New series of yummy desserts at Lemon Tree Restaurant, Johor Bahru

The Sweet Moment dessert corner (N1.49135 E103.76201) is located in Lemon Tree Restaurant, Taman Melodies. The dessert corner is running by a young man - Mr Kevin Sio who provide many choices of dessert which suitable to all dessert lover in Johor Bahru.

I was fortunate enough being invited for the desserts sampling session on one of the evening, appreciated. You can view through the environment of the Lemon Tree restaurant from my previous post. The Sweet Moment corner is situated in their new expansion wing next door. The area is cozy and comfort to dine in. I like the retro ambience very much.

Before the series of desserts present on our table, we ordered a pizza to filled up the empty stomach before the desserts...

Apologies for forgot the name of the pizza, but it was cheesy, crunchy on the edge and delicious!

After the pizza, where everyone can't wait to see and taste of the desserts...Kevin Sio presented the first dessert of the evening - Matcha Tiramisu.

Matcha Tiramisu

An utterly unique and delicious blend of flavors :-
- a layer of cheese cream,
- with a matcha powder -
- lady finger which dipped into sweet sake
- and a thin layer of chocolate cake at the bottom.

Before we can finish enjoy the tiramisu, another attractive dessert presented on the table - Mousse Au Chocolate.

Mousse Au Chocolate

I said, this was a creative chocolate cake I ever taste! (even I'm not a dessert lover)
It had 4 different layer provided with 4 total different textures, you will be surprise in one of the unique layer which cannot described by words, you have to taste it yourself. The vanilla ice cream was just nice on the sugar level, not overly sweet.

Mousse Au Chocolate

The third - Chili Padi Sorbet. (bird eye chili)

A lemon base sorbet mixed with slight taste of chili padi spiciness. I bet you can't imagine the taste even, the sorbet was not spicy at all, but with a humble chili padi flavor which will appear before the ice dissolve. Surprise!
You have a try it at least once, if you are a true dessert lover!

Chili padi sorbet from the Sweet Moment

Forth - Chocolate cubes

Chocolate cubes

This plate of dessert served with a chocolate brownie in cube shape, a scope of vanilla ice scream (with some almonds) and a teaspoon of vanilla.

The chocolate brownie

The vanilla

Before we can grab the chocolate cube, the vanilla has to pour slowly on to it. The taste went well with both of it.

The excited moment...

The enjoyment of having the dessert was fabulous!

Beside the desserts above, The Sweet Moment also has other type of desserts available in the restaurant. All are serve with the healthy sugar level to comply with today taste, suitable from children to the seniors customers.

The Lemon Tree Restaurant is a nice place for lunch and dinner, even for a quick bite! I like the comfort environment with the friendly staffs, not to forget the humble boss - Mr Jeffery Bong. Most important, and everyone concern about it...is the bottom line - reasonable prices (I rather called it 'friendly prices').

The team on the evening

Specially thanks for Mr Kevin Sio (in black shirt) with his Art of Masterpiece! And appreciated for Mr Jeffery Bong (with checker T) who given this opportunity for us to enjoy the new series of dessert in Sweet Moment.

Sweet Moment Dessert Corner of

- Lemon Tree Restaurant
18, Jalan Bedara,
Taman Melodies, Johor Bahru.
Tel : +607-335 5688
Business hour : 12pm - 11pm (Close on Monday)
GPS Coordinates : N1.49135 E103.76201
Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/KEV.SweetMoment

Location map of Sweet Moment of Lemon Tree Restaurant at Melodies Garden, Johor Bahru.

Dabinlo 打甂炉 steamboat restaurant at Taman Gaya, Johor Bahru.

The Dabinlo Steamboat Restaurant 打甂炉 (N1.56867 E103.80215) is located along Jalan Sasa 5 of Taman Gaya. The restaurant started operation about 2 months ago and drew a good crowd every evening.  
Dabinlo Steamboat created the new concept for steamboat lover within the nearby area, where the whole restaurant is fully air-conditioning, clean and comfort environment. (you can view from the photos below)

Dabinlo Steamboat Restaurant

The steamboat restaurant has a outdoor and indoor dining area...the clean and tidy setting really impressive!

