It has been quite a long time since I've been back to Muar - a small little town where I grew up with tons of warm-hearted people. Since it is a small town, Muar doesn't really have much entertainment, compare to Malacca which is about 45 minutes drive from Muar. However, there's one thing about this place that attracted tourists to visit - Food! Way before they have started the Visit Muar campaign, people from other states have been pouring in over the weekends or holidays, and most of them are there to hunt for food. You can practically stuff yourself from morning till night!
We went back to Muar last weekend, in order to pay respect to my grandfather. We arrived early in the morning, and right after that.... we started to hunt for food! I recalled a hawker centre that I used to visit during my school days, but have not been there for many years - Coconut Garden. So, I decided to bring +chOo uEi (Joe) there to tryout their food. I love their Pan Mee, or in Muar, we called or "Mee Pok" - means thin noodles.
It was a simple dish - some noodles with few slices of fish paste and Char Siew (roast pork) and vegetables. It's not a fancy dish, but what makes it so delicious is the noodles and chillie in that one single bowl. The noodles had a nice and springy texture to it and flavorful by itself. However, by adding in the chillie, it brings the whole bowl into another level.
Instead of the noodles, Joe wanted to have rice for lunch, so I've ordered him a the Meat with Pork Innards Soup and Yam Rice. I tasted the soup for a bit, it was a little bland and abit too oily. I had better in some stalls in Muar (which hopefull will soon be posted in my blog!). I did not try the rice so couldn't comment much on it.
After getting some rest, we were out and about in the town area and decided to grab some food again. We went to Muar famous food street to find some delicacies. It's not a very long street, but is a short street that have food stalls both side of the road from one end to the other. On top of that, they have those old school kopitiam a.k.a coffee shop selling food too! On weekends, this place is super heavy with traffic and you can see people at every stalls - buying and eating.
We went to one of the kopitiam and started ordering our food and drinks.
We were there initially to have the satay, but ended up ordering quite a few dishes! LOL!
The satay was just ok, but this is one of the few places in Muar that you can get "Pig Intestine Satay", and their intestine was really nice!
The pork satay was average, and the meat was a bit too tough. I would prefer it to be a little fatty and tender.
Another must-have food in Muar is the Fried Oyster with Eggs. Compare to the ones selling in Petaling Jaya or Kuala Lumpur, which are fried to crunchy; the ones in Muar are more starchy. It's kinda like omelette with oyster in it and chillie. Although it doesn't have much of a crunchy texture, but the chillie add extra flavour to the dish. We had requested the uncle not to add too much starch in it, as we prefer it less starchy.
The Wanton Noodles was also average. The noodles were kinda starchy and did not have that springy texture to it. I have better Wanton Noodles in Muar.
Another place that we used to visit a lot is a restaurant that's famous for their Snakehead Noodles - Ting Ting Restaurant. It is out of Muar town area, and be sure to be there early. Or else, be prepared to wait for quite a bit for your dinner.
My favourite dish of all time - Stir Fried Sweet Potato Seedling with Belacan! Vegetables were cooked perfectly and the belacan wasn't too over-powering.
Their Stir Fried Chicken in Kong Po Style with Deep Fried Yam Ring was also another delicacies. The chicken were flavourful and the yam ring wasn't crsipy but not greasy.
Finally here comes the main star of the night - Snakehead Noodles! It's actually a simple dish, but the fish fillet was cooked to perfection and the soup was flavourful with the salted vegetables in it.
This is another snakehead dish - Deep Fried Snakehead with Tomato Sauce. I wasn't really a big fan of tomato-base food, but the deep fried fish fillet was not too bad. The batter was seasoned well and I could actually eat it just like that, without needing to go with the tomato sauce.
It was my first time having this dish - Deep Friend Pumpkin with Salted Egg. I totally love this! The sweetness of the pumpkin and the saltiness of the salted egg was totally perfect combination. Although it wasn't fried to crunchy, but I can totally forgive this with the salted egg in the batter. =p
The total bill of the night came to RM68 for 6 people with 5 dishes! I'll say it wasn't an expensive dinner, considering we have 2 fish dishes! *burrrrrrrppppppppp*
