Whenever I drive by a long row of cars parked by the roadside, I often remarked to my passenger, "You know, I think there must be some good food there. One day I shall stop and find out".
Today, I did stop when I saw a row of cars by the road side.
We spotted a road side eatery (warong) under the lush, leafy green canopy of some low trees.
The warong was spacious, bright, airy, cool, clean and comfortable. Many people were enjoying their breakfast here.
The busy warong serves many familiar staples like nasi lemak, mee siam, mee goreng, nasi goreng, lontong, lontong kering, soto ayam, and also Laksa Johor.
When I spotted Laksa Johor, this is it. Let's check this place out 😄
Laksa Johor is a variant of laksa that is rarely found outside of Johor. The closest thing to Laksa Johor in Singapore is Laksa Siglap.
Laksa Johor gravy is made with many vegetables, spices, and ground fish (Warong Hijau uses ikan kambong fish). It's a savoury sweet and slightly spicy gravy with finely chopped vegetables, like a salad heaped over a mound of spaghetti (cooked till soft).
The taste of Laksa Johor is rather complex and is unique to Johor. If you are a visitor, please try Laksa Johor at least once. (Click here for a brief history of Laksa Johor.)
Laksa Johor at Warong Hijau is available only on weekends.
Lontong - cubed rice cakes bathed with mildly spicy sweet vegetable curry and topped with nutty satay sauce. The rice cakes were tender and had a nice rice fragrance.
We also ordered a nasi lemak ayam with a fried egg.
We love the nasi lemak ayam so much that we ordered another one immediately after finishing the first.
The rice was quite soft, a little wet and starchy but it was well infused with old school nasi lemak flavour, heavy with coconut milk and pandan aroma.
The sambal chili was savoury with anchovy flavour, spicy hot and just slightly sweet.
The golden brown fried chicken.
The fried chicken was crispy outside and so juicy inside, you can actually see the clear sweet juices before you taste it!
The boss fries the chicken in small batches only when it runs out. So, we get only freshly fried chicken here. We also get perfectly fried chicken because the boss can pay closer attention to the smaller wok of chicken.
I asked the friendly boss Encik Rosli who was busy frying chicken, what is the name of his warong?
Encik Rosli paused for a few moments, perhaps no one had asked him this question for a long time 😄
"Our stall has no name", Rosli replied smilingly.
Another few moments passed, Rosli added "Oh, people call us Warong Hijau or Warong Pokok Ceri". (The "green stall" or the "stall under the cherry tree".)
Encik Rosli then pointed out the cherries above my head.
Lontong - cubed rice cakes bathed with mildly spicy sweet vegetable curry and topped with nutty satay sauce. The rice cakes were tender and had a nice rice fragrance.
We also ordered a nasi lemak ayam with a fried egg.
We love the nasi lemak ayam so much that we ordered another one immediately after finishing the first.
The rice was quite soft, a little wet and starchy but it was well infused with old school nasi lemak flavour, heavy with coconut milk and pandan aroma.
The sambal chili was savoury with anchovy flavour, spicy hot and just slightly sweet.
The golden brown fried chicken.
The fried chicken was crispy outside and so juicy inside, you can actually see the clear sweet juices before you taste it!
The boss fries the chicken in small batches only when it runs out. So, we get only freshly fried chicken here. We also get perfectly fried chicken because the boss can pay closer attention to the smaller wok of chicken.
I asked the friendly boss Encik Rosli who was busy frying chicken, what is the name of his warong?
Encik Rosli paused for a few moments, perhaps no one had asked him this question for a long time 😄
"Our stall has no name", Rosli replied smilingly.
Another few moments passed, Rosli added "Oh, people call us Warong Hijau or Warong Pokok Ceri". (The "green stall" or the "stall under the cherry tree".)
Encik Rosli then pointed out the cherries above my head.