The outdoor dining area of Dabinlo steamboat restaurant

Follow by the air-conditioning indoor dining area...

The indoor dining area of Dabinlo steamboat restaurant

Every diners have to choose their favorite sauces themselves at the counter. There are bird eyes chili, homemade chili sauce, sambal belacan, garlic and my favorite - peanut sesame sauce.

The counter for the sauces

The raw foods were served on our table pretty fast even it was full house on that evening, impressed with their services. The restaurant provide 3 types of soup which are chicken, tomyam and we chose the herbal soup.

The minimum order for every table will be the 2 persons set (RM38.80) which include the yellow noodles, vermicelli, eggs, veggie, tomatoes, taufu, fish, prawns, dumplings and many more...

The standard serving for 2 persons steamboat dinner

The standard serving for 2 persons steamboat dinner (the other angle view)

We did some side order beside the main serving...

The beef slices

The pork slices

The smoke duck

The special Korean vermicelli 

We like the herbal soup very much!
Especially cooked with all the fresh meats and ingredients, it was yummy! But remember 'not to' throw in the yellow noodles at the initial stage, the noodles will make the soup salty and might not suitable to everyone.
The friendly boss did advise us to enjoy the beef and the pork with their recommended peanut sesame sauce, oh...which was delicious!

Previously, we usually have our steamboat dinner during the raining evening because of the 'heat', but now...with the fully air-conditioning and relax environment by Dabinlo, I guess we can have it whenever we want!

The unique logo by Dabinlo Steamboat restaurant

We had a nice steamboat dinner and a total new experience within the popular steamboat restaurant in Johor Bahru. Worth for the price with the fresh foods and the friendly service.

The parking area can be quite challenging during the time from 7pm - 8.30pm, because there are many restaurants around the same area...visit as early as possible to avoid the inconvenience.

Do drop by the newly open restaurant if you are looking for good environment for steamboat dinner, the address and contact number stated below (map included)

Dabinlo Steamboat Restaurant 打甂炉火锅

23, Jalan Sasa 5,

Taman Gaya, Ulu Tiram,

Johor Bahru.

Contact number : +607-8634560

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dabinlo-Steamboat/398663740273631

Business hour : 5pm - 11pm
(they'll serve lunch in the near future)

Rest day : alternate Monday

GPS coordinates : N1.56867 E103.80215

Location map of Da Bin Lo Steamboat Restaurant at Taman Gaya

Johor Bahru GPS friendly travel and food guide (part 1)

If you are traveling to Johor Bahru for a short vacation by car, you may refer to this simple traveling guide as where to find a hotels, foods, shopping and attractions with GPS coordinates. (if you don't have a GPS device, just key in the coordinates into Google map in the smart phone, it'll navigate you to the destination)

There were many friends of mine visited JB from other state of Malaysia and also from Simgapore during school holiday and long weekend. Most of the time, they would like to try out different hotel and especially foods around Johor Bahru area, my simple guide is to share the popular area in JB where you can stay, shopping and eat.

I divided into few areas, like JB Town, Century Garden (include Pelangi, Sri Tebrau and Sentosa), Skudai area (include Nusa Bestari and Bukit Indah), Nusajaya (include Gelang Patah), Johor Jaya (include Molek, Desa Tebrau, Gaya, Mount Austin and Setia Indah), Permas Jaya and Kulaijaya.

Johor Bahru Town
Which is close to CIQ, Causeway to Singapore, and also Johor Bahru Sentral where all the ground transportation located.

