Muar Food Trip 2012 [Day 2]

Back to the second day of Jalan Jalan Cari Makan in Muar! :D In case you missed out on Day 1, you can click here and here to read about it.

We woke up as early as 6.30am on the second day to a rainy morning which makes it even harder to drag myself out of bed.

Rain pitter-pattering on the window ☂  I remembered the rain was quite heavy that morning.

Jieyi tapaued Cui Kueh (read: Water Cake) from a stall by the street. Water cake is basically made from rice flour, served with preserved minced vegetables and chili paste. 

Then we went to had these Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls in an old Chinese coffeshop for our first round. The chicken rice balls in Muar are bigger than the ones in Malacca, I think I prefer the ones in Muar. The rice is fragrant and the texture isn't too soft or hard. They goes well with the soy sauce and of course the chicken. Each chicken rice balls costs RM0.40 each. It seems that most Muar folks love to have chicken rice balls as breakfast like how Klang folks loves having BKT for breakfast as well. These chicken rice balls can be sold out as early as 8am! 

For round two, we had this Fry Shrimp noodles that claimed to be from Penang.

We get to try this kolo mee-pok as well, tasted quite similar to the ones in Sarawak.
After having breakfast, we practically just sit in the car and sight-seeing around Muar town. 

Old buildings that never fail to fascinate me (: 

Then, it was lunch time so we went around scooting for various street food from hawker stalls.

Cathay Fried Kueh Tiao located at Jalan Ali. This friendly uncle had his own stall beside a food court that opens from 10am till 5pm. 

Muar Laksa from the food court @ RM3. 

Cathay Otak-otak Fried Kueh Tiao with egg @ RM5. It was pretty good albeit a tad too oily. A must try!
Otak-otak and the egg are upon request, normal Fried Kueh Tiao is RM3. 

More shots of old buildings I took while I walk around;

Then, we head to the Jalan Haji Abu, famously known as Glutton Street or Tam Ciak Kueh (喂食街) in Hokkien Dialect for more mouth watering delicacies! Muar is touted to be food haven for gluttons; thus that's how the name of the street came by. It is a street with long stretch of stalls side by side selling a wide array of food ranging from chicken, duck, pork, noodles, pastries, otak-otak. Truly a gourmet's delight!

The famous Teo Chew Cake Stall :D Since I'm a Teochew myself, so must try! Heard that this stall has been there for three generation and it's one of the famous stall on Glutton Street. 

They are different types of Teo Chew Cakes; the white ones on top are filled with chinese turnips where as those below are glutinous rice with and without char siew. The black one would probably be black glutinous rice. 

Just let the uncle know, and it will fry it for you. Yummy but very greasy! 

Just beside the Teo Chew Cake Stall, there's this stall selling soya bean. Fresh and cooling on a hot day. 

Otak otak from Sansan Coffeshop 三山茶餐厅 , probably not the best. The nicer ones is from the stall along the street as well, easily spotted cause it usually has a long queue. 

Something unnecessary that I splurged on again but it's toooooo cute to handle lah :P Look how comfortable it's lying on top of my phone. 

Our lunch; how unhealthy I know :9 Did you realised there's two different set of otak-otak? The ones with newspaper wrapping are the one from the street, while the ones in basket is the one we got from the stall I mentioned above. 

Fried sweet potato strips with sour plum powder from Kala Chicken; super crunchy and addictive! 

THE BEST FRIED BANANA FRITTERS I'VE EVER HADDDDDD! So crispy yet soft in the inside! 

Steaming hot and delicious otak-otak, can't get enough while I'm in Muar #onlyinMuar

You can actually just go to any coffeeshop nearby to have the food you bought from the street without ordering their food and drinks from the coffeeshop itself but you'll need to clean up everything before you left. Weird but yeah #onlyinmuar

The fried carrot cake that we had earlier was from this stall, just beside the Teo Chew Cake stall. It's one of the famous stalls too! 

Sai Kee 434 Kopitiam for teacoffee break! :D which I will blog in another separate blogpost cause there's too much photos to share HEH

Famous for its coffee made of home fried coffee bean and powder among the locals and tourists. No doubt the best place for coffee lovers! 

Found this handbook in the kopitiam, definitely useful for those who wish to explore Muar (:  

Random salted fish in front of an old grocery store. 

Enough of gaining more weight, time for some sight-seeing and activities! It was a rather last minute plan when we decided to go to Sungai Gersik Hot Spring with the help of Sie Yii's Myvi GPS. It was a really long journey, since it was located 10km from Parit Jawa, when Parit Jawa itself is already quite a distance from Muar Town. After a half an hour drive, we arrived safely at the hot spring. I think the first hot spring I visited was the one in KK, Sabah when I was like 7? HAHA!

