Shahrzad Restaurant is located between KSL Mall and the New York Hotel in downtown Johor Bahru.
Excellent humus and pita
As you would expect the humus was excellent. The restaurant offers very good Middle Eastern food. I recommend it.
Shahrzad Restaurant with New York Hotel in the background. All photos by John.
There is a nice patio with tables and trees and tables inside also.
Sadly they don’t understand the web and the video is gone. When will site with huge budgets learn the basics of web site management such as web pages must live forever.
The webcast by Channel News Asia is a 22 minute look at Iskandar in Johor, Malaysia. The current population of Iskandar is 1.5 million people which is projected to grow to 3 million by 2025. Iskandar is 3 times the size of Singapore, which is the next door neighbor to Iskandar.
Two of the big focuses for Iskandar are education (for which Educity has been established in Iskandar and has brought in several British Universities to setup campuses) and medical care.
Related: Iskandar Overview Video – Iskandar Housing Real Estate Investment Considerations – The Potential of Iskandar is Very High but Investing in Iskandar has Risks
The 10th Annual JB Arts Festival kicks off September 6th and has events through October 5th.
Performances this year include:
Angels on the Hill – Angel Art and Dance Studio is an integrated art school equipped with innovative ethnic dancing skills, combining creativity with spirit and dancing principles. Established in April 2001, the school specialises and promotes traditional and cultural dance in Johor Bahru. They will be presenting 12 different dances, featuring 120 students ranging from the age of 3 to 21.
ASWARA – traditional and contemporary dances Malaysian dance company
Tera Thai restaurant is in an old house.
Tera Thai restaurant is near downtown Johor Bahru. Still some taxi drivers have a problem finding it – even with an address. It really shouldn’t be hard it is about 2 km away from the Thistle hotel but it in a quiet area with not much else around (it is near Sri Mulia Condominium and to get to Pangsapuri Adamai Condo, you have to pass the restaurant).
This was a great beef dish at Tera Thai, but I can’t remember what it is called.
It is a very nice restaurant with a great atmosphere and good service. The food is very good.
This is my favorite bakery in JB (I like quite a few bakeries here actually). It is located in Permas Jaya, right next store to my favorite book store: Treasures n Books. Straits View condos are visible in the left background of this photo and the Renaissance hotel is a block away.
I really like these buns (shaped like a ball) that were not available the day I took the photo (I think they are some sort of Korean bun). The chiffon is also very good – blueberry especially.
The haze in Johor Bahru and Singapore has been extremely bad the last few days. It hit the worst reading since 2006 in Singapore a few days ago and today seems much worse. [June 20th update: the air pollution readings exceeded all time highs in both Singapore and JB. And Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the haze could “easily last for several weeks and quite possibly longer until the dry season ends (September or October) in Sumatra.”]
Updated photo (see the bottom of post for original photo). Haze over Johor Bahru, June 20th at 11AM.
Photo of the same scene without hazy conditions, buildings in Singapore are visible in the background.
The conditions are mainly due to Indonesian fires. It is hard to reconcile the eco-city push for the Iskandar marketing however with the continued open burning of trash in downtown Johor Bahru daily [update a day or two after the severe haze problems Malaysia seems to have banned open burning if I read press reports correctly].
Update: From the Department of Environment of Malaysia [link broken so it was removed] which publishes API* readings 3 times a day from 4 sites in Johor (as well as the rest of Malaysia). A reading above 100 is unhealthy, above 300 is hazardous. With readings of 300 and above: healthy people will experience reduced endurance in activities. There may be strong irritations and symptoms and may trigger other illnesses. Elders and the sick should remain indoors and avoid exercise. Healthy individuals should avoid out door activities. For readings of 200-250, healthy people will be noticeably affected. People with breathing or heart problems will experience reduced endurance in activities. These individuals and elders should remain indoors and restrict activities.
