Matang Seafood Porridge in Taman Gaya, Johor Bahru

 

I have been a fan of Matang Seafood Porridge at their branch at Mount Austin, and was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon their spanking new outlet at the new shoplots in Taman Gaya. I liked Matang Seafood porridge so much that last year, I brought Singapore Makan Guru K.F. Seetoh of Makansutra fame to their Mount Austin branch.


This new Taman Gaya branch, opened by a brother of the Beh family that owns the Mount Austin branch less than two months ago, is already doing a brisk business. The two branches run on the same lines. Fresh seafood is sold by weight and then cooked in Matang's signature seafood porridge and broth. One of the Beh sisters focuses on the daily logistics of bringing the freshest seafood to the three branches of Matang Seafood Porridge in JB (in Taman Mount Austin, Taman Gaya and Taman Nusa Jaya Mas)

This branch at Taman Gaya has a large dinning hall, two private dining rooms and slightly ostentatious furnishings while the one at Mount Austin is a more basic shoplot restaurant.



We had a RM45 claypot of seafood porridge which was enough for 4 persons. The seafood broth was of course the soul of Matang seafood porridge. The broth was savoury and naturally sweet. The savouriness and sweetness were robust as the claypot was loaded with clams, slices of grouper, minced pork, shrimps, fish balls and a meaty crab.


These additional ingredients, add further savoury and sweet flavours to the already tasty broth. With all that real seafood goodness in the broth, no MSG was used at all.





The porridge was the usual Teochew style, its texture was between the Cantonese puree style congee and steamed rice.


We also had this steamed white pomfret at RM33. Just simple steaming with ginger, light soy sauce and shallot oil to bring out the freshness of the fish.

Here were some of the fresh seafood available on the day of our visit.

This shark head is a gelatinous speciality I wouldn't want to miss.

I am bringing a group of super biker friends on a Johor food trail and we are having Matang Seafood Porridge as part of our itinerary :)) Steamed shark head is on the menu! :))





Restaurant name: Matang Seafood View Restaurant
Address: 72-74, Jalan Gaya 1, Taman Gaya, Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/yw0Az
GPS: 1.563887,103.801467
Hours: 10:00am to 10:00pm
Non Halal

Date visited: 16 Jan 2013

 

I have been a fan of Matang Seafood Porridge at their branch at Mount Austin, and was pleasantly surprised to stumble upon their spanking new outlet at the new shoplots in Taman Gaya. I liked Matang Seafood porridge so much that last year, I brought Singapore Makan Guru K.F. Seetoh of Makansutra fame to their Mount Austin branch.


This new Taman Gaya branch, opened by a brother of the Beh family that owns the Mount Austin branch less than two months ago, is already doing a brisk business. The two branches run on the same lines. Fresh seafood is sold by weight and then cooked in Matang's signature seafood porridge and broth. One of the Beh sisters focuses on the daily logistics of bringing the freshest seafood to the three branches of Matang Seafood Porridge in JB (in Taman Mount Austin, Taman Gaya and Taman Nusa Jaya Mas)

This branch at Taman Gaya has a large dinning hall, two private dining rooms and slightly ostentatious furnishings while the one at Mount Austin is a more basic shoplot restaurant.



We had a RM45 claypot of seafood porridge which was enough for 4 persons. The seafood broth was of course the soul of Matang seafood porridge. The broth was savoury and naturally sweet. The savouriness and sweetness were robust as the claypot was loaded with clams, slices of grouper, minced pork, shrimps, fish balls and a meaty crab.


These additional ingredients, add further savoury and sweet flavours to the already tasty broth. With all that real seafood goodness in the broth, no MSG was used at all.





The porridge was the usual Teochew style, its texture was between the Cantonese puree style congee and steamed rice.


We also had this steamed white pomfret at RM33. Just simple steaming with ginger, light soy sauce and shallot oil to bring out the freshness of the fish.

Here were some of the fresh seafood available on the day of our visit.

This shark head is a gelatinous speciality I wouldn't want to miss.

I am bringing a group of super biker friends on a Johor food trail and we are having Matang Seafood Porridge as part of our itinerary :)) Steamed shark head is on the menu! :))





Restaurant name: Matang Seafood View Restaurant
Address: 72-74, Jalan Gaya 1, Taman Gaya, Ulu Tiram, Johor Bahru
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/yw0Az
GPS: 1.563887,103.801467
Hours: 10:00am to 10:00pm
Non Halal

Date visited: 16 Jan 2013

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Seafood Porridge @ No Name Stall near Lee Biscuits Factory in Pontian

After becoming acquainted with the boss of Tian Seng coffee shop in Pontian, I asked him for good food recommendations. He immediately shared with me a no name stall selling fresh seafood soup and porridge which he had been visiting at least twice a week.

Luckily, this no name stall is not hard to find as it is just across the road from a prominent local landmark, the Lee Biscuits Factory.  As there were other similar stalls in the vicinity, the kopitiam towkay told me that the seafood soup stall owner is known by the nickname Yau Kwai 妖怪 (Hokkien for monster). Towkay also reminded me to make sure that it is the seafood soup stall next to the chicken rice and roast meat stall, and not any others.

