A city right across from Singapore. Johor Bahru. And just like many cities in Malaysia, it's also a diverse
and delicious one. That light layer of dough this is a great midday snack. In this episode,
we will give you a taste of some of this city's bold, rich, mouth-watering foods. From unique twists
on classics to fresh and delicious, we've got you covered. It's got that perfect durian flavor it's
not bitter it's not too sweet it's right where you want it. Come here ask for the laksa mee hoon kueh.
We are at restaurant Yew Swee, a family-owned business. Tons of people coming
in and out of this place and everyone's just sipping their laksa or any dish
We've never seen laksa with this noodle. It reminds me of thenthuk kind of a noodle
So this laksa is very interesting. So I'm a huge fan of curry mee, curry laksa, you name it. And
when I read about this place, what really stood out is that you can actually get this laksa with the
mee hoon kueh noodles aka the pan mee noodles. I'm a huge fan of these thick chewy noodles, so it's really
kind of a dream combination for me to have these thick chewy noodles along with a rich curry broth.
So I came to try this place yesterday and I loved it so much and decided we got to come
back here and film it, that's how good it is. What makes it special these noodles are made
fresh. So we actually see them put the dough in this kind of contraption where they
like move the wheel and then it flattens it and they throw it in the pot and then boil
it fresh right there for each order, which is really special. You can tell the attention
to detail and quality here. I can't even talk about it anymore, I gotta take a bite of these noodles.
They're just that perfect texture. Like Jumi said, it reminds us a lot of Tibetan thenthuk noodle.
But it also kind of reminds you of like the Xi'an biang biang noodle they're like that thick
chewy. I just love this type. This is a genius combination. Take a sip of the broth.
Very coconutty. It still has like the slight curry flavor, it's very rich. What I like is it has a little
bit of a refreshing flavor from the laksa leaf in there. You have a lot of these tofu puffs,
there's tofu skin, there's tauge aka bean sprouts and we also have fish ball too. There's a
lot of shredded laksa leaf to give it a nice herbal fresh flavor. And every curry mee - no curry mee's
complete without cockles and they don't disappoint here with the cockles. They give you a nice portion.
This has got so much going on. I'm actually going to add a little of this
sambal in here too. Put a nice dollop in there. Get a nice big bite
You gotta come here - ask for the laksa mee hoon kueh
So you get the best of both worlds really one of my favorite bowls
of curry mee, curry laksa in Malaysia that I've had. Broth is great, but the noodles are
incredible
For our midday snack, we're here at Wah Cai 3-in-1 Chinese cake. It smells so delicious
Just the look of it looks very crunchy.
And I cannot wait to have this
Look at that. It is covered heavily. It's really crunchy
This probably is the cempedak,
tastes like jackfruit actually it reminds me of fried turon or turon
I don't know if you heard it - it is just as crunchy as how it looks
We're here in Skudai, which is just outside of JB and we've been dying to try this. So this is
a spot they're actually I hear the first ones to do fried durian. Now we love durian whether
it's fresh durian, durian in cendol, durian fermented for tempoyak, savory
whatever the durian is, put in front of us we're gonna eat it and we're gonna love it. But man fried
this just sounds totally next level and this is so crispy and crunchy oh man I'm so ready.
Creamy custardy interior. I love the creaminess of durian
and this one just when it's fried like this it heats up so it really melts like
wow this is like a velvety silky creamy texture and that perfectly crisp outside.
Man the contrast, the textures the crispy and the creamy is just unbelievable and that durian is so
perfectly it's got that perfect durian flavor it's not bitter it's not too sweet it's right where you
want it. I can eat about 10 of these. I'm going to try the cempedak and I'm going to try the durian.
Cempedak is very interesting. It's got a little bit of that jackfruit flavor it almost has like
a gingery taste to it too it's got like a sharp. Very interesting. The batter on these is incredible
I had a cempedak first, now I had durian. So the first bite before durian it has
no gingery taste at all, it's just pure jackfruit taste. I strongly advise that you go to smooth
tasting fruit or the cakes first like durian should be the last
bite that you'll get. Or work your way up to durian, so start with a subtle taste then
durian will be the very last thing that you're gonna eat.
We're now having banana leaf rice meal. This one's from Ashoka Curry House in the middle
of a residential village and this is our second time. My favorite - my personal favorite is this
curry chicken. The first bite when we were here the first time in my mind this is the
best curry chicken I've ever had in the entire time we're here here in Malaysia having banana leaf.
This is so good. All the spice in here.
We're huge fans of banana leaf rice and we actually just came here on a whim a couple of
days ago here in Johor Bahru and just craving banana leaf rice and we loved it so much that
we came back. So the cool thing about this place is that you can actually pick it out yourself and you
self-serve it which you can get carried away. Kind of did the other day but now
got the lay of the land here. So really loaded up this plate - look at that
this banana leaf is just covered so you got the rice we banjir here with some curries, we flooded it.
Got a couple different veggies, we got mutton, we got two types of chicken ,
papadums. I'm just ready to go - it smells incredible and just you can look at it up
close even look at that mutton up close you know it's going to be good that it's just covered in
these seeds. Look at that. So it's a dry mutton curry, but it just feels so soft look at that.
Comes right apart. That's where I'm going to start off.
All these spices are in this mutton curry you have so that's anise seed right here. You have a
big cinnamon clove. That's why this is one of those flavorful mutton I've ever had in my life.
