Kway Teow Kia Stall @ Meldrum Walk is One of JB's Best ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Last month, while exploring Meldrum Walk in JB for food, I bumped into Miranda who is a Johor Kaki reader. She was enjoying her kway teow kia at her favourite KTK stall since childhood. On Miranda's recommendation, I came back to try the KTK today and indeed it is one of the best tasting kway teow kia that I've tried in Johor Bahru.



The low profile of this humble kway teow kia (guo tiao zi) stall belies the quality of its food. This little gem is a well kept secret of Meldrum Walk regulars.

Meldrum Walk is a back lane between rows of shop houses in old downtown Johor Bahru. It's a dingy place that opens from the evening onwards - locals come here for its many heritage hawker stalls.



Mr. Tan ran this KTK stall for nearly 20 years and his mum who founded the stall in Pasar Kia ran it for decades earlier. Mr. Tan's daughter now runs her own KTK stall at night at Cedar Point Food Centre (I shall try that next time).



Mr. Tan serves his kway teow kia with braised pig skin, large and small intestines, pork belly, lean meat, tongue, ears, snout, cheek, chicken eggs, tofu etc. 

Kway teow kia is a humble Teochew dish which uses every possible part of the pig - it was created during lean times in the past when no part of the animal was wasted, hence the emphasis on offal and head parts. The pork parts are braised in a stock of dark soy sauce and herbs - every hawker have their own secret recipe. Nowadays, some consider KTK a minor luxury as prices have gone up mainly because it is so tedious to prepare.



All these for RM15.40, at our first stop at Meldrum Walk today.



We ordered large intestines, pork belly and cheek - all my favourite braised pork parts. I don't know why I forgot to order pig skin 😂



Woo hoo... this braised pork belly was soft tender and juicy. It tasted naturally sweet with undertones of subtle savoury herbalness. The dominant flavour was the fresh pork's natural sweetness which we love.



The large intestine was meticulously cleaned. The soft spongy large intestine was mainly naturally sweet, layered with a very slight savoury herbalness.



I like the combination of meat, fat, skin and gelatin of pork cheek. Same natural sweetness with very mild savoury herbalness underlying.

We were very impressed with all the braised parts we tasted.



The kway teow kia (narrow ribbon rice noodles) which the dish is named after. The rice noodles were served in a bowl of soup garnished with fried shallot and chopped scallion. I like it that Mr. Tan fries his own aromatic shallot (instead of resorting to flavourless factory fried ones).



I love this mild sweet savoury herbal soup laced with aromatic fried shallot oil. The dominant flavour was natural sweetness infused from the fresh pork which were braised in the stock.



Slurpy soft rice ribbon noodles tasted sweet savoury herbal from the soup clinging to the wet strands.



4-Star (out of 5). Kway teow kia stalls are everywhere in JB as it is a staple of locals (who are mainly Teochews). This stall in Meldrum Walk stood out as one of JB's best.



Mr. Tan's stall is number #13. The stall doesn't have a name - the sign simply states guo tiao zi 粿条仔 (Mandarin for kway teow kia). It is located at the southern end of Meldrum Walk (in the direction of Singapore).

Read more about Meldrum Walk here 👈 click



Restaurant name: Guo Tiao Zi 粿条仔
Address: Stall #13 at Meldrum Walk in downtown Johor Bahru  
Map: http://g.co/maps/n7qhh 
GPS: 1.460045,103.764673 / 1°27'36.2"N 103°45'52.8"E 
Hours: 5:30pm to midnight (no fixed off day) 

Non Halal  

Date visited: 22 Aug 2018 


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