Skudai Duck Mee

Upon reaching the vicinity, we were confused for Skudai Duck Mee and the opposite Restoran are both selling the same thing. We sticked back to our original plan although the crowd here was not convincing. 

Skudai Duck Mee

This place was recommended by one of the pals for their tasty and nostalgic braised duck.

Interior

Comparing with their competitor next door, these iron grilles and the nostalic environment with well used chairs kept everything quite down to earth.  

Environment

The menu was quite straight forward with one page of food, braised ducks, innards and sides. 

Menu

While the other page featuring drinks.

Menu

While waiting for our food, the Otah peddler asked if we would like to order some from them.

Where we get our Otah from

If you are going for fish Otah, they have mild and medium spiciness to choose from. However if you are keen on their prawn otah, they only have medium spiciness.

Muar Otak Otak

We ordered and these Otah was Barbecue on the spot then served to us in the red basket.

Otah in Basket.

The Otah was lacking of flavours and was spicy.

Mild Spicy Fish - RM 1.20 

If you are not going for rice options, they have Kway Teow or Yellow Noodles for selection too. Not only that, it can be ordered with soup or without.

Noodles  - RM 2 / bowl 

Here's our complete order with the mains and sides. Let's dig in!

Our Lunch Begins

The generous amount of meat to be shared among ourselves. The braised duck was thinly sliced and decked up by a bed of sliced cucumbers. Braised sauce was light and easy, not salty while the duck meat was decent.

Braised Duck - RM 42

Braised innards were well clean and was chewy. The braised taste was just nice without overpowering. Egs on the other hand is decent.

Braised Pig Intestine & Eggs - RM 3.50 + RM 2.50

Having tried Skudai Duck Mee, I find that the taste was clean and decent. Although their competitor looks more commercialised and furnished, I'm still having the thought of going there for a try so that I can do a comparison.

Skudai Duck Mee
Location: 29, Jalan Emas Putih 2, Taman Sri Skudai, 81300 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Restoran Chin Chin

The pals decided to head into Johor Bahru for some popular Wanton Mee and upon reaching the place, I thought that the place looked quite familiar to me. After browsing through my records, I realised that I had patronized the exact same place about 5 years ago before Covid.

Restoran Chin Chin

The humble shop space has not much drastic changes with the Wanton Mee Stall still situated in the entrance.

Wanton Mee Stall

Nothing changes as they are still selling Wanton Mee and Chicken Feet Noodles.

Preparing the Noodles

We had the smallest portion for we were afraid to have a heavy meal. In fact, I ordered the portion with lesser spice. 

Wanton Mee Small

Standard remains good with Al-Dente Egg Noodle tossed in their sauce and topped with lean slices of Char Siew Meat, sweet and non greasy style. 

Bowls of Wanton Mee

This old school style of Wanton Mee was indeed nostaglic and if you are those who prefer the non-grilled Char Siew meat, Restoran Chin Chin's is good to go.

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Posted 19th September 2018

Restoran Chin Chin is raved selling one of the best Wanton Mee in Johor. From the outlook of the Restoran, it looked nothing significant that they are selling Wanton Mee as there are no signboard hanging in the old school place.

Restoran Chin Chin

It was my second time visiting their place and coincidentally, both were during a wet weather and we saw them pouring hot water into the drain beside the eating place with steam evaporating. If you notice, you will get to see noodles in the open drains.

Chrysanthemum Tea

There are only 2 dishes from the Restoran and they are Roasted Pork Wanton Mee and Chicken Feet Wanton Mee.

The Char Siew over here was simple and tender. We did not expect the kind of sweet savoury roasted taste. However it is quite tender and old school to mix in black sauce with onions and oil. The outstanding part of their dishes could be their noodles which were made of egg. The texture was abit rough but springy, lending a nostalgic feel.

Roasted Pork Wanton Mee 叉烧云吞面 - RM 5.00 (Small)

Even the chicken feet noodles, it was simple and down to earth dish. Braised chicken feet coupled with few thick slices of mushroom and I like the part that the braised sauce was not too salty and strike a good balance with black soy sauce. With the braised sauce pairing up with the noodles, it was pretty well executed.

Chicken Feet Wanton Meet  鸡脚云吞面 - RM 5.50 (Small)

Braised Mushroom with chicken Feet

Wantons were served in a bowl of soup. These bite size Wantons are smooth and goes well with plain soup and vegetables.

