cathay beef noodles in johor bahru


this very popular and well-known beef noodles stall is found in a coffee shop at 149 jalan lumba kuda, near the lorry customs and immigration complex. the name of the coffee shop is ang kim chwee. there are two other stalls sharing space in this shop. they are a braised 'lor arh' duck stall and a laksa stall.

i think the name cathay is attached to it because, in the 60s, there was a cathay cinema across the road. i remember, as a student, i watched a japanese adult movie in the cinema with some of my pre-university classmates.

the man who owns this stall is mr ngo. he is assisted by his wife and a hired help. he has done so well that he could afford to send all his children overseas for their tertiary education. the second of three brothers, he is the only one who struck out to johor bahru from kluang. his younger brother and a sister-in-law continue to operate their own beef noodles stalls in kluang. they have been in this business for more than a quarter of a century.

at rm$5 for a small bowl, it is not cheap by malaysian or any standard. still, he manages to draw crowds of locals and singaporeans to his stall. the goo bak hoon is like the noodles used for bee thye bak. his stewed beef is soft and tasty, san the smell that you associate with beef. if you are lucky, sometimes you get the 'dry meat' in your noodles.

it used to be much easier getting to the coffee shop from the causeway when there was a fly-over at the end of jalan ibrahim. with the closure of the fly-over, now you have to go in a roundabout way via taman pelangi to get there.