JB Eat: Johore Delights @ Selera Johor

Rick
7 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 22 hours ago

Selera Johor is a Muslim foodcourt located in Plaza Larkin, across a road from Larkin Sentral, in Johor Bahru. The foodcourt houses many stalls serving Johore delights — "Johore" is the historically name of Johor, preferred by the British, and has a "traditional" connotation when used here. This is a great place to search for traditional Johor-specialty food and more.

Below are the stalls that I have visited — so far. More will come...

Stall 11: Laksa Johor

Although the stall is named "Laksa Johor", it serves more than just laksa Johor. There are mee kari (curry noodle), mee goreng (fried noodle), mee bandung (another Johor specialty originated in Muar), char kuew teow (fried kway teow) and laksa Penang.

A unique characteristic of Laksa Johor is the use of spaghetti instead of yellow noodles. Together with fresh ingredients, such as cucumber, onions, beansprouts and half a lime, the spaghetti is then covered by a thick paste. The laksa gravy paste is not solely coconut-curry based but carries an acidity that resembles assam laksa too — but it is from lemongrass rather than tamarind. Many ingredients are ground to make the paste, including fish, dried prawns, chillies, etc. This dish, easily mistaken as vegetarian, is spicy and with lots of flavours.

Mee Bandung is a Muar-specialty dish that uses thick yellow noodle with pieces of beef, an egg and greens, drenched with wet gravy and sprinkled with chopped coriander and spring onion. The dominant ingredient of the gravy is minced dried shrimp and mixed with several spices to give the dish its aroma and mellow sweet-spicy flavour. The not-so-tender beef gives the dish some chewy texture, but not too tough.

Stall 8: Kacang Pool Haji

Kacang Pool Haji specialises in kacang pool — a stew made using broad beans. There are only two items on its menu: kacang pool with daging (broad bean stew with beef) and roti bakar (grilled toasts).

The Kacang Pool is a sweet-savoury thick gravy-like stew that is made using broad beans (main ingredient), minced beef and other ingredients. The stew is topped with a sunny-side-up egg, green chilli, onion and a lime for some citrusy touch. An ultra-thick grilled roti (bread) is optional and is eaten by using it to scoop up the stew — local Malays will eat with their hands and I followed. This is a nice and light dish to try.