Restoran Tian Xiang Yong Peng Handmade Fish Ball Noodle (天香永平手工鱼丸面), established since 2012, specialises in hand-making their fishballs. Identified as “Yong Peng fish ball” on their signboard means they use fresh wolf herrings (西刀鱼) to make their fishballs — commonly confused with another type of fish called Pacific saury (秋刀鱼). The restaurant is located in Taman Century a short distance from KSL City Mall but closer to Holiday Plaza.
Tian Xiang serves mainly fishball noodles in either dry-style, clear soup or laksa with selection of noodle from options of 8 types, including wanton noodle, Hakka mee (客家面), glass noodle, and other common noodles. Handmade fishcake, fishball soup, Fuzhou fishball, Hakka yong tau foo (酿豆腐), otak-otak, etc, are available as side dishes.
Each fishball noodle dish will have a basic set of ingredients that includes fresh and bouncy fishballs, soft tofu, dried stuffed tofu, stuff tofu skin, seaweed and greens. These ingredients are very fresh and may vary slightly for the dry, soup or laksa style.
The dry-style fishball noodle — with their homemade Hakka mee — is dry-tossed in a light sauce with oil and topped with minced meat, fried shallots and spring onions. Their Hakka mee is thin, flat, with a springy, chewy texture and is nice-tasting after tossing well with the sauce and minced meat. As usual, the dry-style option offers more flavours. I added a piece of stuffed eggplant from the list of yong tau foo (酿豆腐). The eggplant is fried before serving and is hot and tasty.
The soup-style fishball noodle — with kway teow this time — is served in the same clear soup that cooked the ingredients. The soup is light in taste with subtle flavours of the ingredients.
Moreover, the kopi-O kosong (sugar is self-service) is aromatic and not bitter, so go easy on the sugar and skip the milk to fully appreciate the traditional coffee’s taste profile.
Tian Xiang’s laksa — selected kway teow (again) and added with boiled stuffed eggplant and a bursting meatball — is served in a laksa gravy that is not overly thickened with coconut cream and is very flavourful with medium spiciness. The light gravy is also easy to drink. For ingredients, aside from the basic set (2 fishballs, dried stuffed tofu, soft tofu and stuffed tofu skin), fresh cockles, tofu puff and fried tofu skin are also added. The tofu ingredients are tastier after soaking up the gravy. A dipping dish of sambal chilli adds more flavours and spiciness to the dish. The bursting meatball contains minced meat within the meatball with a sweet-savoury flavour and mildly spicy — it is so good, I will have more of it next time!
Their highly recommended Handmade Fish Cake (手工鱼饼) is served just-fried and piping hot with a nice aroma — wait few minutes before sinking your teeth into it. It is savoury, tasty and a must-try.
Aside from serving fishball noodles, Tian Xiang’s handmade fresh fishballs are available for sales raw and chilled in ½Kg or 1Kg packagings. If you like their fishballs, take some home to self-cook.
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Address:
173, Jalan Harimau, Taman Century, 80250 Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia
Opening Hours:
6:30am to 3:30pm | Closed on Monday
How to Get There:
From JB Sentral, take BAS.MY J100 to KSL City Mall / alight at Holiday Plaza. Read: JB Bus: To KSL City Mall / Holiday Plaza in Taman Century.
Nearby:
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