Claypot Chicken rice at Taman Pelangi Food Centre - Old school charcoal cooked dish

Operating Hours: 5 PM - 10 PM

Operating Days: Daily

Address: 1, Jalan Perang, Taman Pelangi, 80400, Johor Bahru

This is an old-school food centre in Taman Pelangi. There are quite a number of stalls selling different kinds of food here. 

Today, I am going to recommend this claypot stall at the end of this food centre. Claypot chicken rice is the most popular stall in this food centre based on the number of claypot seen from each table.

Everything is done from scratch and cooked with charcoal, the claypot chicken rice here is done in a very old school way. 

When the rice is partially cooked, pieces of fresh chicken, salted fish, and slices of pork sausages are tossed into the claypot before it was served.

The claypot chicken rice consists of tender marinated chicken meat, pork sausages, salted fish, spring onions and rice with dark soy-based gravy. You will need to stir them all yourself first. A tip for you, if you do not like to stir them yourself, you can also ask them to stir for you.

Rice was moist, firm and completed and well coated with dark soy sauce after stirred. It was also not over-cooked. I like to scrape off the rice crust which was stuck on the clay pot walls and stirred thoroughly into the rest of the rice. The rice clinging to the walls of the clay pot were slightly browned, giving it a special crispy texture overall.

Priced at 8 RM, the claypot rice here is enough for 1 to 2 person. It is one of my usual spot I like to visit if I am craving for claypot rice.

San Low Seafood restaurant (三樓海鮮園) - Johor's Fried Bee Hoon is everywhere!

• Operating Hours: 4.30 PM to 1 AM
• Address: Jalan Biru off Jalan Merah, Taman Pelangi, 80400, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
• Operating Days: Daily
• Food I had: Fried Bee Hoon, Sambal Kang Kong, Fried Fuyong Egg 

San Low Seafood Restaurant (三樓海鮮園) with over 30 years, first started out in a small hawker stall before relocating to where they are now in Taman Pelangi. It can difficult locating this restaurant as it is sited in a private residential area. San Low Seafood Restaurant is one of most commonly well known Johor’s seafood restaurants.

The signature dish here is their renowned San Lou fried bee hoon (rice vermicelli) 三楼炒米粉. This is not your usual stir or toss fried bee hoon. After the bee hoon is fried the usual way, stirred and tossed and further pressed while they continue frying it with a steel wok. 

The place was non-air-conditioned, which wasn't a big problem given the nice cooling weather and the existence of so many fans on the wall and ceiling.

Their menu lying all around the tables, you have to take them yourselves, nobody is around to help you.

Do take note they have free wifi! For your easier reference as displayed here.

For fried egg, I thought this was good. However, for an authentic fuyong egg, it does not have any wok hei flavor. A disappointment as we were looking forward to it.

Sambal Kang Kong does not have anything special, the portion was small which we finished even before the bee hoon arrived.

When the signature San Low Fried Bee Hoon was served, my first thought was that it looks so ordinary. It was fried with prawns, vegetables, egg, fish cake and chicken meat. The bee hoon was infused in seafood broth and fried. It was only slightly charred on the outside, moist on the inside. But I did not feel anything special with their signature fried bee hoon, any other places will win this dish anytime.

Overall would I return? Maybe as they opened till 1 AM and craved for seafood at that time, else I might go for another restaurant for better Fried Bee Hoon. 

Restoran Yi Bao Mee Hun Kueh (順利麵粉粿) - Chilli is the game changer to the food!

• Operating Hours: 9.30AM to 7.30PM
• Operating Days: Daily except on Thursdays
• Address: 5, Jalan Maju, Taman Pelangi, Johor Bahru, 80400
• Food I had: Mee Hun Kueh

There are many Mee Hun Kueh stalls in JB, and today, I would like to introduce one of my favorite stalls. It was a lazy Sunday and since we didn't have any plan, we drove into Johor Bahru to hunt for food.

The Chinese name of this stall is not the usual translation from its English name, therefore please take note of the shop name if you are taking a cab down!

It was really humid when we were there, but the shop is really well ventilated though it is not air conditioned. They have many fans installed at strategic locations, which is just right for eating Mee Hun Kueh. Personally, I feel that this is one of the plus points of this shop as I seldom see that in many stores, not even in Singapore. So, thumbs up to them!

Unlike most of the restaurants, they do not have any menu on the table or for their customers. You will need to look at the wall for the type of food they serve, and it was all written in Mandarin. A simple translation is as follow:

On the left;

面粉粿 - Mee Hun Kueh

板面 - Ban Mee

幼面 - You Mee

面线 - Mee Sua

米粉 - Bee Hoon

肉汤 - Meat Soup

粥 - Porridge

On the right;

江鱼仔 - Fried anchovies

加菜 - Add vegetable

凉茶 - Herbal tea

薏米水 - Barley drink

酸甘酸梅 - Sweet sour plum drink

罐装水 - Canned drink

One of the key factors for a good bowl of Mee Huh Kueh include the special sauce they had premix for you to mix it into the noodle. It's a mixture of red chili, green chili with lots of chili seeds in sight. It was stingingly spicy when tasted it by itself. 

The noodles were machine cut, there were fried anchovies, sliced and minced meat, egg, and Sweet leaf Bush aka 玛尼菜, it does look like leaves pluck out from trees but it's edible which is a good source of vitamin K.

The soup looks clear but it was refreshingly sweet, which I could taste the noodle and the meat in the soup itself. The noodle, however, is machine made, so the uniformed shape, size, and thickness are going to be the same, which other shop does still keep the tradition of pulling the noodle themselves.

And do not forget to eat them with the chili, it will really enhance the taste, it brought up the taste of the soup and the noodle to another level.

There was two type of meats - sliced and minced meat, they both do have a different type of tenderness although both had the taste, I preferred the sliced as you bite into it, you would feel the meat sliced direction.

And whats hidden right below beneath the soup is a soft boiled egg, be careful not to stir the noodle too fast as it might break the egg, or if you preferred to mix the whole egg with the soup.

This place will always be one of my top Mee Hun Kueh shops to visit as their chili is really my top reason why I kept coming back to this shop for more.

Penang Rojak in JB - Motorbike selling Rojak with Sticky sauce filling up fruits and you tiao.

• Operating Hours: Mon to Tues (12.30PM to 4 PM) & Wed to Sun (12.30PM to 5 PM), close on Thur
• Address: 3-7, Jalan Maju, Taman Maju Jaya, 80400
• Food I had: Penang Rojak

Rojak is a Malay traditional food with vegetable and fruits.Rojak means "mixture".

No matter Singapore or Malaysia, you can see rojak almost everywhere. Had tried a lot of places and nowhere yet able to beat this Rojak stall that I am introducing.

This motorcycled stall's opposite Restoran Yi Bao Mee Hun Kueh.

 From the owner, he prepares the sauce, fruits and you tiao in the morning to ensure they are all fresh.

You might see some would eat and stand by his stall or waiting to take away order. You can request to separate the sauce from the food or ask him to mix it for you if you asked him to mix, it's recommended to eat it immediately, else just separate it, they will give u 2 packets, one would be the sauce another would be crushed peanuts.

They were packed in this plastic container and was given 2 satay sticks to eat on the spot. I requested for all you tiao, you can request it from the owner.

Take note do not to stir the food as it will make all the food soggy. So just eat as how it is, no need to mix it. The sauce is very sweet with a mixture of sugar, crushed peanuts, prawn paste and something unique about this sauce - Maltose is added so the sauce is very gluey feeling. It was really a perfect match. The sauce was so good I can even use my tongue to dig out all the sauce clean.