Two of us ordered these from JB Old San Huan stall at Tai Seng to try. Hey... they were delicious and really reminded me of their best counterparts in Johor Bahru.
The founders of JB Old San Huan were operating along Johor Bahru's Jalan Wong Ah Fook opposite City Square Mall in the 1980s. I have never tried it there before.
They just moved here to this Tai Seng coffee shop at the intersection of Upper Paya Lebar Road and Pereira Road (5 minutes walk from the MRT station) this year. It is still pretty much under the social media radar.
I had their signature Teochew kway teow soup. I can smell the aroma of fresh lard as it rises to my nose with the steam 👍
The tea colour (probably from tee poh) soup was watery but cloudy, and packed with porcine savoury sweetness and lard taste. It was actually more robust and layered in flavour than most of their counterparts in JB.
The kway teow was the JB kway teow kia type which are narrower than the Singapore version. Though I like my kway teow to be soft, today, they did it a bit softer than my preference. Still, it was good as it was slurpy smooth and picked up the soup's flavours well.
There's liver, fishball, pork ball, lean pork slices, lettuce, etc., in the soup.
The liver though thinly sliced was done nicely, soft-tender and "powdery" the way I like it.
The pork balls were likely factory made but they tasted and felt alright.
The kway teow soup comes with fishballs but I ordered a separate bowl of it because I saw that they were handmade. Any hawker that sells handmade food, makes me greedy 😅
My greed was well rewarded 🤭
The handmade yellowtail fish fishballs were tender, lightly springy crunchy and have a subtle brininess and fresh fish taste.
Kway teow soup with sea bass fish slices.
The same soup and kway teow kia now loaded with sea bass slices and tofu cubes. They were generous with the sea bass slices.
The sea bass slices were thick, soft, fresh, sweet with their signature subtle earthly taste.
Buddy said this stall reminded her of Tua Thow kway teow soup in JB. For me, it reminded me of the famous fish soup kway teow under the rambutan tree in Taman Century not far from Tua Thow. (I haven't been back to both popular stalls in JB for a long time.)
We were there at 9am, so took the opportunity of the morning lull to chat with the hawkers. They were from Johor Bahru and learned the craft from their family elders who operated at Jalan Wong Ah Fook. They were pretty shy and I couldn't get their names 😂
Boss gave us some dried fish maw to try.
My first reaction was "From Kuantan ah?" as the seaside city is well known for excellent dried seafood.
"No, I cut it from the sea bass and dried it myself". Hey, hey, hey I am always appreciative of hawkers who go the extra mile to make their own ingredients 👍
Actually, making their own dried fish maw is not exactly unheard of in Johor Bahru - there are others like here 👈
Yeah... it sounds like an oxymoron but this dried fish maw really tasted fresh. Nice soft crunchy spongy subtly fluffy mouth feel. It had a gentle sweet savouriness. You have to try it for yourself to see what I mean.
We enjoyed our food and are grateful to the hardworking young men who bring authentic JB flavours to this side of the Causeway.
I will be back especially to try their "dry" no soup versions 😋
Written by Tony Boey on 23 Oct 2023
🎗 This blog is powered by voluntary contributions from appreciative readers to Tony Boey Johor Kaki PAYNOW 96888768 in Singapore $.
Join Johor Kaki mailing list
This is nice, tried the dry version and it was delicious. Soup is awesome too
ReplyDeleteWe ate there after your recommendation, brought our church folks there and everyone simply loved it. The operator is genial and affable.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the wonderful shout out, Bro!