Southern Soujourn

It's a bit daunting to be going for a meeting out-of-state and not knowing where the place is, or even how to get there. Night, when it falls in strange, uncharted territory, sits uneasily with me when I do not know what I am looking for or how to recognise it when I see it. The only thing I did know was that we needed to stop and eat before getting more lost in Johor.

I may not be adventurous when I am off the beaten path, but I am a bit more daring  in the quest of entries for my blog. Hence, I bypassed Jusco and all its safer, familiar eating outlets, and decided on a place called Mama Lynn's for dinner. The few diners there preferred to sit alfresco, across the street. For the interest of photography, we sat in the eating shop, and had the displeasure of having a rat saunter up to us and over my feet. It clearly thought that it had a right to be there, as opposed to these KLites.

Our first taste of Johor.

Johor is famous for some food, notably nasi ambang and its laksa. However, neither of these items were on the menu, which was rattled off by a less than enthusiastic server-cook. Mee Bandung Johor was one of their mentions, so I ordered a plate of that.

Mee Bandung Johor.

It was really too chilli hot. I'm not sure if that is how it is supposed to be, but it really jarred the taste buds. Apart from that, it was quite nice tasting, with bits of vegetable, an egg, and some beef pieces in the thick gravy.

The reason one needs to order more when blogging.

The safe order of Nasi Pattaya was the worst decision of the night. The first deal-breaker was the chilli sauce. They'd used a really cheap brand, the kind which stank of cheap vinegar and bad flavouring. It really coated the mouth and made it hard to continue eating. While the egg was fine, and Kit wondered how they fried it, since it was in a really large roll, the rice within was tasteless. There was no hint of seasoning, not even a dash of MSG. There was one pip of garlic, whole, and hard, and that is when I just decided to stop trying that dish. It was just not good for my body or my state of mind.

Thankfully I also ordered a beef murtabak from the stall called Murtabak Lebai. I liked the name, but I felt it was going to be a let-down when I saw the guy unloading already cooked roti canai into a warmer. However, it was a great surprise to be served a murtabak which was made from scratch. I know it was because in trying not to look at the rat, I focused on Pak Lebai.

Now this was a good welcome to Johor!

The dish that was presented was so large it nearly ran over the sides of the plate. It was hot, and crisp and fresh, evenly browned all round, and with the best balance of crisp shell and chewy interior. The beef used was moist and lightly seasoned, enough for the taste of the beef to be brought out. There was goodly pieces of onion in it, but they were softened, and so really worked with the beef.

The condiments were dhall and a hot, sweet sambal. The dhall was good, very thick and rich with the taste of pulses and vegetables, while the sambal was made from dried red chilli and ground. A lovely combination of velvety ground gram and zingy heat.

So thankfully, the first taste of Johor was a relatively balanced one. We had the good, bad and the ugly, and I guess we could not ask for more. Except maybe a better cashier who would itemise the bill. All the food plus two bottles of mineral water came to RM18.40. No breakdown.

Restoran Mama Lynn
4 Jalan Kebudayaan 7
Johor Bahru