Four of us, we went on a 1-Day Food and Shopping Trail in Johor Bahru covering Pisang Goreng Mawar > Zaituna Nasi Arab > Paradigm Mall > People & Places Cafe > KSL Mall > Shan Ming Seafood in Pelangi.
We arrived at our first stop, Pisang Goreng Mawar at 11am. It was bright and sunny.
They were just getting ready to open for the day, so we got our goreng goreng (fried fritters) fresh off the wok. Woohooo.
We had deep fried banana, tapioca, sweet potato, etc. The crispy crust was thin but hard, brittle and crackly. The insides were tender and moist.
I wanted to show my old classmates how Johoreans enjoy their pisang goreng with sambal kicap. It's really nice. Pisang Goreng Mawar serves a savoury spicy sweet zesty sambal kicap sauce that blends very well with the savoury sweet fried fritters.
Sambal kicap with fried fritters seemed unfamiliar and strange at first but once they tried it, my friends love it - every time 😄
Besides goreng goreng, Pisang Goreng Mawar also serves nasi lemak, mee siam, traditional Malay kuih (sweet snacks) etc. Some are really nice, like this kuih ketayap (coconut roll).
Pisang goreng was of course just tea break, appetiser. Our greatly anticipated lunch was at Zaituna in Taman Tasek for nasi Arab.
Truth be told, the food at Zaituna tasted different from my previous visits. I found out later from the staff that former head chef, Chef Amr had left to start his own restaurant.
The baked chicken was tender and juicy but mainly savoury salty in flavour. The fluffy light, lightly spiced basmati rice moderated the saltiness of the chicken. It was a likeable dish.
We shared a platter of mix grill meats (kebabs). I like it that the grilled meats were lightly spiced, tender and juicy, and I can taste the natural flavours of the lamb, chicken etc.
After lunch, we proceeded to Paradigm Mall for obligatory shopping. It's a huge sprawling mall with literally hundreds of shops with most of the familiar brands represented, so it suited our calorie burning needs in an agreeable way 😄 My buddy bought things for the home from Home Pro and Mr DIY. They sold some home improvement parts hard to find in Singapore.
There were many interesting dining options in Paradigm Mall but we had to abstain lah.... . We came here to burn not to add calories 😅
But, l will try to do a food trail within the mall itself next time (see how... .).
Next was a cafe stop. There will always be cafe stops.
People and Places cafe (off the Pasir Gudang highway) was like a little garden inside. The sun rays flood the cafe but it was cool and comfortable inside.
We always have People and Place's hotcake as we can just share the warm buttery cake topped with crunchy nuts and seeds, and each nurse our respective drinks.
My cappuccino - always satisfying when I just want to chill and don't want to analyse my drink. (Can't say that for every cafe you know.... 😝 )
With a bit of time before dinner, we popped over to KSL Mall for a different shopping experience (from Paradigm Mall).
I drove by the newly opened Shan Ming seafood restaurant along Jalan Biru in Taman Pelangi a few times and so was curious to try it. So, we picked it for our dinner. (Shan Ming is just 50 metres from the local stalwart San Lou seafood restaurant along the same street.)
This Shan Ming Seafood is actually a branch of the popular parent restaurant in Bukit Indah. Many Pelangi locals had come to try it and feedback was generally positive.
Shan Ming source their fresh seafood from Pontian.
We had chili crab, fried prawn, shovel nose shark, fried bitter gourd and Shan Ming's signature fried bee hoon.
My companions liked this chili crab. The crab was fresh though the crab meat in the claw shrunk slightly on cooking. The thick chili sauce was savoury spicy sweet. I wished the chili sauce was infused with a bit of fresh crustacean savoury sweetness from the crab (but there was none).
The factory made steamed buns for the chili crabs costs RM1.50 each. I'll skip them the next time.
I felt Shan Ming's signature fried prawns was an unfortunate waste of fresh premium sea prawns 😂 The meat was cooked till dry and chewy, and all its natural sweetness evaporated to nothingness. We could only taste the savoury salty seasoning.
They also have Indonesian style curry prawns in the menu. That might be better in retaining some natural sweetness of the huge prawns. Shall try that next time. (I didn't see steam prawns in the menu.)
I like this simple fried bitter gourd. There's prawn, pork slices and egg with the bitter gourd slices. The starchy hor fun type sauce was slippery smooth from the starch and egg. It tasted mildly sweet savoury which complemented the natural flavours of the prawns, pork and sweet bitter gourd well. We all liked this dish.
I like this stewed shovel nose shark snout dish the most but I was the only one among the four of us to feel this way 😂
The shovel nose shark snout was chopped into chunks and stewed in a gooey sauce with lots of ginger, onion, tomato etc. The chunks of snout had lots of collagen and skin but no taste. The dish relied on the sauce for its savoury sweet taste with a ginger flavour. There was also pronounced 绍兴酒 Shaoxing rice wine taste which I like. It's one of the nicer shovel nose shark dishes that I have tasted.
The dish was full of collagen, so why don't you ladies like it more leh... ? 😕
We wanted to order San Lou bee hoon (a JB icon) - no they don't have it, but they do have their signature Shan Ming bee hoon. There was wok hei and it was quite dry but otherwise it was just ordinary fried bee hoon.
We were quite pleased with the price. There was a 30% discount on fresh seafood. (Not sure for how long more the discount offer will last.)
Waze: Restoran shan ming (Jalan Biru, Johor Bahru. Johor)
After dinner, we returned to Singapore. It was a free and easy day. No rush, just relaxing all the way.
Buddies say we should do it again. Soon! 😄
Pisang Goreng Mawar 👈 click
Zaituna Nasi Arab 👈 click
People and Places Cafe 👈 click
(I don't have a separate post for Shan Ming seafood yet. To get there, just use Waze: Restoran shan ming.)
Date: 18 Apr 2019
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments submitted with genuine identities are published