had to confine ourselves mainly to a third of the stalls, towards the back part of the food centre. That just means that we will be back for those stalls which we did not managed to try out tonite. (If you need a landmark for Cedar Point, it's just at the foot of Hotel Grand Paragon.)

 

 

Pork satay from Tampoi Satay

 

As we sat quite close to the satay stalls, naturally these were the first that got our attention. The satays from both stalls were well received. Several Kakis were big fans of Tampoi Satay's pork satays.

 

Chicken wings and pork satay from Kimdo BBQ

The signage on this stall says Taman Sentosa Kimdo BBQ. Besides pork satay, it had Kimdo's signature "one-bone" chicken wings which were well liked by our Kakis.

 

 

BBQ sambal stingray from Ikan Bakar Sin Kee

 

Sin Kee Ikan Bakar was another favourite. We had their popular stingray in spicy sambal. The stingray was tender and fresh while the thick spicy sambal was greasy, almost creamy. Everybody loved it.

 

We also had Sin Kee's grilled lady's fingers and petai. Petai lovers must try this :)

 

 

Cuttlefish kangkong from stall no. 85

 

Another stall which received many orders from our Kakis was the cuttlefish kangkong stall (no.85). The vegetables were fresh and the tangy, spicy gravy was tasty. The cuttlefish was a little firmer than my personal preference but everyone else seemed to like it this way.

One of the more adventurous Kakis couldn't resist ordering these giant cockles (also from stall no. 85). I am not sure who, if anyone among us, liked it. I and Alan Cole tried it, and felt it tasted salty - Alan said it reminded him of a mouthful of sea water. To me, it was like blood. The taste we got when we were young and when we licked our open wounds after we skinned our elbows and knees, because our buddy said it'll help it heal. Anyone, remembers? Anyway, the taste of blood lingered too long in the mouth for my liking. By the way, these giant cockles moved off stall no. 85 rather fast, so there are connoisseurs who have acquired the taste and know how to appreciate these.

 

BBQ chicken wings from Hong Kee

 

Most of our Kakis liked Hong Kee's BBQ chicken wings. Simple, nothing fanciful, the same old chicken wings that we could have done ourselves at home or on picnics, and that was perhaps it's charm. Good old, bonding food. Took us back to those times when we sat around the dying embers of a BBQ pit and toasted the last chicken wings, and the night away.

 

The stall owner MR Yong and his wife had been running this same stall, the same way for 27 years!

 

 

Mango salad from Thai Food stall

 

This Thai mango salad was delightfully tasty. I would include it in my Must Try list when in Cedar Point. The slivers of nearly ripe mango, carrots, bean sprouts, ikan bilis and cut chili peppers on a bed of lettuce were pretty normal but the sauce was really something. It was a fish sauce based blend of perky tangy, sweet, spicy hot and savoury with savouriness as the main flavour. Pick up a mouthful of the salad and chew it, and voooom... it was "appetite opening" to borrow the Chinese expression.

 

 

Claypot chicken rice

 

The claypot chcken rice stall won some new fans tonight. The claypot rice was a little soggier than what we expected and there were also very little, if any, of those charred rice bits expected of claypot rice. However, what this claypot chicken rice lacked, it more than made up for by its flavours. Cooked with a special chicken and bone broth, it was tasty and flavourful. In fact, this could be the preferred style of claypot rice for those people who do not like charred bits in their food.

 

Claypot mee sua

One of our Kakis Thomas was a big fan of this claypot mee sua and was recommending it to everyone. The broth was syrupy in consistency and was quite tasty. The skinny and soft mee sua soaked up the broth very well. The pork ribs were tender and sweet. This claypot mee sua got some new fans tonite. I forgot to take a picture of this stall. This claypot noodles stall, is just beside the claypot chicken rice stall on it's left hand side.

 

These are just the few stalls we tried last nite at Cedar Point, there are many more interesting stalls that we need to come back for.

Cedar Point Food Centre
Address: Jalan Musang Bulan 2-16, Taman Century, 80250 Johor Bahru
Map: http://g.co/maps/jtm7g
GPS: 1.481492,103.762167
Hours: Daily 6:00pm to midnight
Halal and Non Halal availabe

Date visited: 20 Oct 2012