| date |
|
Location (Johor) |
|
7AM** |
|
11AM** |
|
5PM** |
| Jun 18th | Kota Tinggi | 107 | 118 | 126 | ||||
| Larkin Lama | 116 | 125 | 122 | |||||
| Muar | 65 | 70 | 68 | |||||
| Pasir Gudang | 142 | 153 | 148 | |||||
| Jun 19th | Kota Tinggi | 137 | 138 | 166 | ||||
| Larkin Lama | 122 | 124 | 152 | |||||
| Muar | 133 | 157 | 172 | |||||
| Pasir Gudang | 148 | 149 | 168 | |||||
| Jun 20th | Kota Tinggi | 211 | 232 | 291 | ||||
| Larkin Lama | 171 | 181 | 219 | |||||
| Muar | 337 | 383 | no report | |||||
| Pasir Gudang | 190 | 199 | 333 | |||||
| Singapore (psi**) | 162 | 183 | 192 | |||||
| Singapore (PM2.5**) | 223 | 247 | 275 | |||||
| Jun 21st | Kota Tinggi | 313 | 314 | 226 | ||||
| Larkin Lama | 190 | 197 | 158 | |||||
| Muar | 183 | 193 | 273 | |||||
| Pasir Gudang | 310 | 323 | 189 | |||||
| Singapore (psi**) | 184 | 206 | 198 | |||||
| Singapore (PM2.5**) | 247 | 262 | 250 |
Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Living in Malaysia blog. You may also like, Circumhorizontal Arcs, Fire Rainbows, Cloud Rainbows in JB from a day when pollution wasn’t a problem and nature put on a show.
The sushi plate is quite good (30 MYR)
Furusato Japanese Restaurant is an excellent option (I guess it is my favorite Japanese restaurant in JB – though I like a couple) located in the strip of shop lots on Jalan Kuning, next to Plaza Pelangi Mall.
The California maki is quite good and large (18 MYR). The sashimi is quite excellent. They also have cooked food, I just normally get sushi and sashimi there when I go.
The interior of the restaurant is also quite nice.
The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale in JB, May 24th to June 2nd and Danga City Mall in Johor Bahru. They offer the most books I have ever seen at the periodic books sales that take place in JB. Probably 2 or 3 times the number of English titles I have every seen here before. This sale has only English language books.
The majority of books are novels of various sorts but also children’s books and books on business, history, photography, science… They are largely popular thrillers and the like but include a few classics and some science fiction (I wish there was more science fiction).
The photo shows 8 of the 21 books I got yesterday. Books include 2 travel books (China and Malaysia), Competition (a business/economics book), The Gambler by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Homer and Langley by E. L. Doctorow, The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum, The Devil’s Elixir by Raymond Khoury and Our Friends from Frolix 8 by Philip Dick.
Philip Dick is the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (made into the film Blade Runner) and Minority Report (film of the same name) and many other science fiction books.
They are nearly all priced at 8 or 10 MYR (essentially $US 3) though there are some at 5 MYR and some fancy picture books and the like at 20 or 25 MYR. The Big Bad Wolf book sales are offered around Malaysia recently (KL, Penang…).
Does this count as a haul blog post?
Those interested in English language books in JB should definitely check this sale out. Also visit my favorite book store in JB: Treasures and Books Store (Permas Jaya). When you do try the bakery next sore it is great – I’ll add a post on it soon.
Related: Galleria Mall @ Kotayara โ Johor Bahru CBD – Mee Bandung at JB Station Kopitiam – Arulmigu Sri Raja Kallamman Indian Hindu Glass Temple which is nearby the Danga City Mall
Village Countryside Cuisine
Village Countryside Cuisine is an extension of the Village Briyani Cafe which is located a few doors away. Both are excellent.
Village Countryside Cuisine buffet
On the weekends they have an excellent vegetarian buffet (15 MYR). I have enjoyed the egg thosai and fish masala and really like the weekend buffet. You get a selection of dishes and it seems to me they rotate the dishes quite a bit so you get to try new dishes each time.
Aloo Ghobi Carrot Dry and Vegetable Doloha
Sun arts and culture carnival is taking place at Bukit Layang-Layang, Pasir Gudang, Johor from the 11th to 12th May 2013 from 10am to 7pm. This free admission event, Karnival Seni Kreatif Kita, is organised by My Performing Arts Agency in collaboration with the National Department for Culture and Arts.
As their webcast says it is suitable for ages 1-109 with 300 artists giving 30 performances.
Performers include: Najwa Latif
Azmyl Yunor and The Siggarettes