Muar Day 3: More Local Eats from Muar to Johor Bahru
- Rick
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
It was Good Friday, a public holiday in Singapore. I had thought that it was also a public holiday in Malaysia but that was not entirely true. The lady stall owner of Hang Kee Otak-Otak had told me that Good Friday was NOT a public holiday in West Malaysia but it was in the states of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia — where there were large Christian populations. However, most merchants in West Malaysia would regard it as an "unofficial" public holiday as the long weekend in Singapore would bring tourists over the border and more businesses to them.
After a long rest in the room since 3pm the previous day, I could not sleep till late and had woken up before 7am. And I was famished.
8:05am, I stepped into the not-so-crowded Sam Kee Kopitiam again, which supposedly opened at 8am. Some breakfasters were already enjoying their food. I had no problem finding a table in a good spot, for taking photos, and had a wholemeal bread with butter and peanut butter and a multi-grain bun, called "Roti One M". I ordered the same Elephant kopi-O again — I did consider trying their espresso series, but a small-size coffee could not last me through breakfast.
I left the cafe at 8:40am, stepped into the hot morning sun, crossed the road and back into my hotel room — most of the shops were still closed, probably until 10am, and I did not want to go for another stroll and get roasted again. I packed my belongings to get ready for check-out and thought about what to do next.
I had wanted to stay longer in Muar and had pre-booked a 3pm bus back to Johor Bahru. But, with several hours to go in Muar, I did not know what to do next other than coffee and food. Two days seemed more than enough for this little town, more so since I had been here several times. Anyway, for coffee, and probably some light snack, there was a kopitiam-style restaurant right beside Elite Hotel.
I checked out at around 10:30am and walked into New Town Authentic Cuisine. I had iced Honey Lemon Green Tea and Roti Canai Tampal with Chicken Curry (咖哩鸡配印度煎饼加蛋) this time — roti canai (or roti prata) was not a heavy dish. I had eaten roti canai many times but first time eating roti canai tampal with fried egg pasted to one side of the flatbread. Interesting.
I finished my second breakfast and left the restaurant at 12pm. I reminded myself to start water rationing at least 2 hours before the return journey. Just few minutes' walk and I nearly melted under the hot sun. I walked into Wetex Parade Hypermall to get some medications from Guardian but did not stayed in the cooling shopping mall for long. I had one more destination in mind.
I came to a coffee shop named Seremban (S'ban) Siew Pow (芙蓉烧包). It sold a number of traditional pastries, including its siew bao, which was well-known in Seremban of Negeri Sembilan. I bought a box of 2 chicken siew bao, 2 pork siew bao and 2 char siew puffs. Seeing that the shop sold other local products too, I bought 4 packs of the Muar-specialty mee siput (snail cracker, RM2.80 each) and a pack of salted egg cookies (RM5) from Negeri Sembilan.
I took a slow stroll through Muar Food Street again and saw that it was busier than usual with more stalls opened. The wanton noodle stall, the satay stalls and the you tiao (油条) truck that were absent the day before were all present. A bicycle-stall selling rice dumplings had just arrived at the scene. There were more people too. Under the hot sun, My Kim Mama Kopitiam seemed to attract more people into its air-conditioned dining room.
45 minutes after leaving New Town Authentic Cuisine, I came to Kopi 434 Cafe — my last stop. I took a table and browsed through the menu for something cold to drink and something light to munch on. I settled for an iced matcha coffee and Mi Bandung 434 — totally forgotten about water rationing and to have something light. But the good thing was that I got to experience another version of Muar's specialty mee bandung. I ate slowly to stretch my time in the cafe, hopefully till 2:30pm.
At 2pm, even though I wanted to idle in the cafe till closer to 3pm, I could not help noticing that people kept walking in and tables were fast running out. I went to the counter to purchase a bag of Elephant coffee beans (500gm, RM56), packed it in my bag, left the cafe and crossed the pedestrian bridge to Terminal Bentayan Muar, the express bus terminal nearest to Pekan Muar.
If I had managed to book Mayang Sari Express's bus service at 2:30pm, I would have lesser time to wait. An hour in the hot, humid and weak-fanned terminal was not pleasant at all. But, I found an entertainment.
There were two snack & drink stalls in the bus terminal. One of them had a white styrofoam ice box labelled "Air Nipah" at RM4 each. Curiosity won and I opened the box, there were bottles of light brown liquid and also transparent ones, which I believed were drinking water. I took a light-brown bottle, confirmed with the stall owner it was air nipah before paying for it.
I took a small sip, no big mouthful. It was cool, refreshing and mildly sweet with a familiar flavour — not the "induced" sweet taste of nipah palm seed, a.k.a. attap seed, that was usually preserved in sweet syrup resulting in many people to mistaken those bland-tasting seeds as naturally sweet.
Air (nira) nipah was derived from the sap of nipah palm and must be kept chilled to prevent it from undergoing fermentation, somewhat similar to air kelapa (coconut palm wine). I read that it must be consumed within an hour but I would not do that before taking a long-distance bus. And I would not mind leaving it alone for 3 hours and taste the result of natural fermentation — be it vinegary or alcoholic.
2:45pm, I went to the toilet across the car park but was told it was closed — oh, Friday! Then I went to a smaller toilet on the other side of the terminal (50 sen). Those in the queue were Chinese whereas Muslim males used the toilet in the little mosque behind the terminal — on Friday. It did not matter to me, at least the queue was shorter.
3pm, finally! It was time to get out of the humid air into a cooler box. As expected, the City Express bus was full — I was right to book ahead even though it was not a public holiday in West Malaysia. Probably because Friday was the start of a weekend — Johor had officially changed its weekend to Saturday and Sunday, but not in some other Malaysian states. The bus departed at 3:10pm after everyone had settled down — why did it not open its door 10 minutes earlier for boarding?
5:30pm, the bus exited the final toll plaza along the North-South Expressway and I took a big mouthful of the air nipah, the taste had not changed. 10 minutes later, traffic became slow along the Skudai Highway before Paradigm Mall — it never changed.
6:02pm, the bus terminated at Larkin Sentral, making a full 3-hour journey without rest stop. I went to the "female" washroom — the male washroom was being renovated (about time) and half the female washroom was converted to a temporary male washroom but without wash basins. Fortunately, I had wet wipes in my bag.
Instead of taking a Singapore-bound bus service to JB CIQ, I waited for myBAS T10 or T13 towards JB Sentral at Platform A. A myBAS T13 came and I boarded but it did not leave the terminal until 6:30pm. 20 minutes later, I alighted at POS Malaysia near to Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk.
Most of the eating places in the Heritage Walk that opened in the morning were closed and those that were closed took over, but lesser in number. I came to IT Roo Cafe and decided on it without wanting to check for other options — not with a backpack and a big goodies bag in one hand. I had Hailam Mee with root beer float — old-taste in an old lane.
After dinner, I made my way to JB CIQ by cutting through the pasar malam scene around Pasar Karat, then JB City Square and JB Sentral, and crossed the border to Singapore. All were smooth at the checkpoints and I touched Singapore soil at 8:20pm.
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