Wanton Mee

This simple but beautiful idea - of having freshly made egg noodles lightly cooked and then dry stirred with

a soy sauce to be ultimately garnished with vegetables and thin slices of Cantonese-styled char siew pork - is what I have grown up with. Wanton dumplings (with dabs of pork or prawn mince inside) are best served separately in small soup bowls. (above).

Introduced to me in childhood as a breakfast snack, or whenever to mitigate hunger pangs at an ever open street stall, the standards of this wanton mee are determined by the smoothness of the noodles,

the quality of the black soy sauce used, the deftness as how the meat wantons have been made and the bite rating of the char siew - see the picture below.

There are different variations of wanton mee, but the best version I like is from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - and which I rediscovered on a recent trip to Johor Baru. In a shop with a front of barbecued roasts hanging outside Jalan Wong Ah Fook in JB Square, the kopitiam (coffee shop) setting inside is unassuming, but the wanton mee they served is impressive. It was better than the versions I have tried in Sydney, Penang, Hong Kong and Bangkok.

An alternative garnishing is the roast duck, sliced to bite sizes and often served with cut cucumbers. (above).

In addition, service in this Johor Baru shop was quick - I would return!

Three Hours in Johor Baru, Malaysia

The city of Johor Baru (or "new Johor") has always looked - and been - a significant transit city, straddling the two different worlds of cosmopolitan, resource-poor but business efficient Singapore and the resource-rich but race-conscious nation of Malaysia. The city's denizens see a stronger currency just a stone's throw away - added with higher costs of living, better career opportunities and a much cleaner state of things in Singapore. Many of its residents work or have an education on the island nation, but return every night to their beds on the Malaysian side. Above image, a vehicular jam builds up on a Saturday morning near the Johor border checkpoint.

Half-shaven coconuts lie for sale at a stall in JB Square (above). Fresh coconut juice is a vital ingredient to the Malay, Indian and Straits Chinese cultures and also to mitigate the humid heat of a city that lies close to the Equator. The varied uses of coconut, in all its forms, from husk to cream, cannot be underestimated for many Indian and Pacific Ocean countries.

The shopping centre nearest to the border, JB Plaza, even offers a mock UK telephone booth with working phone facilities. Image above - credit to Ms Auyong Kit Fong.

Pickled stuff (above) - whether on fruits, vegetables or even squid ("sotong") - are a hit with the palate of the various ethnic groups calling Johor Baru their home. Below, potato curry puffs on sale

as you enter Johor Baru from its train station.

Above, savoury yam and pumpkin cake slices offered as breakfast fare in Johor Baru. All pictures above were taken during a three hour stroll in the city before returning to Singapore.

Last Train Out of Singapore - Tanjung Pagar

The governments of the two nearby nations of Malaysia and Singapore have agreed to terminate, by mid-2011, the

historical rail service from Tanjung Pagar in downtown Singapore to Johor Baru, capital city of Johor State on the Malaysian Peninsular. This railway line has been etched in the memories of many, for those who came from British Malaya to find their fortunes in the island of Singapore; of those who went through the harrowing and challenging days of Japanese-occupied World War 2; for countless backpackers in the seventies and eighties of the last century; and to many foreigner tourists for which this stretch of the journey heralded the start of the Oriental Express to Bangkok. Amongst all these individuals are the forebears of many who hailed from or migrated to and settled in Australia and New Zealand in the past thirty years. Many war veterans of these two Antipodean countries knew this railway well as young blokes - on the dark side, it was their commencement of the trip to the intern camps maintained by the Imperial Japanese Army along the River Kwai in Thailand.

The colonial symbol of transport (above) sculptured on one for the four pillars at the entrance to the Tanjung Pagar rail station on the southern end of Singapore Island.

The ticketing counter of the Tanjung Pagar Station (below) has been maintained by Malaysian staff of the KTM, the government body that currently runs the railway network on the Malaysian Peninsular - and successor to the Malayan Railways under British colonial rule before 1957. The station has high ceilings, white-wash facades and has an ambiance not changed since the 1960s. It is kept spotlessly clean like the starched garb of officials who came from England and Scotland to serve the Empire.

Food outlets at Tanjung Pagar (literally meaning the Hedged Cape) include

Indian inspired rotis, freshly made through the twirling of the dough on a hot plate (below), a fascinating start to the Oriental Express adventure up north to Thailand.

A train passenger gets through Singapore immigration and heads towards the train platform.

The train journey north to the Malaysian border hardly requires an hour.

Last Train out of Singapore - The Ride

From Tanjung Pagar station, we chugged along along the rail tracks to Woodlands, going north across the island of Singapore, surrounded by strips of bush, mostly tropical plants, including banana trees, herbal species and leafy shrubs. Beyond the bush, we could spot modern day housing estates, primarily high rises, but accompanied by meticulously laid out gardens, lawns and running tracks.

(Image above credit to Ms Lim Bee Keok)

Every passenger (above) is required to get out of their coach at Woodlands, located at the central northern tip of Singapore Island. This is to enable stamping of passports before returning to the allocated train seats and the crossing of the short Causeway bridge between Singapore and Malaysia (across the narrow Straits of Johor).

End of our short dash - we arrive in Johor Baru rail station (above and below).

Many thanks to especially Bee and Kit for suggesting and organising this unique experience.

Singapore - Liang Seah Street

I am always thrilled and inspired by the facades of the upper levels of the terrace houses along specific streets in several cities - and a good example is along Liang Seah Street near Bugis in the city state of Singapore. There is no allowance for urban decay here - no matter how charming this can be to outsiders.

Liang Seah Street is primarily a food gathering hub for the locals, and specialises in East Asian steamboat, Singapore's iconic rice served with roast meats or the Hainan chicken and Taiwan styled desserts.

And what delightful desserts they can be. Karen and Chet first took me to discover the variety and subtlety of the offerings, and I have been back whenever I can. Above, the durian snow cone - simply irresistible. Fresh durian heaped atop ice shavings and more. Liang Seah Steet outlets are mostly open till midnight. A few weeks ago, Ming and I enjoyed the snow cone - also available with other fruits - before he went on to the UK and I was enroute to Penang Island.