Travel distance to CIQ - approx. 2-4km.
Travel distance to Senai Airport - approx. 30km.
Travel distance to Nusajaya, Legoland and others -  approx. 25km

Recommended Hotels :-
*  Puteri Pan Pacific (4*) (N1.46099 E103.76171)
*  Hotel Aman Sari (N1.46421 E103.76201)
*  Tropical Inn (N1.46545 E103.76068)
*  Double Tree Hotel (4*) (under construction) (N1.46560 E103.75980)
*  Thistle Hotel (5*) which is less than 5km from town. (N1.46169 E103.74320)
*  Grand Blue Wave Hotel (N1.46082 E103.76898)
*  Suria City Hotel (N1.46056 E103.76857)
*  Sentral JB Hotel (N1.46165 E103.76913)
*  Zon Regency Hotel (in duty free zone) (N1.47088 E103.78299)
*  Straits View Hotel (just refurnished recently) (N1.46056 E103.73742)
*  M-Suite Hotel (N1.46479 E103.73046)

Shopping Complex nearby :-
*  City Square (N1.46183 E103.76353)
*  KOMTAR (which is under upgrading now) (N1.46352 E103.76263)
*  The ZON Duty Free Mall (N1.47075 E103.78314)

Attractions :-
*  Jalan Tan Hiok Nee (historical street)
*  Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum (N1.45590 E103.76323)
*  Royal Abu Bakar Museum (N1.45504 E103.75656)
*  Art Gallery Johor (less than 5km out of town area) (N1.46667 E103.74765)
*  Johor Old Chinese Temple  (N1.46069 E103.76304)
*  Danga Bay (N1.47680 E103.72388)

Recommended Foods (based on local's favorite) :-
Breakfast
*  Hwa Mui Kopitiam (which is the first Hainanese kopitiam in JB) (N1.45732 E103.76432)
*  Qin Garden (N1.45700 E103.76434)
*  Yong Mui Beef Noodle (N1.46086 E103.76722)
*  Ah Heng Char Koey Teow - 7am - 3pm (N1.46863 E103.78055)
Lunch
*  Mei Hua Bak Kut Teh (N1.46084 E103.76754)
*  Johor Bahru famous Stulang mee rebus (N1.46309 E103.77426)
*  The Roost Juice Bar (N1.45707 E103.76401)
*  Waterwork Laksa (N1.47157 E103.73658)
Tea break
*  Goreng Pisang Mawar (N1.46176 E103.74192)
Dinner
*  The Teow Chew popular fish noodles (night) (N1.46378 E103.77188) 
*  Yong Yong Ikan Bakar (night) (N1.46090 E103.73847) 
*  Lazio Italian Restaurant and Bar

Century Garden (include Pelangi, Sri Tebrau and Sentosa)
One of the popular and crowded area in JB which contain of 4 residential area - Pelangi, Sri Tebrau, Sentosa and Century, it has lots of good foods within.

Travel distance to CIQ - approx. 8km.
Travel distance to Senai Airport - approx. 28km.
Travel distance to Nusajaya, Legoland and others -  approx. 24km

Recommended Hotels :-
*  Crystal Crown Hotel 3* (N1.48674 E103.76593)
*  Grand Paragon Hotel 4* (N1.48112 E103.76166)
*  KSL Resort 5* (N1.48590 E103.76291)
*  Mutiara Hotel 4* (N1.48800 E103.75759)
*  Holiday Villa (under construction) (N1.48706 E103.76190)
*  11 Century Hotel (N1.48652 E103.76147)
*  Grand Sentosa Hotel (N1.49268 E103.76883)
*  Hallmark Regency Hotel (N1.48090 E103.76209)
*  New York Hotel (N1.47879 E103.76104)
*  Hotel Selesa (N1.47777 E103.76297)

Shopping Complex nearby :-
*  Holiday Plaza (N1.48828 E103.75969)
*  Pelangi Plaza (N1.48053 E103.76504)
*  Leisure Mall (N1.48384 E103.77396)
*  KSL Mall (N1.48551 E103.76291)
*  Sentosa Plaza (N1.49281 E103.76855)
*  Danga City Mall (N1.47427 E103.75525)
 
