Entree Kibbles: Hua Mui (華美茶餐室) - Traditional Kaya Toast, Coffee and Hainanese Pork Chop @ Johor Bahru [Malaysia]

With a history that stretches over seventy long years, Hua Mui was well regarded by many Singaporeans who would travel across the causeway and make it their first pit-stop in the morning!

For someone who has been a regular visitor of Johor Bahru (JB) for many years, i am embarrassed to declare that it's my first visit to Hua Mui and had to rely on my elder sister to bring me there. p.s. Joyce is a regular patron of JB.

Even though it was a weekday (tuesday) and already past breakfast time, the first floor remained packed with people and i am so glad that it had a second floor with available seating for the four of us!

While waiting for our food (to be shared later in this post), my sister excitedly pointed to the back where there was a pulley system in place.

It's a manual elevator (also known as dumbwaiter) for our food that's cooked at the ground floor! It's definitely interesting; however my follow-up question would be "what happens if it starts to rain?" since the area appeared exposed.

Kopi - a much needed beverage every morning, this was smooth, not overly sweet and pretty aromatic. It was bit too light for my liking although the fault was mine; i should have requested for kopi gao (thick).

Butter and Kaya Toast - Alex recalled (yes, he had been at Hua Mui before) that the kaya and butter toast was just normal and i honestly wasn't expecting much given his disclosure.

The toast was lukewarm and other than that, i thought it was comparable with good kaya butter toasts in Singapore! The butter was really good and complemented perfectly with the irresistible sweetness of kaya (coconut jam).

French Toast - given the good experience with the butter and kaya toast, we thought this would not disappoint, especially when it featured such a beautiful crisp!

It was normal with a crispy exterior and didn't elicit any "mmmmmm...." expression from any of us; naive me assumed there would be peanut butter in between but that's pushing the limit when the french toast cost only RM 2.50 (less than S$0.80).

Hainanese Chicken Chop - touted as the must-try in any travel and / or food blogs, it would be sacrilegious should we decide to ignore the wise advice dispensed by many.

After trying it (thanks to Joyce for helping to cut up the chop), my verdict would be that i don't really have to try it. For a chicken chop (more of a cutlet if you ask me), i had tried plenty to confirm this isn't the kind i enjoy and guess many people like it mainly because it is authentically and traditionally Hainanese style.

Fried Mee (Dried) - lusciously oily, i was very taken by this nostalgic plate of black noodles that's a carbohydrate option at Chinese nasi lemak stalls; there's a desirable flavour coupled with the strong wok-hei essence and it was so delicious despite the fact i would usually resist yellow noodles!

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