Reposted from the web

Summary: This Malaysia food note follows Peranakan Nyonya dishes in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur. It preserves the original restaurant details, dish names, textures, prices, and travel observations while keeping the English natural.

On Jalan Dhoby, a century-old street in the old town of Johor Bahru, sits Nyonya Dynasty, the first halal-certified Nyonya restaurant in the state of Johor, Malaysia. The owners, Lu Xucheng and Li Baoshan, originally ran a travel agency. When business took a hard hit in early 2020, they decided to turn part of their office space into a Nyonya cafe. The two owners learned their craft from an authentic Nyonya chef in Malacca and invited him to visit the shop every week to supervise until their dishes were consistent. Because customers loved their Nyonya food, they moved the shop to Jalan Dhoby in the old town of Johor Bahru in 2022 and officially named it Nyonya Dynasty.

We ordered their signature Nyonya trio, which includes Nyonya clam rice noodles (lala mifen), fried shrimp wontons, and shrimp paste chicken wings. We also ordered grilled Nyonya fish, Nyonya okra, and cendol (jianrui). Lala means clams. They buy fresh clams every morning, tap each one to remove the sand, simmer them for three hours to make a rich broth, and then add bird's eye chili, scallions, and garlic. The grilled fish and okra are both topped with a signature Nyonya tamarind sauce (asam), which has a unique spicy and sour flavor. Their cendol is based on the owner's mother's family recipe. The palm sugar is simmered for two to three hours, and they use freshly squeezed coconut milk, making the texture very rich.



















Whether it is halal Chinese food or halal Nyonya food, the Klang Valley area where Kuala Lumpur is located has the most options in Malaysia. There are three halal Nyonya restaurants just inside the NU Sentral mall opposite KL Sentral station, which is perfect for traveling friends (dostis) to stop and eat.

We ate at the largest of the three, Peranakan Place, which has several locations in Kuala Lumpur and Malacca. We ordered pandan coconut rice served with pandan-wrapped chicken, dried anchovies, and sambal sauce, fern shoots (paku) with shrimp paste (belacan), Nyonya minced meat tofu, and drank blue pea flower tea and barley lime water.

Fern shoots (paku) are the tender leaves of ferns. They are a classic wild vegetable from the Malaysian mountains and are known as the king of mountain vegetables. In Malaysia, fern shoots are often stir-fried with sambal sauce, but pairing them with shrimp paste (belacan) is also a classic Nyonya way to eat them. Shrimp paste (belacan), also known as malazhan, is made by steaming and mashing small silver shrimp into a paste, fermenting it, and then frying it with chili and other seasonings. It has a very unique taste. People who love it find the shrimp paste spicy and appetizing, while those who don't think it has a pungent, fermented smell.



















Further reading: Eating Nyonya food in Singapore view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This first Malaysia food article records halal Chinese restaurants, dishes, travel stops, and community food culture. It keeps the original meal details, restaurant context, and travel route in simple English.

In 2019, I tasted halal Chinese food in Penang, Malaysia, as described in "Halal Chinese Cuisine in Penang, Malaysia." In January 2024, I visited five more Malaysian cities: Johor Bahru, Seremban, Klang, Ipoh, and Kuala Kangsar, where I enjoyed many more halal Chinese meals. There are halal Cantonese seafood restaurants run by Chinese Muslims, as well as Hainanese coffee shops (kopitiam) owned by Hainanese people but staffed by Malay employees, all of which have a distinct Nanyang style.

Further reading: Singapore also has many halal Chinese restaurants. See "Tasting Halal Chinese Food in Singapore" and "Eating Nyonya Cuisine in Singapore" for details.

Johor Bahru

I took a train from Woodlands, Singapore, in the morning to clear customs, and arrived at the Johor Bahru station in Malaysia in just 5 minutes. I walked from the Johor Bahru station to the Hua Mui coffee shop in the old town to experience an authentic Hainanese coffee shop (Hailam Kopitiam).

Opened in 1946, Hua Mui has a 78-year history and is the oldest Hainanese coffee shop in Johor Bahru. Like many old-school Hainanese coffee shops in Malaysia, the owner is Hainanese Chinese, but they hire Malay chefs and staff so that Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers can all enjoy the food.