The cherries brought back a lot of childhood memories of 1960s Singapore. We had a lot of fun playing with toy pistols made of wood, rubber bands and buah ceri (unripe green cherries). Being hit by a hard, green buah ceri shot from a toy pistol was rather really painful. Ouch!! I still remember 😱
We also ate the ripe red buah cherries which were juicy, with sweet sticky sap and filled with lots of tiny seeds.
I loved this Warong Pokok Ceri / Warong Hijau. It's a great breakfast spot in Johor Bahru. Food is nice, reasonably priced and the setting is so relaxing.
Oh, Rosli told me a tidbit 😜
Singapore soccer legend (my hero) Fandi Ahmad drops by for breakfast sometimes. His favourite dish here is lontong kering. Fandi Ahmad fans may want to have brekky here and who knows may get to bump into your hero in person 😄
You heard it here first, in Johor Kaki 😝
👉 A good place for a true Malaysian breakfast - mee rebus, mee siam, nasi lemak, mee goreng etc. A plate of Laksa Johor completes this uniquely Johor experience (available on weekends only).
Restaurant name: Warong Hijau / Warong Pokok Ceri Nasi Lemak
Address: Off Jalan Lingkaran Dalam at junction of Jalan Inche Besar Zubaidah and Jalan Yusof Taha, Kampung Mahmoddiah, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.468898, 103.750318 / 1°28'08.0"N 103°45'01.1"E
Hours: 8:30am to 1:00pm (Fri off)
Halal
Date visited: 15 May 2015 | Updated: 3 Sep 2024
We also ate the ripe red buah cherries which were juicy, with sweet sticky sap and filled with lots of tiny seeds.
I loved this Warong Pokok Ceri / Warong Hijau. It's a great breakfast spot in Johor Bahru. Food is nice, reasonably priced and the setting is so relaxing.
Oh, Rosli told me a tidbit 😜
Singapore soccer legend (my hero) Fandi Ahmad drops by for breakfast sometimes. His favourite dish here is lontong kering. Fandi Ahmad fans may want to have brekky here and who knows may get to bump into your hero in person 😄
You heard it here first, in Johor Kaki 😝
👉 A good place for a true Malaysian breakfast - mee rebus, mee siam, nasi lemak, mee goreng etc. A plate of Laksa Johor completes this uniquely Johor experience (available on weekends only).
Restaurant name: Warong Hijau / Warong Pokok Ceri Nasi Lemak
Address: Off Jalan Lingkaran Dalam at junction of Jalan Inche Besar Zubaidah and Jalan Yusof Taha, Kampung Mahmoddiah, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.468898, 103.750318 / 1°28'08.0"N 103°45'01.1"E
Hours: 8:30am to 1:00pm (Fri off)
Halal
Date visited: 15 May 2015 | Updated: 3 Sep 2024
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Tony, A good recommendation. Alas, the Laksa Johor is only avail on weekends. The nasi lemak with fried chicken was awesome. As usual, big eater me had a soto-nasi, then the nasi lemak with fried chicken and chilli hard-boiled egg (vain attempt to reduce the oil intake)...lol...
ReplyDeletebro Mike, long time no hear! Glad you enjoyed the food here too ;-D Share with us some of your good finds too :-D
DeleteHi Tony, I recently discovered a "Penang Laksa" next to the Cendol stall across the road from the Pelangi Petron & Caltex stations, The fish gravy is thick and awesome and they also provide plastic bots of sweet "heh ko" to add to the laksa. A bowl costs RM5 (up 50 sen since last week) but I guess it's reasonable with GST added to the increased food ingredients. The cendol (think u have done an article before) is a nice finale to the Penang laksa. Do try it and do a write up.
DeleteThank you bro Mike for your tip off. I shall visit it soon.
DeleteHihi, Was there this morning. Laksa Johor available only on Fridays to Sundays. Looks like we'll have to raincheck that. The kakaks were all very friendly and hospitable.
ReplyDeletenice nasi lemak !
ReplyDeleteWe used to used it as a bullet not ripe yet still very hard and make wooden gun tight with rubber bands and make a trigger. Is was so fun 🤩
ReplyDelete