Wanton

Why are they rated as one of the best in Johor? The egg noodle scores over here and only if you don't mind the simplicity and plainness of basic Wanton Noodles.

Restoran Chin Chin 
Location: 273, Jalan Kaloi, Batu 10, 81300, Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
Operations Hours: 7.30 am - 4pm  Closed On Every Thursday

Soon Heng Prawn Noodle 顺兴下面

Soon Heng Prawn Noodle is considered to serve one of the better prawn noodles in the Teban / West Coast area. They have been around for a long time and you can see that there are usually long queues during peak hours. Besides selling Prawn Noodles, the stall does offer Laksa too.

Soon Heng Prawn Noodle 顺兴下面

Our standard order is none other than the traditional bowl of Prawn Noodle soup that comprised of fish cakes, prawns, lean meat and beansprouts. 

Traditional Prawn Noodle Soup 传统下面汤 - $4

The soup was tasty but not overpowering taste.

Ingredients

For many times, I'm always their supporter for Traditional Prawn Noodles Soup and this time round, I decided to go for their specialty Prawn with Mee Pok. The style seems a bit different than before as their soup was more cloudy but after all the taste was remained as good.

Speciality Prawn Mee Pok Dry 特色虾面薄干 - $4.30

If you enjoy Pig's Tail, they have an option from their prawn mee menu with this too.

Pig's Tail Prawn Noodle 猪尾虾面 - $6.30 (Dry)

If you are looking for decent and traditional prawn noodle without paying exorbitant price, Soon Heng Prawn Noodle may fit the bill. 

Rating: 3.25 /  5

Soon Heng Prawn Noodle 顺兴下面
Location: 54 Teban Gardens Rd, Singapore 600054

Ga-Hock Seafood

While some of us were craving Cze Char, we decided to return to Ga-Hock for dinner for their laid-back and Malaysia-lookalike environment was something we looked forward to. 

Having tried out their noodles on their menu after a few sessions, I will conclude that their standard item like this Hor Fun on the menu was nothing to shout able. It was plain and common with standard ingredients like fish cakes, pork, egg and vegetables.

Hor Fun

The group's Cze Char Session will not be considered to be completed without ordering their Prawn Paste chicken too.

Prawn Paste Chicken

Could not have done having the earthen pot of Curry Fish Head with our bowls of plain white rice! Their Curry Fish Head is undoubtedly the regulars' all-time favourite. Loaded with a generous portion of Tau ki, mixed with lady fingers, brinjal and Tau Pok. The Curry Gravy was not too spicy and makes a great pairing to our bowls of rice. 

Curry Fish Head - $30

Not many places do offer this dish as these Baby Sotong have to be fresh enough to be served in such a cooking style.  The simple execution made was prepared with ingredients such as ginger slices, garlic and spring onions to reduce its seafood smell. We enjoyed this particular dish.

Sotong

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Posted on 7th December 2022

After all these years, we were back here for their Seafood again. The rustic and Malaysian Style dining environment is really a charm and unique of its kind. During the weekdays evenings, this place is bustling with people too, not to mention weekends.

We ordered a small plate of prawn-paste chicken as a side dish. These crispy mid-joints were well marinated but they still lacked that kind of flavour we were looking for. They were decent but not the best we had.

Prawn Paste Chicken - $10

The Fried Mee Sua was pretty decent with vegetables, fishcake, prawns, lean meat and eggs. 

Fried Mee Sua - $7 (Small)

This is the main starring dish and also part of the reason to be here. The Salt Baked Crab is to die for so not many places do provide such a style of preparation. The Sri Lanka crab was rubbed with salt and baked. While patrons usually go for Chilli, Black Pepper, and Salted Egg Crab from Cze Char Stall, these styles often get us to taste the sauce which covers up the natural taste of the crab, unlike the Salt Baked Crab, we get to taste the natural sweetness of it.

Salted Baked Crab - $104

Sri Lanka crabs are known for their plump meat, these crawls from the crustaceans were big and meaty too.

Big Crawl

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Posted on 10 September 2014

Located along Upper Bukit Timah Road, Ga-Hock is a hot spot that most Cze Char lovers will want to visit. This place is hidden from the main road but human traffic is very high during meal times and parking lots are limited.

The environment was quite different from my usual Cze Char dining place where most of the time we are surrounded by neighbourhood flat. Instead, this area are sheltered with tall big shady trees or huge colorful umbrellas above our tables.