Attraction :-
*  None

Recommended Foods (based on local's favorite) :-
Breakfast
*  Poh Kee mee pok - 宝记Teow Chew Koey Teow  (N1.48076 E103.75686)
    7.30am - 2.30pm, rest on alternate Thursday.
*  Hainanese pork congee 海南猪肉粥 - Multi Mart Kopitiam 7am-2pm. (N1.48506 E103.76010)
*  Ah Hwa Koey Teow 亚华粿条 7.30am - 4.30pm (N1.48562 E103.76102)
*  Ho Seng Kee Wantan mee 何成记云吞麵 8am - 4pm. (N1.48670 E103.76058)
*  Koey Teow Kia (粿条仔) at Ka Hoe Kopitiam (N1.48079 E103.76673)
    6.30am - 12.30pm, rest on alternate Wednesday.
Lunch
*  Nyonya Curry Fish head and curry pork ribs at Mui Sheng stall. 11am - 3pm (N1.49092 E103.76233)
*  Menu Please Bistro 11am - 10pm, rest on Monday. (N1.48083 E103.76612)
*  Soon Chiang Bak Kut Teh  顺江肉骨茶
*  Ah Soon Bak Kut Teh 8am - 3pm, rest on Monday.
*  Ah Seng Steam Fish 8am - 3pm, rest on Monday.
*  Soon Huat Bak Kut Teh 顺发肉骨茶, Jln Sutera (N1.49410 E103.78239)
*  Yew Swee Laksa 友水辣沙 8am - 4pm, rest on Sunday (N1.48294 E103.76486)
Tea break
*  Dong Hong Traditional Chinese kuih 东鸿糕粿 (N1.48701 E103.76803)
    5pm - 10pm Business on Sat, Sun, Mon and Tue. Many different type of traditional Chinese snacks which called 'kuih'.
Dinner
*  Century Curry Fish Head 世纪沙煲咖哩鱼头 at Cedar Point Hawker Center (N1.48126 E103.76296)
    5pm - 11pm, rest  on Monday.
*  New Storey Seafood Restaurant (N1.47833 E103.77514)
*  Tsuki Japanese restaurant (N1.48207 E103.77496)
*  Kim Chi Korean BBQ Restaurant (N1.48170 E103.77479)
*  The City Cafe (N1.49719 E103.76284)
*  Kong Inn Seafood Restaurant 港一海鲜餐馆 (N1.49348 E103.77278)
*  Penang Hokkien prawn noodles hawker 槟城福建虾麵 (N1.49305 E103.77090)
*  Lemon Tree Restaurant 12pm - 11pm, rest on Monday (N1.49135 E103.76201)

There are still many more delicious foods within the area that I cannot list all of them, this is just a simple guide for you if you want to travel to Johor Bahru by car.

I will continue on the next post for other area. Stay tune!

(I will update this blog post from time to time, please feel free to visit back. Thanks.)

The Kulaijaya popular and famous Char Koey Teow during the evening

The nameless yet famous char koey teow stall (N1.65992 E103.60263) is located along Jalan Ibrahim of Kulai Besar. It's easy to spot the stall by coming through Jalan Ismail (which is the street on the left from JB direction after KFC, Maybank and BSN Kulaijaya), once turn in...the second turn on the right. Another landmark same row with the stall is Clinic Chai which is 2-3 shops away...

The stall is open around 5pm, and the owner set his own target daily and the rice noodles finish very fast around 7.30-8pm. Even their business hour stated 4-9pm, but hardly can see the wok continue to fry after 8pm due to the local demand.

The nameless and famous char koey teow stall in Kulaijaya

We were there around 7.30pm and luckily the owner said the koey teow still available, and we only ordered 2 plates because we had to spared some space in our stomach because of our Kulai food trail in that evening.

I noticed the skillful old man keep frying the koey teow non-stop since we stepped in...

Even he was trying to posed to my camera, but I missed it!...

The pleasing plate of Char Koey Teow spread out the nice aroma when it served on the table, it was a simple flat rice noodles fried with eggs, bean sprouts and cockles without the chives and lards. I like the fresh cockles very much, unlike many stalls in JB providing the frozen cockles which totally kill the sweetness of it...

