Tony Boey Johor Kaki Food Blogger Connects People, Places & Cuisines with History 梅天成

✍️ 6 Apr 2024. Who is Tony Boey, Johor Kaki?

Tony Boey is my name, Johor Kaki is my social media platforms. My main efforts are in my blog, and I also have Facebook and Instagram accounts.

My main craft is photography and storytelling with text (because I love to read and writing is my passion).

"Still got people read blogs meh?" I got asked a lot.

Johor Kaki blog was read 65,000,000+ times as at May 2024

I still have a steady following. Five million reads every year for the past ten years. My top three audiences are from Singapore, Malaysia, followed by USA.

I also enjoy reading my own blog, savouring the old moments, people and places I passed through because my blog is my dairy, my own learning journey. (So, it is important to me - I owe it to myself to be accurate and authentic.)

FAQ Frequently Asked Question

Singaporeans often ask me "Are you Johorean"?

Malaysians ask "Are you Singaporean"?

I am a Singaporean who loves street cuisine from Singapore, Johor and around the world. I write about my foodie encounters from everywhere, so my content is one third Singapore, one third Johor, and the remainder from the rest of the world, mainly Asia. 

I believe that there will always be a market for useful, meaningful, purposeful, relatively in-depth content.

I often come across divisive, provocative content on social media calculated to generate "engagement". I prefer Johor Kaki to be a calm, unifying voice. 

Because food and eating should be bonding, not dividing.

My approach is to use food as windows to places, people and our past (history). I realised that when we go deeper into a dish's origin / history, movement / migration, community, and culture, we will see how food connects people across time and space.

You will find in Johor Kaki blog, many pieces on history of dishes, ingredients, cooking techniques. These are written by tasting the dish, preparing the dish, visiting its birthplace / significant related places, speaking with relevant personages, studying related documents / artefacts, etc.

Tony Boey rewrites history.

History is usually written with human protagonists. In my approach, a dish, an ingredient, cooking technique, etc, are the protagonists. I believe the different perspective can illuminate and shed a different light on the history of Singapore, Asia and the world.

I visit heritage food stalls and restaurants in Singapore, Johor and around the world. My main purpose is to create a record of the food, people and places which is accurate, holistic, and useful for future reference by fellow researchers. When I read my own old articles occasionally, I felt glad that I had chosen to be accurate.

I research the origin of dishes not for claims of ownership but to better understand how we arrive where we are today, and how we are interconnected in the river of time.

In 2013, Johor Kaki was awarded the best food blog by Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information, and Malaysia Ministry of Tourism. In 2014, Johor Kaki was again awarded the best food blog by Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information.

Over the years, Johor Kaki has collaborated with and is involved with many media - new age and traditional, local and overseas, print, radio, television and social media channels.

I have also worked with various tourism authorities.

In 2016, I published a book on Johor Bahru heritage hawker stalls and restaurants entitled Find Dining with Johor Kaki.

At food stalls and restaurants, I pay for my own meals and do not accept fees to push out promotional food reviews.

Contact me via 📧 johorkaki@gmail.com for lectures, presentations, research, and other projects.

The previous edition below has other information about Tony Boey, Johor Kaki.

Interview with 8worldnews of Singapore Mediacorp in May 2024.

✍ 28 Oct 2020. What is Johor Kaki about?

I am on a quest to understand how food connects people and places across time, especially in Singapore, Johor, Malacca and Riau islands.

Johor Kaki blog was read 63,000,000+ times as at Oct 2023

Johor Kaki started in 2012 as a space where I share my eating experiences in Johor. Soon, the inter-connections between the cuisines of Johor, Singapore, Malacca and the Riau islands became clear to me. The roots of our shared food heritage became even more apparent when I delved further into our region's history.

Back in 1299, Sang Nila Utama, a Palembang prince founded the kingdom of Singapura. In 1398, Parameswara the fifth king of Singapura fled to Malacca to escape invaders from Java. There he founded the Malacca Sultanate in 1400.

In 1511, the Portuguese conquered Malacca and Sultan Mahmud Shah moved to the Riau islands. In 1528, his son Sultan Alauddin Shah II established the Johor Sultanate. The Dutch kicked the Portuguese out of Malacca in 1641. (Image courtesy of Wikipedia.)

In 1819, Raffles signed the Singapore Treaty with Sultan Hussein of Johor to establish a trading post at Singapore River. To develop the port of Singapore, Raffles brought in immigrants from India and China. All these historical milestones of our region, all flow in a river of time everyone of us share.

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I am fascinated by how our common history connects us through the culinary heritage of Singapore, Johor, Malacca, Sumatra and the Riau islands. Johor Kaki is dedicated to uncovering and sharing how our region is connected through time by our food heritage, hence you will read about food, people, places and history of Singapore, Johor, Malacca, and the Riau islands in Johor Kaki blog.

Reader comment in Johor Kaki blog

The food in this area is today separated by international boundaries (but appreciation of food is borderless). The food is diverse yet there exists an underlying unity and commonality due to shared history. Through history of the food, I am rediscovering the old ties that once bind us.

Reader message to Johor Kaki

As I strive to be as accurate as possible, my writing will often come across as "honest raw" to readers.

In 2013, I received the best food blog award from Ng Yen Yen, Malaysia Minister of Tourism.

Also in 2013, I received the best food blog award from Lawrence Wong, Singapore Second Minister for Communications and Information.

In 2014, I received the best food blog award from Sim Ann, Singapore Minister of State for Ministry of Communications and Information, and Ministry of Education.

Through past interviews you can see how Johor Kaki evolved during the last 9 years - from being Johor food-centric to include people and places, and how time (shared history) holds everything together in Johor, Singapore, Malacca and the Riau islands.

In 2016, I shared how Johor Kaki blog started in this interview with Malaysia's MAGISTRATE magazine in conjunction with the launch of my guidebook Find Dining with Johor Kaki.

In 2017, in an interview with Malaysia's Malay Mail newspaper, I shared what Johor Kaki blog is about and what inspired me.

In this interview for Singapore National Heritage Festival in 2019, I shared how I went about uncovering the stories of Bedok Interchange Hawker Centre in Singapore.

Johor Kaki has collaborated with and provided content to BBC, National Geographic Traveller, CNA, GEO.de, American Express, AirAsia, NHB, URA, NTV7 Malaysia, MyPaper, Iskandarian, Travelution, MediaCorp 938LIVE, Capital 95.8FM, MediaCorp Channel 8, Channel 5, UFM100.3, 8world, World Street Food Congress, Hong Kong Shue Yan University, Temasek Polytechnic, national tourism authorities (e.g. Australia, Poland, China, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc), independent film makers, and others.

I also translate Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Hokkien, Teochew) video content into English so that more people can access the richness of Chinese culinary culture. It is also part of my own continuous learning journey. 

For speaking engagements or research projects contact johorkaki@gmail.com

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📧 johorkaki@gmail.com

Date: 28 Oct 2020

Some of my appearances on television