Restoran Hua Mui - Old School Hainanese Chicken Chop in JB

It's my very first trip to Johor Bahru in 3 years. What is likely to be just an extended destination for Singaporeans (like going Sentosa) felt like a holiday to me. Restoran Hua Mui is an old school coffee shop that is known for their Hainanese chicken chop. This two story shophouse is popular among both locals and tourists. You can see from the high traffic flow on a weekday afternoon that business is brisk.

It's a waste when you come here for the first time and not eat the chicken chop (RM15.90). The chicken, fried till legit crispy (we call it chicken cutlet back home don't we?) and amazingly without a hint of oiliness. The sauce though felt like coloured water. Half-way through the meal, we discovered the secret to a delicious chicken chop when we dipped the fried chicken into chilli sauce. Taste really good! From the image, you get a sense of being transported back in time to the days where food presentation isn't important (what instagram?).

They also adapted to modern day and have salted egg chicken chop (RM19.90) in their menu. This time, the salted egg sauce had flavour and the chicken chop can be enjoyed on its own with the salted egg sauce.

We also tried the toasts. traditional egg sandwich (RM6.90), butter toast (RM1.80) and french toast (RM2.50). The egg sandwich and butter toast had fairly little room for error. The french toast was heavily coated with a eggy exterior but it's too dry to eat without maple syrup or kaya.

Some of the other dishes we tried, Hui Mui breakfast (RM7.90), Hua Mui Mee Hainan (RM7.90) and Cantonese Horfun (RM8.90). I don't know about you, but I really have difficulty appreciating the Hua Mui breakfast and the Hua Mui Mee Hainan. Makes me feel that you can be a mediocre chef and set up shop with an ancient shop front and have lots of people frequenting your stall if you don't charge too much. 

Would I bring people back? I might.. for the chicken chop, if my company wants to eat where the locals go. I'd say I don't regret my visit because it's my mini holiday and this is indeed a different experience from what I can find back home.

Restoran Hua Mui

131, Jalan Trus, Bandar Johor Bahru, 8000 Johor Bahru

Johor Malaysia

Dim Sum Haus - Affordable Dim Sum with aircon along Jalan Besar

When you think about affordable dim sum, Swee Choon, Wen Dao Shi, Victor's Kitchen comes to mind. Dim Sum Haus is one of the latest additions to this list and their dining environment is a notch better. This dim sum establishment caught my eye on instagram after a wave of bloggers started featuring various food from their menu with raving praise. Got to try it out myself!

I like to gauge my dim sum through the siew mai ($4.30) and har gau ($4.60). While I found both to be pretty competently prepared, it's at best ordinary and passable. 

I pretty enjoyed the Steamed Crispy Rice Roll with Shrimp ($4.70). Ever since my first cheong fun with youtiao experience at London Fat Duck, I developed a soft spot for this dish. The one at Dim Sum Haus had good flavour thanks to adequate sauce and the fried fritter was sufficiently crispy, not soggy. The prawns inside the roll gave the cheong fun robust flavour with every bite. Thumbs up!

Some of the other dishes we tried includes Baked BBQ Porked Pastry ($4.80), Egg Tarts ($3.60) and Pan Fried Mushroom Bun ($5). The dishes were decent, competent but no wow factor. The Pan Fried Mushroom Bun which was one of their chef's recommendations felt a tad too ordinary. 

The Baked Salted Egg Custard Bun ($5) was one of the reasons I made the visit in the first place. Everyone was raving about how awesome it is online. The bun follows the concept of Tim Ho Wan's famous Baked BBQ Pork Bun except they put custard inside. 

Granted that the salted egg custard was flowy and flavour was on point, the bun was limp. Very nice meh? I like the word competent. It definitely isn't good enough for me to specially make the trip back here to eat it again. 

As a whole, Dim Sum Haus serves decent, affordable dim sum in a clean air-conditioned environment. They are popular enough to have a small queue outside so be prepared to wait. I'd be willing to come back if I wish to satisfy any sudden dim sum cravings without burning a hole in my wallet on random days. 

Dim Sum Haus

57 Jalan Besar, S208809

Hakkasan Hanway Place - London's One Star Michelin Chinese Cuisine

One Star Michelin restaurant, Hakkasan, is known not only for contemporary chinese cuisines but also for their cocktails. The people behind Hakkasan has designed the concept to be one of mystery and grandeur. Their website described it as modern ethnic. A trip to the Hanway Place branch sees the restaurant located on an obscure run-down quiet street. You won't imagine there's a classy restaurant located there if you happen to pass by, let alone a Michelin Star one. The long flight of steps down the dark tunnel leads to a blue lighted poshly furnished walkway with well groomed reception. The mystery and grandeur follows through and through especially during my trip to the restroom. The restrooms are hidden behind the walls camouflaged by the interior designs. The food that awaits also lives up to the impressive setting they designed to greet all guests.

We ordered the Hakka Lunch Menu (30/pax) to kick off our lunch. We started off with the dim sum basket that consisted of har gau, scallop siew mai with topiko caviar, chinese chive dumpling with prawn and crab meat and soy crumble beancurd dumpling. I think what impressed me the most was how this dim sum basket doesn't shove you up with in your face premium ingredients to justify their Michelin Stars. I totally enjoyed every bite of the individual dim sum. The har gau's prawns were fat and robust in flavour. The siew mai with scallop was again understated yet excellently prepared. The chive dumplings carries a distinct chive flavour wrapped around the juicy prawns and the soy crumble beancurd was surprisingly light with adequate sweetness. It's really a culinary display of how skilled chefs can bring normal ingredients to life.

I was equally impressed with the puffs selection. Crispy smoked duck and pumpkin puff, baked venison puff and spicy mooli crab meat pastry. Each of the puffs were flaky and buttery without overdoing any part of it. I felt the ingredients were generous. It is faultless! I need to state though that I suspect the food are prepared in large batches because there's no room for customization of your order at all. I don't take beef but they refused to swap out the beef dishes.

This unassuming stir fried baby broccoli with goji berries and crispy seaweed is a silent killer. I found the entire plate extremely addictive and Vain Pot and I literally fought over finishing the plate. It's probably the winner of the day. I've no idea that vegetables can be this tasty, it definitely took us by surprise. Pardon the bad photography, I haven't figured out how to use the Olympus PEN PL 8 in the dark yet and I missed my free training. Whoops!

The Hakka Noodle which we couldn't finish and had to pack it up was equally good. It's just that this meal is simply too value for money they feed you so full and well, we really couldn't finish the noodles. The noodles were cooked well and delicious but I can't comment much because I was too full to truly appreciate the dish.

Once again, I am left totally impressed with London's Michelin Star restaurants. They totally dropped the pretense to impress you with expensive food and showcase their legitimate culinary ability with simple food. Awesome! Hakkasan is highly recommended.

Hakkasan Hanway Place
8 Hanway Place, London, W1T 1HD