We decided to wake up early today and drive towards Johor Bahru for late lunch. We had our breakfast which was included in the room rate and went about Jonker street to purchase some local delights before starting with our drive back. Read about my Day 1 in my other post.
This is our regular place to get the Malacca Nonya rice dumplings. From the road from our hotel, we just walked straight down towards San Shu Gong and you will find this store 2 mins away. These dumplings are usually eaten only during the dumpling festivals but these days they are available all year round.
They sell both the Nonya and the Bak Zhang version at MYR 7 and MYR 10 respectively. The store also sells other Nonya kuehs and dry goods like gula melaka and local sauces.
This popular stop is San Shu Gong right smack at the corner shop house at the start of Jonker street. This store is usually packed with tourists filled with baskets and baskets of goodies.
One of the most popular items to buy is the local Lao Qian coffee and milk tea priced at MYR17.20 per pack. There is usually a promotion when you buy 10 packs or more. This trip I discovered a new Tan Kim Hock gula melaka coffee and ginger tea also priced similarly. For tourists, there is a wide variety of local biscuits , drink mixes , kaya spread , curry powder pre-mixes and even soup pre-mixes. This will be the best place to purchase the local delights for your loved ones back home.
This local hidden store is our favorite store to get some dry goods which are sold more expensive in Singapore. The uncle is extremely friendly and feels just like your neighborhood store. Some of the stuff we buy from this uncle includes : Rice vermicelli , white pepper from Sarawak , salted chicken marinate from Ipoh , Pepper spice for Bak Kut Teh soup and gula melaka. He actually sells much more items but we regularly only buy the ones we tried. The gula melaka is very fragrant and you have to ask him for the special type which is slightly more costly than the ones he displays outside.
To get to the store, simply walk to the end of Jonker street, once you see this Kopi O building, make a right turn into the smaller street and you will see the store at the end of that street like my picture above.
We started our drive towards Johor Bahru once we stocked up our boot with the goodies. We took a 2.5 hours to reach our lunch destination. We decided to try the food here after missing it a couple of times during our cafe hopping trip.
They claim to have the best chicken chop in town. Parking is quite scarce near the restaurant. Be prepared to park further away and walk back to the cafe.
The main decor of the cafe reminded me of 1980s where everything from the tables and chairs was nothing fancy. Simple down to earth setting for good food. There are 2 versions of the chicken chop. The menu also had other fried rice or noodles options.
We ordered the grilled version with mushroom sauce which did not meet up to our expectations. The chicken chop was done with the meat of the drumstick and was tender enough. The chicken was well marinated and tasty enough. However, the mushroom sauce is really not impressive.
The fried version was indeed the more famous version with the chicken very crispy yet juicy and tender. The sauce was the same disappointing one. If I was to recommend, order the fried version to avoid disappointment.
What surprised us was the Mee Mamak which turns out to be mee goreng. The noodles had a great kick in terms of spiciness but yet packs a gentle sweetness from the tomato sauce. This is as good as Jumbo or Long beach I dare say.
We read about this place some times back and decided to pack some home. According to some blogs, they were the consultants to our Dian Xiao Er stores for the duck. I bought the whole dang Gui herbal duck at MYR68 as well as their crispy fried seafood bee hoon and hokkien black noodles. No pictures as they were snapped up by my hungry parents the moment I reached home.
The duck was very succulent and the herbal sauce was savory and delicious. The crispy fried bee hoon which I got the restaurant to pack separately from the gravy remained crispy like chips and when mixed with the gravy gave an interesting crunch together. The hokkien black noodles was mediocre and we could not finish at all. The bee hoon at small size is priced at MYR 10 while the noodles is priced at MYR 9. Quick tip for those who did not bring enough ringgit, the restaurant accepts Singapore dollars at a pretty good exchange rate.
Packed with goodies in both our car boot and our bellies, we headed back home with a short 1.5 hours traffic jam at the causeway and that’s the end of our Malacca getaway.
IT Roo Cafe
Address: 17, Jalan Dhoby, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Operation hours : 12.30 pm to 9.00 pm
Restoran Wong Ya
Address: 28, Jalan Segget, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Operation hours : 8.00 am to 6.00 pm
Bear Travels . Bear Eats . Bear Cooks 
One thought