When it comes to getting local products from Johor Bahru, many people, including locals, will recommend the 100-year-old Hiap Joo Bakery & Biscuit Factory (协裕面包) for their banana cakes, coconut buns and more. The traditional bakery, established since 1919, is located in Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk, a short walk from JB City Square / JB CIQ.
The bakery’s price list is pasted on a wall near the entrance. Aside from banana cake, there are butter cake and coffee cake (available on Tuesday to Friday morning only), and buns with different fillings (coconut, red bean, peanut, kaya, butter sugar and otak-otak). Both banana cake and coconut bun are the bakery’s best-sellers. There is a new item called Banana Kok — banana-flavoured roti kok?
The Banana Cake (香蕉蛋糕), cut into 10 pieces each, is packed in a sturdy plastic container. The oven-baked cake is moist and very fluffy with wood-fired banana aroma and mildly sweet. It is nice and unique indeed!
It will be best to finish the banana cake within 2 days as no preservatives are used. Unfinished cake has to be refrigerated after 24 hours and will be able to last for 2~5 days. To eat the cake with its softness and sponginess intact, it will be best to consume them before refrigerating the unfinished. After retrieving it from the refrigerator, wait for it to return to room temperature before eating.
When buying freshly-baked banana cake that is still-hot, do keep the lid of the plastic container opened to prevent condensation that can make the cake soggy. Wait till the cake has cooled sufficiently (after about 4 hours) before closing the lid. It is not advisable to sink your teeth into hot banana cake.
Both the Coffee Cake (咖啡蛋糕) and Butter Cake (牛油蛋糕) are also very soft and with coffee or light buttery fragrance infused with wood-fired aroma and mild-sweet too. They offer different textures and taste experience. Get all three cakes at one go — on Tuesday to Friday morning only.
Hiap Joo’s highly popular Coconut Bun (椰丝面包) carries the familiar wood-fired aroma — the darker the top surface of the buns (but not charred), the stronger the aroma. The grated coconut filling is mild-sweet with flavours of coconut and palm sugar, and can taste the flavour of wood-fire too. This is very good and definitely must try too.
Aside from coconut buns, the other buns also have wood-fired aroma, low sweetness and distinct flavours of respective fillings with wood-fired taste. In the photo below from top-left to bottom-right are kaya bun (椰子酱面包), red bean bun (豆沙面包), butter sugar bun (牛油糖面包) and otak-otak bun (乌达鱼面包) — another hot-seller. Note that all buns are freshly-baked and available only after 11:30am from Monday to Saturday.
To buy Hiap Joo Bakery’s banana cakes and buns, one may have to queue for it, especially on Saturdays and public holidays. Or go as early as 7:30am in the morning to buy — except Monday, which starts at 11:30am. Alternatively, go after 3pm when the queue is usually shorter. The last batch is at 4:30pm (timing may change depending on day-to-day operations).
The bakery is not baking anything on Sunday but banana cakes can be purchased from the bakery’s counter from 7:30am, while stock lasts. One good thing about Sunday’s banana cakes — and also the first daily batch of cakes — is that they are sufficiently cooled in proper environment of the bakery, easier to carry around Johor Bahru and usually without needing to queue for it. However, it will be best to finish the cake by Monday — if not refrigerated on Sunday night — as the cakes are baked late Saturday afternoon.
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Address:
13, Jalan Tan Hiok Nee, Bandar Johor Bahru, 80000 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
7:30am to 5pm | Daily
Note: On Sunday, only banana cakes will be sold and till sold-out.
How to Get There:
Take a walk or “Plan B”. Read JB Bus: To Tan Hiok Nee Heritage Walk.
Thinking of visiting Hiap Joo Bakery? Read about my experience on my first visit to the bakery, avoid the mistakes I made and plan your visit carefully.
Read:
Lazy to go over the border to get Hiap Joo Bakery’s banana cake but want to try it? Try your luck at a vending machine in Singapore.
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