Due to a dizzle earlier, it was a slow Friday evening at Mount Austin in Johor Bahru. However, one eatery stood out for its almost full house capacity; POWERTEA.
I assumed it was a bubble tea shop given its name but no, the display fridges said otherwise. Judging the wooden skewers, I knew this has to be a lok lok eatery! It still begets the question; why was it so popular since lok lok is very common in Malaysia!?
Answer found; one wooden skewer with ingredient cost just RM 1.10; that's like 33 Singapore cents! Frankly, I couldn't believe my eyes and had to clarify; is it RM 1.10 per stick or from RM 1.10 per stick? The staff was affirmative; RM 1.10 each, full stop.
Shortly after, I returned with Alex so that we can try the lok lok. Three large fridges with a wide variety of skewers from vegetables, to meat, processed food etc! My apology for the low resolution as I was using my mobile phone.
It was already 11.19 pm and weight-conscious me shouldn't be having any supper! Hence, I was being conservative and went with just 18 skewers...
The metal plate filled with my beloved skewers shall then be brought to the counter outside where the number of skewers would be counted and you would be asked whether you want spicy, or not. A piece of acknowledgment paper would then be printed for the next step in the ordering process.
Make payment at the other counter, inside the eatery this time, and also to order your drink! That's where the POWERTEA comes in! You can a good range which also included traditional coffee, and even hot chocolate! Once payment is made, you would also be given the buzzers to collect your food, and drinks.
Now to take our sauces/dips!
Mind you, there were 19 sauces which included Viet Thai chilli, BBQ, Korean BBQ, thousand island, cheese mayo, chicken rice chili, mayonnaise, sesame, satay, power spicy, sour spicy, wasabi, Thai, green chili, chee cheong fun etc!
After a short wait of about twelve minutes, the buzzer beeped. Beautifully deep fried, and I didn't see oil dripping from the sticks /or from the fried ingredients; not that it matters since deep fried food would never be oil-free although visually, less of a sinful burden.
Oh, forgot to mention my hot chocolate; it was okay but I chose this simply because I am trying to cut down on caffeine, since my quality of sleep has deteriorated as I age. p.s. average tasting and not impressionable; maybe because I didn't expect it to be in a disposable cup.
Back to the sinful skewers! Now, RM 1.10 sounded like a marvelous deal but the devil lies in the details. Some portions were really quite small, which I shall explain shortly, although I am not complaining.
For example, one stick with just one cheese tofu.
Or one stick with just one small head of cabbage, or one slice of abalone mushroom. While some would argue that that's despicable marketing ploy, I see it as providing consumers with more choices! While I love cheese tofu, I wouldn't want to eat too many like 3 on 1 skewer!
Most worth it ingredient was the prawn! Appearing on the tables of many diners, the prawns were big for just RM 1.10 and the meat, after frying, didn't taste mushy and was much better than expected.
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Done! I felt so guilty to have taken too much sauce, and the good, old SOS chilli was my favorite amongst the four (cheese, satay and chee cheong fun)! Skewers wise, I have always have a soft spot for deep fried food and it's a matter of determining which one I would not order again; personally, it has to be the brinjals which had a limp, soft texture even after frying!
Lot GF-L005, Austin International Convention Centre,
Jalan Austin Heights 8/1, Taman Mount Austin,
81100 Johor Bahru, Johor Darul Ta'zim, Malaysia
Map
As above.
Pricing
Lok Lok - RM 1.10 per Skewer
Hot Chocolate - RM 8.90
Additional Information
No pork, no lard used. And no alcohol for sale too.
Guess the above would mean Muslim-friendly?