That mutton is just insane. It's one of the most tender mutton I've ever tasted.
Flavorful, so it's spicy, got the cumin seeds, you got curry leaves on here. It's so
flavorful. It's just - it's just saturated in flavor. I can't believe how flavorful this is
I'd be happy enough with just a big bowl of this mutton, but
the good news is there's a lot more here to eat
The curries here are just so rich and flavorful. Got the dry chicken curry here too.
Chicken's quite delicious, but I can't get past this mutton. I'm telling you, it's like
I said before - give me a massive bowl of this mutton I'll be a happy man. Phenomenal flavor bomb
mutton right here. Gotta tell you as much banana leaf rice we've eaten around Malaysia, this is definitely
one of the most flavorful I've had and that's saying a lot. To end off the meal, we also got some rasam.
So rasam we actually had for the first time in our nasi kandar in Penang video we're
gonna put a card up here you can check that out. But look at that look at all these spices here. So
it's this little soup, it's just full of these seeds. There's cumin seeds, there's fennel, all types.
We are at Murtabak Singapura. This thick, rich murtabak
look at that. That is insane! Good thing we're here with our friends - Linda and her nephew.
In a way seeing those mountains of ground meat like that kind of reminds me a little
bit like Philly cheesesteak in a way and just like the gluttonous of it all the oil you know.
obviously cheese you could get this with cheese too we decided not to that'd be almost too much.
Murtabak is one of the signatures you've got to have here in JB.
So this is a local recommendation from Linda. Looks awesome - love watching them make this.
So murtabak it's similar like a roti canai in a way but like they flipped the dough so
many times so they stuff it first with the minced beef and the onions flip it
they put an egg on top more beef this thing is just looks insane just so many layers here
Gonna have a piece of it first by itself like this.
Minced meat is crispy. It's already cooked once and then they put it on the flat top like that so
it crisps up on that flat top with - they put a lot of oil in here too. This is definitely a
really gluttonous dish but it's not as heavy on the carbs as you would think just from looking at
it. I think more the volume of this is the egg the meat. You have the nice crunch of the onions in
there too. This is nice, but I think what I'm really going to do here now is add some dal
Add a little of this sauce too. Sauce it up. Here we go
I like that because the dal and the sauce really have flavor the hot sauce it's not really hot it's
more sweet got a tomato flavor in it you can tell it's more of a runny sauce the dal really adds
nice flavor to it gives it a creamy element
curry leaf. I can eat the dal by itself, that's how good it is really. But when you add it on to
this you get that meat, you get the egg, you get the onion, get the dal and that light layer of
dough. It's a great midday snack but if you get the super special you gotta come with a crew
If try to take this down by yourself, good luck to you. Super special murtabak. There's probably history here
of why this is called Murtabak Singapura and can be found in Malaysia. The owner tried to adapt
the murtabak that's famous in Singapore, bring to Johor and improvise he elevate the flavour
and become once introduced in Johor even Singaporeans when the border was still open would come here
and just get Murtabak Singapura in Malaysia
We'll demolish everything on this table. Our table is just filled with food
that it's almost like there's no space for more. We're having a meal with Linda,
she's probably tired of us already at this point and her nephew. We are at Medan Selera Tepian Tebrau
The stall that we're we ordered our food is it's the stall number eleven Tip Top Ikan Bakar
We have baby crabs
We have salted egg calamari - fried squid
And this beautiful delicious ikan pari bakar or sting ray, grilled stingray
We got the star of the show here, the reason why we came, the ikan bakar. So it's the grilled stingray,
the ikan pari. Wow. This one looks so unique to any other ikan bakar we had here in Malaysia because
it's actually chopped up tomato and onion on top. So that's the sambal is made with the fresh tomato
and onion. Like usually it's just a puree sambal like this is totally different it looks incredible.
Take a nice big bite with all those chopped tomatoes onions smells absolutely incredible
It's spicy, but it has a nice sweetness from the tomato. I love the texture that the fresh
tomato and onion add to it. And the ikan pari itself, the stingray, is so fresh and clean
It doesn't have that ammonia flavor you might get in stingray sometimes. Like so super fresh. You see
it on the ice as you go to the stall to order. Could really eat about two or three of these by myself.
What we got here we got the kerang aka cockles. We love these when they're in curry mee, we love them
in sambal, we love them any way. This is the first time we've actually tried these
steamed just like this. Very simple, well boiled, just boiled, simple.
Crack open. I have fun just cracking these open too. You're gonna smell it - just smells
like the sea. I'm gonna eat it plain. We have a sauce with it, but I'm gonna eat it plain just like this.
Got such a pleasant sea flavor and just it's got this little bit of juice in there too
I can eat about 100 of these in one sitting, no problem. Amazing these simple and delicious.
You really gotta enjoy the pure taste of the cockles amazing.
We have this beautiful salted egg sotong -
the salted egg fried squid. It's just covered in a salted egg sauce - look at that. It looks almost like
melted cheese looks like a cheese sauce. That's how yellow it is. It's got all these curry leaves on it.
Intense salted egg flavor. I love it. I can just put the salted egg on anything and just
enjoy it like that's how rich and delicious it is. It doesn't overpower - it's rich but
.not overpowering. It's amazing. They do a great job with it here. Some places they
do when they fry it with the salted egg but like that they fry it and pour the salted egg on top