My favourite way of searching for the best eats of Johor (and Singapore) is to pound the streets and try out the food stalls one at a time. Johor Kaki readers and friends also give me tip offs on where are the best food. For Johor food, I also check out the recommendations shared in Johor foodie Facebook groups 新山人的美食, 吃的平台 and 柔佛新山美食.
These very influential Facebook groups have sizeable active memberships ranging from 75,000+ to 160,000+ (as at 9 Feb 2019). The group admins are all passionate foodies who run these groups purely on voluntary, by foodies for foodies, not for profit basis - there is no money in it, just passion. The presence of these large organic grassroots self help groups set the Johor social media scene apart from that, say in Singapore or Kuala Lumpur. They are kampung spirit foodie social media which balance the views from commercial social media.
These three foodie groups do not allow paid reviews or any form of advertising. The group admins are very alert and vigilant in spotting non compliant posts. The members are also very protective of the groups and would report questionable posts to the admin. Such spam are promptly deleted and members who flout the house rules are banned. Most posts in these groups are trustworthy, genuine sharing by members. I have been a member since 2012.
The caveat, of course remains, taste is subjective - not all food recommended by members will suit your tastebuds. I have tried many recommendations from these groups which I didn't enjoy. I have also found many gems thanks to group members. (Note that most posts are in Chinese.)
Join 吃的平台 (167,999 members) 👈 click
Join 柔佛新山美食 (160,154members) 👈 click
Join 新山人的美食 (75,662 members) 👈 click
👆 Click to go to JB Best 100 Hawkers page
nice groups you have there...I usually share my food blogpost to Projek Travel FB group, but it doesn't have that much members. Just for sharing what I eat, sometimes it was invited food tasting, but most of the times, I share because I love it, yup...for free~
ReplyDeleteThumbs up for acknowledging the source of your research. Many of these groups are in Chinese, however I believe one should always eat what the locals eat ..To understand their food culture better
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