Hainanese people began immigrating to Malaysia in the 19th century. Many early immigrants worked as chefs and waiters in British hotels and restaurants, while some worked as servants in the homes of British officers. Influenced by their British employers, the Hainanese learned to cook Western food and blended it with Hainanese culinary elements to create the unique Hainanese coffee shop (Hailam Kopitiam) culture.

The word kopitiam is made up of the Malay word "kopi" (coffee) and the Hokkien word "tiam" (shop), specializing in charcoal-grilled toast, white coffee, and soft-boiled eggs. Early Hainanese coffee shops were very popular with the British. Today, they serve as important social hubs where older people gather to discuss news and daily life.

At Hua Mui, we ordered lamb claypot rice, Hainanese noodles, Cham C (a mix of coffee, tea, and milk), and a breakfast platter. Cham C is a drink made of coffee, tea, and milk. The shop's environment remains very traditional, set in a typical two-story shophouse with bamboo blinds hanging on the doors and windows, easily reminding people of days gone by.





















To understand the history of the Chinese community in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, you must visit the Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee. In 1844, Temenggong Ibrahim began issuing land grants in Johor. Teochew community leader Tan Hiok Nee answered the call and led a group from Singapore to develop Johor Bahru, marking the beginning of the city's Chinese community. Early Chinese settlers in Johor Bahru were divided into five dialect groups: Hainanese, Cantonese-Zhaoqing, Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew. Each group had its own clan association, and people from the same hometowns stayed very closely connected.

Today, Johor Bahru has several halal Chinese restaurants, such as Cafe Eleven Kitchen and Hijrah Dim Sum. I didn't have time to visit them on this trip, but I hope to try them in the future.



















Seremban

Take a taxi 50 kilometers southeast from Kuala Lumpur Airport to reach Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan state. We started with morning tea at a halal Chinese restaurant called Muhammad Kew Chinese Muslim Kitchen. We ordered chicken char siu buns (cha shao bao), wontons (yuntun), Cantonese-style egg gravy rice (guangfu huadan mifan), and shrimp dumplings (shaomai), all of which were delicious. Unfortunately, the Chinese owner was busy in the kitchen, so I didn't get to meet him. I only met his Malay wife, who was very warm and friendly. This was my second time eating char siu buns. The first time was at a Hui Muslim restaurant in Guangzhou where I had lamb char siu. Both places prepared them in a similar sweet style, but the chicken version was more tender. The Cantonese-style rice is made with a thickened egg sauce. It is light and goes well with rice, which suits my taste perfectly. The wontons were filled with radish, which tasted very fresh. The shrimp dumplings were filled with a shrimp and meat paste, giving them a unique flavor.



















Seremban is a traditional Chinese town. After tin mines were discovered nearby in the 1870s, many Chinese workers flooded into the area, and the town grew rapidly due to the tin trade. The old town of Seremban still has several streets with traditional arcade buildings (qilou). They haven't been turned into tourist traps yet, so they are well worth a visit.



















For lunch, we ate at a halal Chinese restaurant called Mohd Chan in Seremban. It is likely the most famous and largest halal Cantonese restaurant chain in Malaysia, with 19 locations including restaurants, dim sum shops, and takeout spots. The founder of Mohd Chan, Dato HJ Mohd Chan, was born in Gombak, Selangor. Influenced by his Malay friends, he converted to Islam in 2007 and began running a halal Cantonese restaurant that same year. Since then, he has been working to combine Cantonese cuisine with local flavors.

We ordered Teochew-style steamed fish, Cantonese-style egg gravy flat noodles (huadan he), sticky rice with chicken (nuomi ji), and lychee water. The Teochew-style steamed fish (chaozhou zhengyu) has a slightly sour taste. It comes with so many toppings that I had to eat through a lot of oyster mushroom and chicken slices before I even reached the fish. The Cantonese-style egg noodles (guangfu huadanhe) include chicken slices and shrimp. The sticky rice chicken (nuomiji) is topped with shiitake mushrooms, though it is not wrapped up like the ones I ate in Guangzhou. Their menu is quite varied and the food tastes good, but they use a central kitchen rather than cooking everything fresh on-site. It feels a bit like the approach used by Ziguangyuan in Beijing.



















