Johor Bahru Fishball Paradise • Handmade Tradition Still Thrives

I love fishballs especially when they are paired with nice slurpy noodles and a lardy good spicy hot sauce.

Growing up in 1960s Singapore, my mind's image of fish ball noodles is a pushcart shrouded in clouds of steam from churning boiling water for cooking the fish balls and noodles (usually mee pok at that time). The mee pok was done al dente, heavily greased with a lardy chili sauce which was very spicy hot. The small fishballs in a clear soup were spongy springy savoury sweet. I still look for this type of fish ball experience.

Johor Bahru is a fishball lover's paradise in that, I can still get this experience fairy easily (okay sans the mee pok).

Not that this dish is exclusive to Johor Bahru - no, originally from Guangdong and Fujian provinces of China, fishballs are all over Southeast Asia from Thailand through the Malay Archipelago to the Philippines.

But, in Johor Bahru, good fishballs are easy to find (just like Singapore is chicken rice paradise because good chicken rice is everywhere on our sunny island).

I got this feeling that JB locals have it too good and have taken their fishballs for granted 🤭

Why do I think so?

Over in Johor Bahru, almost all fishball sellers still make their own fishballs, many from scratch.

That means fish meat is manually scraped from whole fish.

Ground and mashed into fine paste with only salt, pepper and water added (no bulking starch), then hand formed into balls. The only machinery used is a table spoon 🥄

There is something about fishballs as a small hawker business. One kilogram of fish meat yields about 100 fishballs. In the heyday of hawkering, it's a common career choice as running a successful stall serving this popular comfort dish can provide adequately for a family.

Three fish commonly used in Johor for making fish balls are 👉

Yellowtail fish 黄尾鱼, Ikan Delah in Malay, it is also known as sweet potato fish 蕃薯鱼 or tofu fish 豆腐鱼 (lots of names this fish 🤭 ).

Ikan Parang or wolf herring fish 西刀鱼.

Yellow eel 黄鳗鱼, Ikan Malong in Malay.

Fish are chosen for their flesh colour (the whiter the better), flavour and gel stickiness (for elasticity).

Yellowtail fish is the most popular (most stalls use this). Yellowtail fishballs are light, feels slightly fluffy to the bite. It is spongy springy. Flavours are slight, first savoury from the salt, then the natural sweetness of fresh fish follows shyly. Fishballs don't have bold, in your face flavours but leaves a mild gentle comforting savoury sweetness on your palate (especially for people who grew up on them).

Ikan parang is a distant second in popularity (fewer stalls use this). Slightly darker than yellowtail fish meat, denser so ikan parang fish balls tend to be firmer with a tighter crunch. A bit more salt is used to moderate the stronger fish taste of ikan parang so the fishball does not taste as sweet (as yellowtail fish).

Johor has something I don't see as much in Singapore today - deep fried fish balls. Deep frying turns the outside brown, tender leathery, more chewy. Shielded by the outside, the juicy inside retained the savoury sweet flavours which combine well with the savoury saltiness outside.

Fried fish balls is one of the defining ingredients of Johor Bahru curry laksa. I love them.

In Johor Bahru, some wanton mee places serve fish balls as a side dish. Some of their fish balls are so good, they rival the best fishball noodle shops.

They also put fish balls in mee hoon kueh.

Told you, Johor Bahru is fishball paradise 🤭

Good fish balls places in Johor 👈

Singapore

Whereas hand made fishballs are almost the default in Johor Bahru, it is relatively rare and getting rarer in Singapore.

73+1 stall in Bishan is one of the last few and the elderly couple had already retired, handed over the reins to their stall.

Another hawker who still worked from whole fish is Hup Kee in Ang Mo Kio. Hup Kee tried machines before but abandoned it and went back to hand making because they can't get the same results. This stall is precious as it is rare in Singapore today.

The next best are hand crafted fishballs made with yellowtail fish surimi. Surimi (a Japanese term) is factory processed ground fish.

This is a Teochew style fish ball (by Lucky Her Kiao) made with yellowtail fish surimi studded with bits of scallion, chili, cilantro, etc.

Factory machine made fishballs have been normalised in Singapore. The fish balls are mass produced with surimi with machinery in factories.

There are three grades of surimi.

The best surimi are made with ang ko li fish (known in the surimi industry by its Japanese name Itoyori fish).

The next best is surimi made with a blend of ang ko li fish with other unknown fishes.

The lower grade surimi are made with mixture of various unknown species of fish but no ang ko li fish.

The best factory machine made fishballs use 100% Itoyori surimi. The next best use surimi of Itoyori and unknown fish mixtures. The lower grade fishballs use 40% of fish mixture (non-Itoyori) surimi with 60% of starch filler and flavour enhancers.

Personally, my first choice is handmade fishball made from whole fish for the texture and taste (common in JB), followed by handmade fishballs of yellowtail surimi (e.g. Lucky Her Kiao).