Muar Day 2: Exploring Beyond Pekan Muar
- Rick
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
I left the hotel at 8:40am for breakfast. New Town Authentic Cuisine was right beside Elite Mansion Boutique Hotel and Sam Kee Kopitiam was opposite. Both served coffee and breads but New Town served heavier dishes too and was air-conditioned. As the morning was cooling, due to heavy rain the night before, I walked into the open-air Sam Kee Kopitiam.
Despite it being a weekday, Sam Kee Kopitiam was nearly full. I found an empty table before ordering at the counter. I had Elephant Bean kopi-O, a corn bun with butter and kaya, 2 soft-boiled eggs and a small packet of mee Siam with no ingredients — there were hard-boiled eggs at the counter but I did not get it since I had ordered soft-boiled eggs. The aroma and taste of the Elephant Liberica kopi-O was familiar to me since I had drank it many times — and reminded me to get a pack of coffee beans from Sai Kee Kopi 434 Cafe before leaving Muar.
After breakfast, I started strolling around the neighbourhood, which probably used to be a residential estate outside the old town. Many of the old houses had since gave way to new buildings, some with commercial functions. There were a number of eateries littering the estate and abandoned houses too. But what was more interesting was the different architectures of some older buildings that had been preserved till today.
After strolling for less than an hour, I jumped into Restoran Xiao Chong (阿锺肉骨茶), which served bak kut teh. I had walked past the restaurant twice, could not resist the temptation and decided to go at it. I had pork ribs soup with meatballs and added pig intestines, a serving of cut fried dough and yam rice with sour plum juice. The bak kut teh had nice herbal-savoury taste. This was a surprise find and I did not regret the extra meal.
It was 10:35am after the second breakfast. I continued to explore the area, using Google Maps, aiming to cover more ground. The sky was still cloudy and was not too hot to walk in the open, but it might not be so nearing noon.
The area to the west of Pekan Muar had no rows of shophouses, unlike in the old town. The buildings (restaurants, residential houses, offices, temples, abandoned structures, etc) here were sparsely located. There was also a sport stadium along Jalan Sultan Ibrahim. No one was walking along the roads, except me, but there were pedestrian walkways along most of the trunk roads.
Just as I was about to finish the not-so-interesting walk around the area, I came across a familiar sign that mentioned Yong Sheng Gift Shop (荣成礼坊). I had visited a couple of Yong Sheng’s outlets in Johor Bahru and knew they were from Muar. But I did not expect the main outlet to be here. I took the opportunity to shop at the outlet and to get out of the heat that was building up in the atmosphere.
I picked some snacks and cookies, that I had not tried before, and also two flavours of vacuum-packed rice dumplings (a Nonya dumpling and a mala dumpling) from a range of more than 10. I could get the other flavours from outlets in Johor Bahru. The rice dumplings reminded me that the Dragon Boat Festival was round the corner.
The sky seemed to have flipped when I was inside the gift shop, it was scorching hot when I stepped out with my purchases at 11:45am. I was not very far from the Sultan Johor Crown and Wetex Parade Hypermall and, of course, the hotel. Deciding against going back to the hotel to drop the stuffs, I walked slowly to Muar Food Street.
This day was a Thursday, Yong Kee Roasted Delight (Coffee Shop), used to be known as Sin Kim Huat Coffee Shop (新锦发茶餐室), was closed and so were a wanton noodle stall and two satay stalls along the food street that were part of the coffee shop. Most of the stalls that were opened were selling mainly Muar otak-otak and iced beverages. A confectionery stall and an ice-cream stall was opened too. The "Muar You Tiao" truck was nowhere in sight — it was also not there the day before.
I ordered 5 sticks of fish otak-otak (RM1 each) from Hang Kee Otak-Otak (汉记麻坡乌达) stall. While waiting for the food to be grilled, I bought a bottle of ice-cold longan herbal drink from a drink stall named 宝芝林. The longan drink tasted nice with real ingredients and not watered down.
After getting my grilled otak-otak, I could not eat them right away as they were too hot. I headed back towards the hotel while looking for a spot where I could finish the food. I came across a closed Sarawak kolo mee stall, opposite 333 Foodcourt, with empty tables and chairs and decided to eat the otak-otak there.
After finishing the otak-otak, I strolled back to the hotel. Instead of going back to the room, I stepped into New Town Authentic Cuisine beside the hotel. It was already 2pm.
I wanted something cold to drink, something light to eat and also the air-conditioning. After browsing through their menus, I settled for a Coconut New Town Kopi Latte (椰子咖啡拿铁) and Wantan Mee with Ayam Goreng Berempah (wanton noodle with fried spiced chicken, 香料炸鸡云吞面). I made the best choices, they were fantastic.
Another thing for guests of Elite Hotel, the hotel's WiFi signal was pretty strong here.
I was back in my hotel room around 3pm. A check in the mirror revealed that I was toasted, especially the redness on the back of my neck. After taking a cold shower — warm water again — I lazed in bed, unable to sleep and wrote my blog.
I was too tired from lack of sleep the previous night, plus the burnt sensation on my neck, and I had eaten quite a lot for the day. Thus, I gave up on dinner and stayed in the room till the next day.
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