Klang

Take the light rail west from Kuala Lumpur Sentral for over 30 kilometers to reach Klang city in Selangor state. Klang city sits on both banks of the Klang River. After the large-scale development of tin mines in Selangor in the 19th century, many Chinese laborers traveled south to make a living, and Klang became an important base for these workers before they headed to the mines. Most Chinese people in Klang are of Hokkien descent, and Hokkien is the most popular Chinese dialect here.

We had breakfast at a Chinese Muslim coffee shop (hecha canshi) on the north side of the Klang River. It is run by both Chinese Muslims and Malay people, serving both halal Chinese food and Malay dishes. We ordered a classic Malaysian breakfast of coffee, butter toast, and soft-boiled eggs, and we also had Hokkien noodles (fujianmian). Hokkien noodles are a street snack invented by Hokkien-Malaysian Chinese in the 1920s. In 1927, Wang Jinlian from Quanzhou, Fujian, came to Kuala Lumpur to make a living. He started by selling noodle soup, but later adapted it to local tastes by adding flounder powder, dark soy sauce, shrimp paste, and chili sauce. He braised the noodles until the sauce became thick and dark, which became very popular and helped Hokkien noodles spread across Malaysia.



















For lunch, we went to Bukit Tinggi in the south of Klang to eat at Restoran Rahmat Tan, the most famous Chinese Muslim restaurant chain in the area. They have already opened seven locations around Klang. Bukit Tinggi was developed in 1997 and is the most successful large-scale modern town near Klang, with many Chinese residents living there. In the photo, the first table is almost finished and is occupied by Indians, the second table is occupied by Malays, and the people who just sat down at the back are Chinese. You can see how much every ethnic group here enjoys halal Chinese food.

Their menu is also very rich, focusing on various seafood dishes, and you can choose from small, medium, or large portions. We ordered soy sauce steamed barramundi (shijia yu), fragrant soft-shell crab (ganxiang ruanke xie), mixed vegetable soup, and Chinese-style fried rice, all of which suited our tastes perfectly! The saltiness is just right, and the sweet and sour flavors are perfect. This was my first time eating deep-fried soft-shell crab. It is fried with the shell on, making it crispy and chewy. I feel that eating seafood in Malaysia is a great value, and there are so many ways to prepare it. They have 19 different ways to cook fish alone: three-flavor, sweet and sour, sambal, steamed with salted vegetables and tofu, fried with salted vegetables and tofu, steamed with lemon, pan-fried with black bean sauce, steamed with soy sauce, pan-fried with soy sauce, steamed with ginger paste, Thai-style steamed, Thai-style fried, Nyonya-style steamed, steamed with soy sauce and preserved radish, pan-fried with soy sauce and preserved radish, and dry-fried with fragrant spices. They also make creamy fish fillets, salted egg fish fillets, kung pao fish fillets, black pepper fish fillets, and more. It is impossible to choose.

We truly felt that halal Chinese restaurants in Malaysia are a food paradise!



















Ipoh

Take the train north from Kuala Lumpur Sentral, and after 200 kilometers, you will arrive in Ipoh, the capital of Perak state and a famous historical and cultural city. As a city where more than half the residents are Chinese, Ipoh has several halal Chinese restaurants, including Canning Dim Sum, Asam House, Restoran 1818 Masakan Cina Muslim, and Restoran Pakcik Wong. I did not have time to try them all on this trip.

After leaving the train station, we took a taxi directly to Liu's Halal Seafood Restaurant. The owner of Liu's, Haji Liu Xiaoxiang, converted to Islam at 21 and later became the chairman of the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association. Haji Liu worked in international trade in his early years and later ran a home appliance assembly factory for 20 years. At 60, he handed the factory business to his eldest daughter and opened his first Muslim restaurant in Shah Alam, Selangor. Later, he used the Liu's brand to open 15 branches in just five years, making Liu's an important halal Chinese restaurant chain in Malaysia. Although Haji Liu received an English education from a young age and later studied law in the UK, he has always loved Chinese culture, especially Chinese food culture. Opening Liu's Halal Seafood Restaurant was a dream come true for Haji Liu and his contribution to promoting Chinese Muslim culture.

