When I saw YP Yap shared on Facebook this Penang kari mee at the Family Food Court in Johor Jaya, my mind was immediately set on where to go for breakfast. (Most people in Johor and Singapore refer to this dish as laksa.)
Family Food Court is a large eating place in Johor Jaya. It is clean and well kept.
I've been to Family Food Court many times but have not tasted much memorable things until this little Penang food stall 国记, thanks to YP Yap's tip off.
Mr Goh and wife started their mobile street side stall in Penang in the 1980s. They moved to Johor Jaya in the 1990s and have been here ever since.
Mr Goh's 国记 stall serves Penang Hokkien mee (dry and soup), lo mee, and kari mee (laksa). Penang Hokkien mee is known as prawn mee in Johor and Singapore.
国记's Penang kari mee (price RM5.50) come fully loaded with noodles / bee hoon, bean sprout, blood cockles, tau pok, cuttlefish, and pork blood curd in a bowl of coconut based curry. I could smell the curry spices rising from the bowl when Mrs Goh delivered it to me. (In Johor, hawkers still serve customers at the table.)
The coconut based curry was heavy but not creamy i.e. just nice for me. The sweet spicy savoury flavours were well balanced - it was not cloyingly sweet. Overall, the curry was flavoursome even though flavours were mild. I like 国记's curry.
The pork blood curd, blood cockles, cuttlefish and tau pok all added their own textures and flavours to the bowl of kari mee. They all came together very well to make this a good rendition of this famous Penang dish.
If you like a little more kick in your kari mee, add this sambal chili. It looks ordinary but it was packed with layers of savoury spicy flavours. Mr Goh said it is made with over 30 types of spices. (Mr Goh makes a different sambal chili for each type of dish. This is for kari mee.)
After enjoying my Penang kari mee, I went to chat with Mr Ng who was busy peeling shallots. Mr Ng still fries his own shallots fresh at the stall to make aromatic shallot crisps and aromatic oil. I have a lot of respect for hawkers who fry their own shallot crisps fresh every day instead of just buying bags of tasteless pre-fried ones.
Then, I asked Mr Goh what would he recommend from his stall. He said 滷麵參蝦麵 Hokkien mee combined with lo mee. Actually, this was what a few other Penang food stall holders recommended me too - Hokkien mee stock blended with lo 卤 - Penang-lang eat it like that, they say.
So, I asked Mrs Goh to make me one lo - Hokkien mee with lo mee.
Hokkien mee and lo mee together (price RM5.50).
I tasted the Hokkien mee stock first - it was robustly savoury with lots of depth of flavours - more so than most of the Hokkien mee that I have tasted in Penang itself over the years.
Then, I mixed the lo 卤 from the lo mee with the Hokkien mee stock. The stock became thicker and the savouriness was milder but with some added savoury layers.
It was nice but I actually still prefer Hokkien mee and lo mee, separately by themselves.
👉 If you like to try Penang kari mee, Johor Jaya Family Food Court Penang Food Stall 国记 is a good place for it. Their kari mee actually tasted better than most that I have tried in Penang itself. 国记's Penang Hokkien mee (prawn mee) stock packs a solid umami (savoury) punch too.
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Restaurant name: Penang Food Stall 国记
Address: Indoor stall at Family Food Court at Jalan Dedap 14, Taman Johor Jaya, Johor Bahru
GPS: 1.543983, 103.801079 | 1°32'38.3"N 103°48'03.9"E
Hours: 6:00am to 2:00pm (Closed Weds except Singapore public holidays)
Non Halal
Date visited: 2 Jul 2018
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