The hot spring, with water temperature is estimated at 50 to 70 degree Celsius, was discovered over 100 years ago in the peaty area, was believed to have healing power due to its high sulphur content.

The hot spring attracts people of all ages, it will extra crowded during the weekends and public holidays. As you can see, they divided the whole pool into three parts. It gets hotter towards the middle of the pool.

I went in and dip my feet just so I can tell people I experienced the hot spring as well :P It was not as hot as I expected, it was mild warm instead. 

Them, dipping their legs in middle pool which has boiling water compared to the one I was dipping mine, thus you realised they were keeping their legs up in the air HAHA

Suprisingly, the place was quite well maintained and clean. It has facilities like toilet, bath room, Muslim prayer room, a children's playground and free parking. 

Jie Yi and I 8)

Just a gentle reminder: Remember to clean yourself up after soaking or dipping yourself in the hot spring pool. The high temperature of the water cannot guarantee a bacteria free pool so you won't wanna risk yourself into any infection (:  

Sungai Gersik Hot Spring 
Openng Hours: 7am - 7pm 
Free admission to locals and foreigners. 
GPS Coordinates: GPS 1.940900N 102.741300E.

Since we will be passing by Parit Jawa on the way back, we stopped by Parit Jawa Fishing Village (GPS coordinates 1.951372N 102.635517E.) to catch the sunset and snap some photos. So, feel free to feast your eyes!

Colourful boats arranged neatly by the river bank. 

The coast is actually an important stopover and winter feeding ground for 60 bird species of migratory birds including egret, eagle, heron, sandpiper, swift and kingfisher, and efforts is being taken to gazet the area as a bird sanctuary. — Wikitravel 

Poor dead fishes. 

Besides birds, there are actually monkeys wandering around too. 

Mudskippers jumping around (: 

By the time we left Parit Jawa, all of us are already starving. Then we settled down at this fully packed Chinese restaurant. We have to wait for around 10 minutes till there's an empty table for us. Yay, finally a proper meal! :D

First time seeing canned Pineapple juice! #onlyinmuar #jakun Tasted sweet and sour at the same time. 

A big board on the wall introducing their signature dishes and a random short article on life philosophy.

Assam Sting Ray [Signature Dish] @ RM18.00 

Deep Fried Dragon Tongue Fish [Signature Dish] @ RM14.70

Sambal Shrimp Petai with Squid [Signature Dish] @ RM19.50

Omelette with oyster and shrimps @ RM6.00
For this price, I must say they are generous with the amount of fresh juicy oysters and shrimp YUMS

Stir fried Vege @ RM5. 

Steamed otak-otak @ RM8.00
This is super niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee! 

Steamed Fish with preserved radish @ RM17.20
A special dish as I've never tried fish cooked with preserved radish, the taste was unique and I like it! 

Surprisingly the 7 of us can seriously eat alot and whack everything clean by the end of the dinner, some of us even added rice HAHA! All the dishes are equally delish and the price is quite reasonable as well. Definitely one of the best meal in Muar. I would highly recommend this place for lunch or dinner! 

Shee Yaan Restaurant (喜燕楼)

30 & 31, Jalan Pesta Baru 1, Pusat Perniagaan Pesta Baru (Jalan Bakri), Muar, Johor 84000

Tel No: 06-953 9014

Operating Hours: 11.00am till 9.30pm

Our night just didn't end after the dinner, since the night is still young hehehehe we went for a last round of yumcha session before we leave Muar the next day. Imagine when you're already so bloated from dinner and all you can think of is a nice shower and sleep *dragging myself reluctantly*

The Little Café is a cosy eatery in an renovated old wooden house serving a range of western and Malaysian dishes. It is quite a common hangout spot for the youngsters as well, it was fully packed as well when we were there and it's not even a public holiday eve, if you get what I mean.

I like how this place is really really really vintage! I was too lazy to move around after the dinner so yeah pardon me for the lack of photos. 

Everything used to decorate the place is so retro and old-school. 

Ice Lemon Tea @ RM4.50 

Warm fresh milk served with some coconut sweets @ RM4.00

Fyi, their cendol was terrible! HAHA @ RM2.50 

Pink Grapefruit @ RM6.50

A slice of cake @ RM5.80 

And oh, this place has free wifi! Apparently, someone brought in outside food or drink that night cause we couldn't use the wifi :P We laughed when we saw that notice LOL 

All in all a very nice and cosy with a vintage vibe place.

Little Cafe

No 32-1, Jalan Othman, Muar, Johor

Tel No: 06-9543688

So, that's a wrap for my second day in Muar! No idea how many gazillions of cholesterol and calories have I gain on that day alone but it was definitely worth the fun and experience with my bunch :D Thank you for reading such a long-ass post, hope you like it. It will be a pretty short one for the third day and not to forget, the one about Sai Kee 434 Kopitiam. Be sure to stay tuned!

xx