Fish Ball and Tofu Noodle beside Kulai Centre Point, Johor

This no name fish ball and tofu stall beside Kulai Centre Point is a classic stumble upon good food find.



Yesterday, we drove all the way from JB to Kulai with the plan to try out the famous Yeen Lai 云来 tim sum at their home base in Kulai. When we walked towards Yeen Lai, not surprisingly there was already a big crowd of customers at the famous street side kopitiam. When we got closer and looked at the tables, we realised that besides the tim sum, most of the customers were having fish balls and tofu soup.



Seeing how the customers were enjoying their fish ball noodles, I asked the nearest uncle about it. "Been eating this for 40 years", the friendly uncle replied with a satisfied grin.  



So, I walked up to the busy boss, put on my best smile, and asked "Good morning boss, do you make these fish balls and tofu yourself?" "Yes, early in the morning everyday" the friendly boss replied through a wall of steam from the boiling pot of broth. "What is the name of your stall?" The boss paused a moment, and gave me a puzzled look as nobody ever asked him this question before. "We haven't thought of a name for 50 years", he finally replied.




We had a quick discussion and decided to adjust our plans and give this fish balls a try first. So we sat down and ordered the normal RM4 set which comes with noodles and a bowl of fish balls and tofu. For the noodles, we opted for "mouse tails" 老鼠粉.

Our idea was to taste test this fish ball noodles and then carry on with our original plan to try out the famous Yeen Lai tim sum.




The fish balls were not perfectly round as they were handmade. They were tender and only slightly springy as they were made with 100% fish meat. They don't have the ping pong bounce of factory fish+starch balls. The flavours were gently sweet from the fresh fish and very slightly salty from the salt added. I love these fish balls.



I love this slice of tofu. It has that lovely soya bean aroma when I bite into the tender, smooth yet slightly grainy pearly tofu. The tofu skin has a nice texture and the savoury minced pork adds to the flavour of this simple, humble staple. 



The regular tofu with minced pork fillings, cut to bite size pieces.



The noodles and sauce were adequate but not particularly memorable.




But, we loved the fish balls and tofu so much that we decided to ditch our plans to taste test Yeen Lai, and instead ordered another bowl - this time the RM6 fish ball and tofu soup without noodles.

They were just wonderful to me!



We will surely be back for this no name fish ball and tofu, and also to claim our rain check for the famous Yeen Lai tim sum.

Restaurant name: No name fish ball and tofu noodle stall (inside Yeen Lai 云来 tim sum shop)
Address: Jalan Besar (beside Kulai Centre Point), Johor
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/vcGsk
GPS: 1.661937,103.60168
Hours: 6:30am till sold out (usually by 1:00pm)
Non Halal

Date visited: 22 Nov 2013

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