Singgah Selalu

There's makan place near our home in JB in Taman university. It wasn't there when we first moved in but soon after it opened, a lot of our neighbours were talking about it. But we all know that sometimes, what people say may end up not really being the same cup of tea for someone else. Am I right?

When my Mum and Dad visited with some friends, they returned with mixed feeling.
Well, I guess there was only one way to find out - visit for ourselves!

So the menu at Singgah Selalu actually offers quite a lot of stuff. Mostly Malay-Chinese-Thai style cuisine but that alone means that you can expect one particular dish (i.e. beef, fish, veggies etc) being cooked in a large number of styles (i.e. black pepper, tiga rasa etc).

Nasi Goreng Cina (RM9.00 for 3 pax)

The main dish was a toss-up between rice and noodles. We ended up settling on Nasi Goreng Cina.

We ordered it because it sounded like a really simple dish that would go well with the other dishes we were planning to order. What didn't expect was to get a dish that was pretty much filling on its own!

Firstly, the serving for 3 pax could easily feed 4-5 pax even without any side dishes.
And if that's not enough, this dish was PACKO with all kinds of goodies!
Chicken! Seafood like squid and prawns! Egg! Vegetables! Mushrooms! You really get your money's worth!

And if you're thinking that they're putting a lot of stuff to mask the lack of taste well you'd be wrong.
This was actually really really tasty if you ask me. I'm not sure how any other choices would have turned out but I think we struck a winner with this one!

Daging Rusa Lada Hitam (RM16.50)

So we thought we'd be a little extravagant and have some venison aka daging rusa.
It's not something we have very often for 2 reasons - 1) it's bloody expensive and 2) it's difficult to find a place that knows how to cook it well. And since we were in Malaysia, we decided to take a chance.

KWANG KWANG KWANG....
Sorry kiddies wrong choice here. From the pic above alone you can probably see how oily the dish is.
And the meat was really tough to chew! They serve it on a hotplate which probably overcooked the meat.
I's still eatable (after a lot or chewing) but we'd recommend you either order a different meat like chicken/beef or maybe try a different style of daging rusa instead of black pepper.

Sup Ekor Goreng (RM12.50 small)

Aha! At least there was a saving grace!

I'd actually only just had Buntut Goreng Special for the first time recently at IndoChili and was so impressed that I simply had to try it here and I was not disappointed at all! Meat and collagen oh my!

The meat was not as tender as at IndoChili but hey that's not too bad. This was actually really really tasty and that's a big deal because I'm the guy who didn't fancy Sup Ekor at all just a few weeks ago!
I didn't really care for the soup here though. It wasn't really tasty so I just whacked the meat!

But fair warning - this one packs a really spicy kick. You can see from the picture how generous they are with the chillies right? Chilli lovers rejoice! Everyone else - order more water!

Actually, this was the only dish my parents recommended after their visit and I can see why!

Telur Bistik (RM8.80 small)

We've gotta have an egg dish right? So I chose the Telur Bistik.
There's something about eggs and veggies coated in a sweet-spicy gravy am I right?

And it's not just eggs and veggies... More goodies like chicken await!
As you can probably guess, I ended up eating most of this one.

Asparagus Goreng Belachan (RM9.40 small)

For our vegetable dish, we chose another one that's not really considered normal I guess.

Asparagus??? Yes!! Memang sedap!
And you don't have to worry - the belachan taste is not overly strong. Just right and very tasty!
Definitely went well with the other dishes we ordered.

And how to prove the asparagus was yummy?
Well, my darling wife is so not the asparagus-lover kind of person and even she said it was tasty!
We have another winner I'd say.

Adam's Verdict:
Nasi Goreng Cina 3/5 -- Daging Rusa Lada Hitam 1/5 -- Sup Ekor Goreng 4.5/5
Telur Bistik 5/5 -- Asparagus Goreng Belachan 4/5

Maryah's Verdict:
Nasi Goreng Cina 4/5 -- Daging Rusa Lada Hitam 0.5/5 -- Sup Ekor Goreng 2.5/5
Telur Bistik 3/5 -- Asparagus Goreng Belachan 5/5
In case you were wondering, Singgah Selalu actually has a few different branches located in Danga Bay, Kip Mart, Kota Tinggi, Kotaraya and (this location) U Mall in Taman U. No idea if all of them cook at the same standards though...

I guess the reason we love eating in Malaysia because it's cheap and you have such a wide variety to choose from. When you find that place that rocks, you'll probably go back again. I guess there are a few things at Singgah Selalu I wouldn't mind going back for...

Singgah Selalu

U-Mall
Jalan Pulai, Taman U,
Skudai, Johor, Malaysia

Operating Hours:
11.00am til 10.00pm Daily

Al-Tasneem Restaurant - Murtabak Rusa

So we had just returned from our KL trip and arrived in SG at night.
We actually wanted to have some Bone Steak at M.A Deen Biasa but after a long walk - discovered it's under renovations!

So we walked a little further at chanced upon Al-Tasneem.

We had some Bone Steak after all (Look out for the special Bone Steak Battles coming soon!) and we also ordered something that none of us have had before...

Murtabak Rusa ($10.00)

So Deer meat (aka Venison) is not really something you see everyday at your local Mamak stall am I right?
I'm thinking it's more like Italian or some western cooking for that kinda thing but here we were with some Murtabak Rusa for the first time.

The size of the murtabak itself is about the size of a $5-6 mutton/chicken murtabak I reckon so the Rusa seems to almost double the price of your dish.

You can see that it's minced up really finely and spread out sparingly in your murtabak.
To be honest, the meat itself was actually pretty salty when I tried it on its own.

It wasn't overpoweringly salty on its own but unfortunately, the curry that was served together with the murtabak was salty. Seriously salty. So when you put the two together, SALT OVERLOAD!

Azim commented that the texture kinda reminded him of floss. As in like beef/chicken floss.
Razali added that for the price we were paying, we expected a more generous serving of the meat. (Everyone seems to agree with that one) Plus with it being so dry, perhaps the cooking style of frying might not be suitable since we haven't really mastered how to cook Venison like the Westerners do.

Adam's Verdict:
Murtabak Rusa 3/5

Maryah's Verdict:
Murtabak Rusa 3/5

Razali's Verdict:
Murtabak Rusa 3.5/5

Azim's Verdict:
Murtabak Rusa 4/5

Overall, we'd say that this is definitely something different for you to try.
"Murtabak? Chicken? Mutton? How about Rusa?!" Be adventurous!!

Just hope that the salt level goes down a little.

Al-Tasneem Restaurant

709 North Bridge Road
Tel: 6291 1781 / 6298 2047

Operating Hours:
8.00am til 11.00pm Daily