This is actually my second time eating at Liu's. When I first ate at the Penang branch in 2019, I ordered Nyonya-style flower crab, Teochew-style steamed grouper, claypot tofu, and vermicelli soup, all of which were delicious. At the Ipoh branch, I ordered braised tofu with crab meat (xie rou pa doufu), stink bean squid (chou dou you yu), bamboo fungus seafood fin soup (zhu sheng hai wei chi), and beef fried rice. I really enjoyed them all. I can say this is the best halal Chinese restaurant I have eaten at in Malaysia, and the service is the most welcoming. At Liu Ji, you can add crab meat, dried scallops, corn, bamboo fungus, and osmanthus to your shark fin soup. A small portion is only 30 ringgit, which feels like a great deal. Their tofu is also a standout with a very rich flavor.



















We stayed at the Sarang Paloh Heritage Stay & Event Hall in Ipoh, which is located inside the Yik Foong Goldsmith shop built in the 1930s in Ipoh Old Town. The hotel was converted from two shophouses. The facade of the left building is in Art Deco style, the right is Neoclassical, and the interior features traditional Malaysian Chinese decor.



















The second floor of the Yik Foong Goldsmith shophouse has very high ceilings and looks out onto the main road of Ipoh Old Town. Brewing two cups of the complimentary Ipoh white coffee makes it feel like I have returned to the Nanyang of the 20th century.



















In the morning, we ate rat noodles (laoshufen) and fried wonton noodles at the Hui Muslim fried noodle shop, Gerai Ipoh Ipoh Aje, at the old Ipoh bus station. The Hui Muslim owner, Huang Kunping, specializes in various stir-fried flat rice noodles (hefen), fried Hokkien noodles, fried rat noodles, and silky egg flat rice noodles (huadanhe), while his Malay wife, Aini, makes various Malay snacks. Mr. Huang stir-fries with great energy at the shop entrance. The noodles have a strong wok-char flavor (wok hei) and are very popular with Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers.

Rat noodles are a traditional Hakka noodle dish originating from Meizhou, Guangdong. They are made by steaming rice batter into a block and pressing it through a sieve with holes. They get their name because the two ends are pointed, looking like a mouse.













Ipoh is known as the City of Tin. In 1880, the Kinta Valley, where Ipoh is located, attracted many Chinese immigrants to mine its rich tin deposits, and Ipoh quickly developed into a mining town. In 1892, a major fire in Ipoh destroyed more than half of the original wooden shophouses. Afterward, a local Datuk led the reconstruction into the typical shophouse streets of the Straits region, which is now Ipoh Old Town. In 1907, Chinese community leader Yao Desheng funded the construction of a new 1-kilometer-long street across the river from the Old Town, consisting of 216 shophouses, which is now Ipoh New Town. Today, Ipoh has a large area of old streets with covered walkways (qilou) made up of the historic New Town and Old Town districts. Many of these buildings are decades or even centuries old and are well worth a visit.

If you want to learn about the lives of Chinese people in old Ipoh, I recommend visiting the 22 Hale Street Heritage Gallery in the Old Town. It recreates many scenes of daily life for Chinese people in Ipoh during the 20th century. The most interesting part for me was the recreation of a guest room from the 1950s Ipoh Asia Hotel. It really looks just like something out of a movie.



















The streetscape of Ipoh's old town has not been developed for tourism; it is just an old street where people live their daily lives.



















Kuala Kangsar

Take the train north from Ipoh, and you will reach Kuala Kangsar district in a 30-minute ride. Kuala Kangsar has been the royal city of the Sultan of Perak since the 18th century. The town center still keeps an old street with covered walkways (qilou), where you can find an old-school Hainanese coffee shop called Yut Loy Coffee Shop. Like many Hainanese coffee shops in Malaysia's old towns, the Hainanese owner here hires Malay staff, allowing the three major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, and Indian—to all dine in the shop.

Since Yut Loy Coffee Shop only serves main meals after one in the afternoon, we spent our morning there having coffee with toast, topped with honey and butter. I used to read novels about Nanyang where old men would sit in these Hainanese coffee shops all morning with a cup of coffee, a piece of toast, and a newspaper. This time, we got to experience it ourselves. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This short second part continues the Malaysia halal Chinese food record with the remaining images and notes from the trip. It preserves the original sequence and visual food references rather than expanding beyond the source. view all