Johor Bahru recently has a new Hong Kong roast meat shop called Tong Tong Cross Way Bay 糖糖尖沙咀港式烧臘.
The chef owner Martin invited me to visit his newly opened shop in Taman Sri Tebrau and to try his popular roast meats.
Martin used to run his small roast meat stall in a Singapore coffee shop. Martin made his name there with his ultra crispy skin siew yok 烧肉 (roast belly pork), even earning praises from KF Seetoh, Singapore's famous food guru.
Martin recently moved to Johor Bahru.
Speaking with Martin, I gathered that the keys to Tong Tong Cross Way Bay's signature roasts are in the techniques which Martin personally developed and also the quality of the ingredients.
The marinated ducks are blown dry before roasting. Tong Tong Cross Way Bay uses only chilled ducks of at least 3 kg size for their roast ducks.
Martin said that chilled large ducks are the meatiest, juiciest and more flavourful.
Local chilled pork is used for Cross Way Bay's siew yoke and char siew 叉烧.
Inside Tong Tong Cross Way Bay roast meat shop, the decor is still bare bones at the moment. Martin intends to renovate his shop in stages. His priority now is to make his roast meats known in the local market.
Already, Martin's ultra crispy siew yoke and other roast meats are winning him a growing regular clientele in JB.
Our tasting plate of char siew and siew yok.
The signature of Tong Tong Cross Way Bay's siew yok 烧肉 is their golden ultra crispy skin.
At it's best, the thick savoury skin is crispy like an airy brittle rice cracker with just the right (slight) greasiness. In the mouth, the crispy skin crumbles and tastes like a light buttery cookie.
The attached fat and lean meat are moist and tender.
For the char siew, I liked the thin translucent pieces with juicy tender fat and meat.
Tong Tong Cross Way Bay's roast chicken.
The golden brown crispy skin popped off the thick chunk of tender moist chicken meat.
Besides roast meats, Tong Tong Cross Way Bay also serves braised pork trotters but we just had no more stomach space to try it.
The roast ducks were also sold out today, so we didn't get to taste that either.
Shall be back for these :D
The best time to be at Tong Tong Cross Way Bay is when the shop opens at 10:00am and the roast meats are hot, just out of the roaster.
Tong Tong Cross Way Bay's ultra crispy skin siew yok 烧肉 is a Must Try.
Non Halal
Restaurant is closed.
Date visited: 13 Jun 2014
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It is a lost for Singapore where he decides to move to JB. I am so sad.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he's a Malaysian returning home...
DeleteDid he use to run Cross Way Bay @ Tampines?
ReplyDeleteYes, that's his stall in Singapore.
DeleteWe tried the roasted duck, roasted meat, char siew and chicken. The meat is tender and nice. His chilli is pretty spicy.
ReplyDeleteI tried the combination roast pork and char siew rice. The char siew was overwhelmed by the sweet sauce to the extent that I could not savour the meat's flavour. Will ask them to separate the sauce in future
ReplyDeleteTried the chicken & sio bak last weekend, recommended !
ReplyDeleteThe chilli is the spiciest so far I've tasted for this kind of stall...
The brown sickly sweet sauce over generously ladled over the roast pork and duck drowns out all the flavour and is enough to make anyone diabetic! Don't see what the fuss is all about. KF Seetoh should come over to try out You Kee XO's roast meat - I think it's much better.
ReplyDeleteoh, that is where martin has gone to from tampines !!! his roast pork used to be quite above average standard but there are better roast duck elsewhere. if he now uses local Malaysian pork , then I would think the taste would be much much better . may go try in the future. Keep it up , Martin.
ReplyDeleteWent there today to buy the roast pork. Quite tasteless and there's "liquid" oozing from the roast pork. Never again.
ReplyDeleteI when there wiith 5 of my friends and we had the roast roast char siew and roast duck. The meat was crispy outside and so tender inside.To me and my friemds the roast meat was 1 of the best in jb!
ReplyDeleteThey shifted out of the current place. I am a regular and just visited the stall on Monday (2nd Feb). But on 6th Feb, they were gone. Asked around and the neighbours say that they have shifted to Pelangi area. If anyone know where they've shifted, please update. They have the best Sio Bak and Roast Chicken.
ReplyDeleteThanks Moses for the update. Hope we can locate them soon.
DeleteAnybody know where they move to?
ReplyDeleteMartin has moved to Singapore.
DeleteWhere in Singapore?
ReplyDeletehttp://ieatishootipost.sg/88-hong-kong-roast-super-sio-bak/
ReplyDeleteHis new location in singapore