What food to eat in Johor
The food in Johor is as unique as its heritage. Johor’s food can please the most fussy eater and challenge the most adventurous. Let us whet your appetite with some of the local dishes that Johor has to offer.
Pecal
Pecal is a Johor traditional food. It usually consists of mixed boiled vegetables. The mixture then is lathered with sweet and spicy peanut sauce.
Asam Pedas
Asam pedas is spicy stew dish. It is basically a stew cooked with tamarind (asam) juice, chili paste, spices and herbs like laksa leaf, galangal root, torch ginger flower. Normally, fish is used as the main ingredient. The sour and spicy notes gives the stew an interesting taste.
Roti Kirai
Roti Kirai is a popular Johorean tea time snack. It is a pretty dish that looks like a rolled yellow lace due to the way it is made. Roti Kirai is usually eaten in sets of three to four pieces and dipped with either chicken or beef curries.
Lontong
Lontong is a compressed rice cake dish. It is usually served at room temperature with peanut sauce-based dishes such as pecal or satay. In Johor, it is eaten as an accompaniment to coconut milk-based soups called sayur lodeh.
Mee Rebus
Mee rebus is a soupy noodle dish popular in Johor. It usually consists of yellow noodles that are soaked in a slightly sweet and spicy curry-like thick gravy.
Mee Bandung
Mee bandung, is a traditional cuisine originated from Muar, Johor. The word bandung means “mixed” or “pairs”. Mee bandung originally consisted only of noodles and eggs soaked in a gravy made from of chili, onion, spices, shrimp paste and dried shrimp.
Soto Ayam
Soto ayam is very much like a chicken soup except it is served with either the noodle or the pressed rice. The herbs like cilantro and spring onions are also used as the garnish. Soto sometimes is accompanied with mixture of cut chilies and sweet soy sauce dipping for those who want the extra kick.
Telur Pindang
Telur pindang has a deep cultural heritage among Johorean. Since the preparation of telur pindang is complicated and time-consuming, the dish is mostly served during festivities or special occasion.
Botok-Botok Ikan
Botok-botok Ikan is made from grated coconut flesh. The flesh is mixed with fish and other additional herbs spices. It is then wrapped tightly in banana leaf and steamed. The taste of the botok-botok is slightly tangy, creamy and a little bit spicy.
Nasi Briyani Gam
Nasi Briyani gam is an improvised version of Briyani rice. The dish is popular due to its aromatic flavors and distinctively rich taste. Briyani gam is accompanies with ‘achar’ and hard-boiled eggs.
Laksa Johor
Laksa Johor is a variant of the famous in Malaysian laksa dish. Unlike other types of laksa that uses rice noodle, it uses the spaghetti.The gravy is made from coconut milk, kerisik, asam gelugur, dried prawns, lemon grass, galangal and spices. It has been declared a Malaysian heritage food by the Malaysian Department of National Heritage.
Otak Otak
Otak-otak is a grilled fish cake made of ground fish meat mixed with tapioca starch and spices. It has a reddish-orange or brown coloring. Otak-otak is wrapped with a banana leaf and grilled over a charcoal fire to give the smoky taste.
Kacang Pool
Kacang Pool is a popular fava bean dish in Johor. The dish is often accompanied with toasted breads, sunny side eggs and limes. Kacang pool is commonly served as a breakfast meal. However, most people just eat it anytime of the day.
Kathira Drink
Kathira is a traditional Johorean drink. The ingredients used are evaporated milk, screw pine flavored syrup, basil seeds, malva nuts and its signature star kathira gum.
Nasi Ambeng
Nasi ambeng is a fragrant rice dish that combines steamed white rice, chicken stewed in soy sauce, beef or chicken rendang, sambal goreng mixed with firm tofu, tempeh and long beans, salted fish, fried noodle, urap, bergedel and serunding.