With these directions, I found Lee Biscuits Factory easily, parked my car nearby and explored the area on foot.

I found a popular seafood stall with many customers in a rustic, makeshift looking food court with only two stalls – a no name seafood soup stall and a chicken rice/ roast meat stall. This must be bingo J

But the friendly person running the seafood soup stall didn’t looked anywhere near being a yau kwai 妖怪 or monster J  

Anyway, looking at the steady stream of customers coming and going even when it was not yet lunch time, I knew it was a safe bet – not much risk to my calorie quota.

The stall serves seafood and fish prepared in a variety of ways including cooking it in asam (tamarind). I opted for seafood porridge cooked in the Teochew style. I also saw many customers ordering the asam fish.

Haha.., it pays to listen to the locals, especially when the local is a kopitiam towkay J

Just look at this bowl of seafood porridge – doesn’t the vibrant colours of the fish slices, shrimps and lettuce say it all? Everything in here was super fresh. The pork bone and seafood based broth was naturally sweet and fragrant. Everything here including the rice was refreshingly sweet and had just a delicate, subtle natural saltiness. This was the nicest seafood porridge that I had tasted so far J

And, by the way, Lee Biscuit Factory is also just beside the Pontian wholesale fish market – this is where the no name stall gets its supplies. So the seafood is super fresh and at near wholesale prices. My superb seafood porridge costs RM8 or SGD3.30.

Finally, after I was acquainted with the stall owner, I popped the inevitable question – “Do people call you Yau Kwai 妖怪?” The stall owner replied in the affirmative while beaming a broad smile. So I asked further, "Why would a nice guy like you, be called such a name?" Yau Kwai 妖怪 replied that it is because he was a “bad boy” once. My response was all of us had been “bad boys” some time in our lives J

Restaurant name: No name stall (the “food court” has a sign that says “PAC CORNER”)

Address: Along Jalan Kukup, Pontian (directly opposite and across Jalan Kukup from Lee Biscuits Factory)

Map: http://g.co/maps/v7evf

GPS: N 1.47535, E103.39440

Hours: 7:00am to 2:00pm (closed on Mondays)

Non Halal

Date visited: 4 Apr 2012

After becoming acquainted with the boss of Tian Seng coffee shop in Pontian, I asked him for good food recommendations. He immediately shared with me a no name stall selling fresh seafood soup and porridge which he had been visiting at least twice a week.

Luckily, this no name stall is not hard to find as it is just across the road from a prominent local landmark, the Lee Biscuits Factory.  As there were other similar stalls in the vicinity, the kopitiam towkay told me that the seafood soup stall owner is known by the nickname Yau Kwai 妖怪 (Hokkien for monster). Towkay also reminded me to make sure that it is the seafood soup stall next to the chicken rice and roast meat stall, and not any others.

With these directions, I found Lee Biscuits Factory easily, parked my car nearby and explored the area on foot.

I found a popular seafood stall with many customers in a rustic, makeshift looking food court with only two stalls – a no name seafood soup stall and a chicken rice/ roast meat stall. This must be bingo J

But the friendly person running the seafood soup stall didn’t looked anywhere near being a yau kwai 妖怪 or monster J  

Anyway, looking at the steady stream of customers coming and going even when it was not yet lunch time, I knew it was a safe bet – not much risk to my calorie quota.

The stall serves seafood and fish prepared in a variety of ways including cooking it in asam (tamarind). I opted for seafood porridge cooked in the Teochew style. I also saw many customers ordering the asam fish.

Haha.., it pays to listen to the locals, especially when the local is a kopitiam towkay J

Just look at this bowl of seafood porridge – doesn’t the vibrant colours of the fish slices, shrimps and lettuce say it all? Everything in here was super fresh. The pork bone and seafood based broth was naturally sweet and fragrant. Everything here including the rice was refreshingly sweet and had just a delicate, subtle natural saltiness. This was the nicest seafood porridge that I had tasted so far J

And, by the way, Lee Biscuit Factory is also just beside the Pontian wholesale fish market – this is where the no name stall gets its supplies. So the seafood is super fresh and at near wholesale prices. My superb seafood porridge costs RM8 or SGD3.30.

Finally, after I was acquainted with the stall owner, I popped the inevitable question – “Do people call you Yau Kwai 妖怪?” The stall owner replied in the affirmative while beaming a broad smile. So I asked further, "Why would a nice guy like you, be called such a name?" Yau Kwai 妖怪 replied that it is because he was a “bad boy” once. My response was all of us had been “bad boys” some time in our lives J

Restaurant name: No name stall (the “food court” has a sign that says “PAC CORNER”)

Address: Along Jalan Kukup, Pontian (directly opposite and across Jalan Kukup from Lee Biscuits Factory)

Map: http://g.co/maps/v7evf

GPS: N 1.47535, E103.39440

Hours: 7:00am to 2:00pm (closed on Mondays)

Non Halal

Date visited: 4 Apr 2012

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