Dining Area

A booklet of their menu was given to us when settled down. Like most of the coffeeshop, there are 2 sections for dining, the smoking and non-smoking area.

Ga-Hock Seafood Menu

Dishes were pretty quick to serve and we had the spicy hot plate of vegetables served right up to our table. The tapioca leaves were fried with sambal belacan still retaining its juiciness and crunchness but it may be spicy for it has too much chilli padi in it.

Sambal Sweet Potato Leaves - $9

Believe to have prepared long before hand, they looked dry and unappealing from the exterior. In fact, as you sink your teeth teeth into them, the amount of moisture and crunchiness from its chestnut fillings are acceptable.

Prawn Fritters - $10

A dish that is so hard to skip as its menu had it printed on the main page. Gravy was thick and fragrant, very good to go with the plates of plain rice. Adding crunch to the hot claypot, fried beancurd skin was used.

Curry Fish Head - $25

Fish meat has the flavours of curry permeates its meat, however I find that texture of its meat was abit harder than the usual ones, perhaps it was overcooked. Other than that the level of spiciness and taste are just perfect.

Can you spot the fish head?

Having only a few pax dining, it was quite a challenge to order more dishes, especially the signature ones. Given the chance, I will like to try their signature salted baked crabs and others.

Rating: 3 / 5

Ga-Hock Seafood
Location: 794 Upper Bukit Timah Road Singapore 678133
Tel: 6314 5725

Fifty Trees

While we were doing cafe hopping after our breakfast nearby KSL City Mall, we visited the Fifty Trees Cafe as recommended by one of our pals. The cafe is instagrammable and entire place looks like a glass house with a garden in the middle. 

Interior

The interior design was rustic and laidback, cement screen flooring and the old school kind of windows grilles with glass. 

Environment

The menu is printed on a stack of A4 pages.

Menu

You can visit their garden and enjoy some greeneries in the center portion of the cafe.

Garden

Top view of our beverages

Their Dare Devil is only served cold. It is a combination of cream with milk topped with espresso. Take a look at the glass, did you spot a skull?

Dare Devil - RM 14.90

Rose Milk is basically hot milk topped with rose petals. 

Rose Milk - RM 9.90

Rose Latte is another version of Rose Milk with rose petals over the cup of latte.

Rose Latte - RM 13.90

They have quite an extensive selection of beverages. Here's their Hazelnut Latte. 

Hazelnut Latte - RM 13.90

While passing by the kitchen, we realised that they are serving delicious Seafood Mee Mamak too. The strong whiff from the Mee Mamak was enticing. 

Seafood Mee Mamak - RM 13.90

Since we did not bring enough "stomach space" for this trip, I will very much like to try their food items on the menu in my next visit.

Fifty Trees 
Location:  53, Jln Beringin, Taman Melodies, 80250 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia

Shimbashi Soba 新橋そば

While roaming through Orchard, we decided to pay one of the eateries in Paragon Shopping Centre that we have not patronised before. We decided on Shimbashi Soba by group RE&S which falls under the same brand as Yakiniku Go, Ichiban Boshi, Sushi-GO, Wadori etc.

With Soba as our main course, we order some sides to pair along.

Chawanmushi includes 2 big pieces of mushroom, fishcake and ginkgo nut. It was sweet and quite decent.

Chawanmushi - $7.80

Aburi Miyazaki Wagyu was served with some mixed vegetables. It was coated with some sweet savoury sauce to enhance its flavours. 

Aburi Miyazaki Wagyu - $34.80 

A New Year Traditional Soup, Ozouni. It is filled with auspicious ingredients like mochi which represents longevity. The Soba comes with ingredients such as smoked duck, prawn, vegetable tempura, Japanese mochi (rice cake), mushrooms, fried beancurd, vegetables and onsen egg.

New Year Longevity Soba - $25.30

Enjoy the fragrant and refreshing flavour of Yuzu with the Yuzukiri Soba. It's only available once a year with limited servings daily. Chilled yuzu (citrus-flavoured) noodle served with dipping sauce, tiger prawn (2 pcs) and vegetable tempura.

Yuzukiri Tempura - $23.80 

Overall, since they specialise in Soba,what they are serving is quite outstanding among their competitors. 

Rating: 3.25 / 5

Shimbashi Soba 新橋そば
Location: Paragon Shopping Centre, 290 Orchard Rd, #B1-41, Singapore 238859
Website