Miss Tam Chiak and SG Food on Foot on One Day Johor Bahru Food Trail

Miss Tam Chiak by Maureen and SG Food on Foot by Derrick are two of my favourite Singapore foodie blogs. Maureen and Derrick wanted to try Johor Bahru's hawker food. We have been discussing a Johor Bahru food trail and finally embarked on it yesterday. Maureen's friend Kai joined us. We had a great day :)



Our first stop was the Bukit Chagar roti canai as it was near the CIQ and I wanted my guests to try one of my favourite roti canai stalls.



Our second stop was Tua Thow kway teow soup. Tua Thow is one of my top favourite Teochew kway teow soup stalls in Johor.



We proceeded next to Lai Kee to try his famous handmade fish balls. I wanted my Singapore friends to experience Lai Kee's heavy lard sauce.



Maureen zeroing in on the fish balls.



Maureen taking aim at the boss, Ah Lai in action :)



Since Wah Cai is just next to Lai Kee, we also popped by to try his fried durian.



Wah Cai's mum brought out all the different snacks like fried bananas, cempadak, nian kau and their signature "3-in-1" nian kau with yam and sweet potatoes.



We next dropped by Restoran Lima Ratus for Mr. Low's red rice wine mee suah.



The friendly Mr. Low preparing the red rice wine mee suah according to the recipe he learnt from his mum years ago.



Mr. Low's wanton noodles made with duck eggs, something not easy found in Johor or Singapore. We all liked the crunchy noodles though not all were accustomed to the relatively dry, sparse sauce which is the common style in JB.



Our stomachs full, we next stopped by at the AEON (JUSCO) Tebrau City Mall for a stretch, some shopping and foot reflexology.

After we had our fill of shopping and foot massage, we headed back downtown for dessert. In the car, Derrick mentioned that he was crazy about herbal chicken. I made a quick check if we would like to share a paper baked herbal chicken together at the famous Teck Sing restaurant. Before I could complete my sentence, the party gave my proposal a big YAY!! Not a hard decision at all.



This was Teck Sing's herbal chicken. We all were impressed by its savouriness and the "just right" no overpowering herbal taste. The flesh was also tender (though I felt it was firmer than what I tasted during my last visit to Teck Sing). 



We next stopped at Joo Yee (Tan Kee) at Taman Serene food centre for their famous ABC or ais kacang.



I asked for extra chocolate syrup topping :P



Derrick liked Tan Kee's BBQ you char kway with rojak sauce. 



Since a Johor food trail would be incomplete without staples like kway teow kia (KTK), we dropped by Woon Kiang at Jalan Stulang Laut. This was a Monday (with the pork markets shut), almost all other KTK shops were closed.



Woon Kiang KTK was pretty good, it being one of the popular KTK shops that originated from the old Jalan Wong Ah Fook street hawker stalls. Woon Kiang is run by the second generation now. Next time, I shall also take my guests to KTK shops where the first generation is still running the shop.



Woon Kiang's braised duck was excellent.



After kway teow kia, we went to the pasar malam at Taman Century to burn calories. The pasar malam which opens every Monday stretches from Hotel Grand Paragon to KSL City Mall.



At the pasar malam, we found my favourite Penang rojak man. The cut fruits were fresh and crunchy while the sauce was savoury and sweet.



This is the real reason why foodie bloggies always super welcome non bloggers to join us on our blogging trips :P

From this trip, I found that Maureen is actually quite tam chiak (Hokkien for people who live-to-eat, politely put). We passed this carrot cake stall and was captivated by the cai por aroma from the cooking fumes. Our curiosity was piqued by the never ending long queue. But all of us had no difficulty resisting the carrot cake, helped by our over eating since the morning. But, not Miss Tam Chiak. Never underestimate her small frame :P Nothing can stop her from trying out any potential good food find. To Miss Tam Chiak, no food that attracted so much attention should be passed over without a proper taste test :P



Can you spot our intrepid foodie bloggie in this picture?



This was the loot from the unflappable Miss Tam Chiak. The kway was quite ordinary but I liked the savoury and slightly sweet sauce.

After the pasar malam, it was time for supper! I brought my friends to the popular Cedar Point food centre to try Sin Kee's BBQ seafood.



Kai chose to try Sin Kee's BBQ "chicken fish" as we had not tried it before. "Chicken fish" has rather bland white meat. Overall, this "chicken fish" was still a tasty option as the meat was still moist and Sin Kee's sambal was in good form today. The sambal was savoury and not overly spicy.



Kai have to have his vegetables and I have to have my petai, and so we ordered this pretentious sounding BBQ "Four Heavenly Kings". The long beans, petai, lady's fingers and kacang botol were all fresh and crunchy and Sin Kee's sambal was as good as ever. I love this.

It was a long and tiring day, but we were very happy.

Here is a summary of where we went during our one day Johor Bahru food trail.

Timings are ridiculously rough estimates and actually varies to the point of making the schedule pointless :P Timings vary widely to allow time for food pornography fetishes, different eating speeds of the eat-to-live and live-to-eat tribes, varying dosages required for retail therapy depending on the degree of affliction. As I learnt before, "The best plans are ruined by the first action". But, here is the rough guide anyway because most of us can't do anything without one. Click on the respective links to read more about the food stalls.

08:30am Bukit Chagar roti canai (prata)
09:30am Tua Thow kway teow soup
10:30am Lai Kee fish ball noodles
11:30am Durian puffs at Wah Cai
12:30pm Red rice wine mee suah at Restoran Lima Ratus
1.30pm Retail therapy and burn calories at (AEON) JUSCO Tebrau City Mall
3:00pm Paper baked herbal chicken at Teck Sing
4:00pm Ais kacang at Joo Yee (Tan Kee)
5:00pm Woon Kiang kway teow kia
6:30pm Pasar malam at Taman Century (Mondays only) Penang rojak.
7:30pm  Retail therapy and burn calories at KSL City Mall
9:00pm Supper at Cedar Point food centre. We had BBQ fish at Sin Kee.