Char Koey Teow of Kulaijaya street stall

There's actually still rooms for intense "wok kei" (literally breath of wok over the high heat in Cantonese), maybe it was due to the local preference of the taste.

From the short chat with the owner, I realized that the stall had been operated since 39 years ago and been through the third generation. It must be the magical taste that kept the long history of the local delicacy - Char Koey Teow.

Do drop by if you happen in the area during the stall operating hours, it might surprise you by the plate of delicious Char Koey Teow of Kulaijaya.

Kulaijaya Char Koey Teow Stall

Along Jalan Ibrahim of Kulai Besar

Business hour : 5 - 8.30pm

Rest on every Tuesday

GPS coordinates : N1.65992 E103.60263

Location map of the Popular Char Koey Teow stall in Kulaijaya.

My trip to the Machapking Durian Farm at Machap, Johor.

Visited the Machapking Durian Farm (N1.90353 E103.24766) on the end of March 2014. We reached the farm around 10am and met up with the farm owner - Mr Cheng who is a humble, polite and knowledgeable guy. According to Mr Cheng, his farm has about 50 acres, one thousand of durian trees, palm oil trees and many more...
It's located quite a distance from the main road of the Machap town, and only 4WD is able to drive through. We were riding on Mr Cheng's 4WD into the farm...

He was explaining all the way since our farm trip started, and he introduced to us the different types of Durian trees one-by-one...

The Machapking Durian farm at Machap, Johor

 

This is the famous Musangking durian tree

After a while, he stopped the car and let us enjoy the aromatic durian's flower...that was a great moment during the trip!
The photo below was the very initial stage before the flower...

Before blossom...

The photo above showed that all these will be blossom in the evening around 5-7pm...

And some of them were beautiful with flowers...

Another type of the durian flower

After the flowers withered, the branches are going seeding...

The whole area was so beautiful and this was my first time in life surrounded by durian tress and flowers!

Normally the blossom session will be in the evening, and most of the flowers will wither after 6-7am. If you be able to witness during that moment, it's just like watching a flower rain! I can only visualize the beautiful scene...too bad I can't be there during the flowers rain...

The flowers were everywhere in farm...it was a wonderful scene!

Durian's flower

According to Mr Cheng, sometime they will collect all these flowers and cook for dinner, it's just like stir fried the vegetables, and it's delicious! Said Cheng. I would like to taste it too if I have a chance...

We even tasted and drank the nectar, it was really sweet!

Robin had his first try on the durian flower's nectar

Mr Cheng said, basically he only concentrated on the four (4) main species which are : Musangking 猫山王, Machapking, Tek-kah 竹脚 and Kim-Hong 金凤. Beside that, he also has D24, D78, nai-you-bao 奶油包 (his own creation) and many more...

There are also other fruits in his farm, like Philippines rambutan, mangosteen and many more which I didn't manage to get the name...

The flowers of the rambutan tree

The baby cempedak...

And this...I didn't get the name of the fruits...

Mr Cheng showed us another hut which produce the 'enzymes' which use as the 'fertilizer' for all his fruits in the farm.

The enzymes produced by Mr Cheng own recipe...

The enzymes

The water supply for all the trees in the farm is also designed by Mr Cheng himself, once he power on the motor from the water source, the water will goes to all his trees in the farm automatically! Fully automated for the whole fifty (50) acres, amazing!

Mr Cheng visit his farm 3 times a day to monitor and observe the grow of all the fruits, it is become his hobby to take care the trees and the fruits. He 'generously' shared with us his past experience since the day one inherited from his father.
We were having a precious lesson on that day and definitely worth the trip! I will be back to the farm again during the 'golden season' when all the trees full of fruits, before the harvest season.

His durians will be selling at many area within Johor Bahru, his own stall is at opposite the Daily Point Kopitiam, Tmn Molek. And all his durians will be available start from middle of June till August.

Mr Cheng - the owner of the Machapking durian farm

The location of Machapking Durian's Farm in Machap, Johor