Enjoy refillable bowls of hearty sweet potato porridge with classic Chinese dishes at JB’s Goh Zha Lang

JOHOR BARU, Aug 16 — It’s not quite dark yet. Let’s consider this early evening. There are night owls who sup late, some past midnight, but we do not belong to this category.

We dine early and we feel like something comforting and familiar tonight. Given that we are in JB, what instantly comes to mind is the sweet potato porridge at Goh Zha Lang Restoran Taiwan in Taman Sentosa.

Hearty yet light, and best of all, refillable at no additional charge. They have plain porridge too, which is more easily digestible for certain constitutions. But really it’s the sweet potato porridge that draws the crowds to Goh Zha Lang, an old stalwart of Taman Sentosa’s food scene.

For one, it’s not too sweet. Instead it has enough of a heft, given the watery consistency of the porridge (this is no creamy Cantonese congee, to be clear), to make it a welcome vessel for the many dishes of delectable Chinese classics to come.

While we wait for our "bottomless” bowls of porridge and accompanying dishes, the server brings us a saucer of braised groundnuts. Quintessential Chinese restaurant titbits for hungry diners while the chef cooks up a storm in the kitchen.

If you ask my honest opinion (and likely many other regular customers would agree with me), nothing goes better with the sweet potato porridge than Goh Zha Lang’s signature braised pork in soy sauce.

Goh Zha Lang is an old stalwart of the food scene in JB’s Taman Sentosa.

The signature braised pork in soy sauce.

Each cube of meat and fat is tender, with barely any chew. The subtle fragrance of five-spice and star anise cuts through any richness — meaning chances are you will order another round of this, especially since the portions are never too large.

The idea here is to order more dishes so you will get a nice variety to enjoy. For greens, we go for stir fried sweet potato leaves with sambal this round, though the kangkung belacan is another usual order.

It doesn’t get more retro (some might argue too safe) than a platter of sweet and sour chicken. But when the sauce isn’t drowning in tomato ketchup, when the capsicum (red and green bell peppers to be precise) are crunchy rather than wilted, then the entire dish is lifted to a rare blend of mundane and marvellous.

Stir fried sweet potato leaves with sambal (left) and sweet and sour chicken (right).

The menu at Goh Zha Lang (printed on a large, foldable sheet of paper; their trademark, really) is extensive enough that you might come a dozen times and never finish trying everything listed.

Indeed, last I checked, I counted at least 90 dishes!

Those craving some broth might enjoy their Taiwanese sour bean curd soup, lip-smacking with a generous amount of vinegar. Old school types might prefer their seaweed soup, though the kids might well skip this.

Of course, this being a Taiwanese restaurant, you can’t go wrong with their sān bēi jī or Taiwanese three cup chicken, deeply fragrant and calling for another bowl of their sweet potato porridge so as not to waste a single drop of the rich gravy.

The dining tables are always full — but turn over quickly too.

Try the fluffy prawn omelette, stuffed yau char kwai (the deep-fried crullers are filled with fish paste), fried cuttlefish with dry chillies, the family-friendly claypot tofu and vegetables... and then return for more.

The dining tables are always full of diners, most of them families and regulars from the neighbourhood — but these turn over quickly too. So there are always customers coming and going, and the servers busily carrying hot dishes from the kitchen.

Which means the more curious amongst us can always spot something new to try.

The true highlight and surprise for us this visit was the plain sounding sliced fish with black bean sauce. We should have known better, of course.

The pungent dòuchǐ jiàng, made from fermented black soybeans, add a nice hit of umami to the fresh fish slices, still moist and lightly aromatic thanks to the chef’s deft cooking arm and plenty of wok hei.

Sliced fish with black bean sauce.

Enjoy some complimentary 'tong sui' at the end of your meal.

Enjoy some complimentary tong sui at the end of your meal. The choice of this Chinese dessert changes every day: one day it could be red bean soup with black glutinous rice; another day it might be fu chok yi mai (barley with bean curd skin soup).

Our servers arrive with bowls of lok dao tong (green bean soup), a simple and not-overly sweet tong sui. Each spoonful a nod to nostalgia... and to many more years for this wonderful old establishment.

Goh Zha Lang Restoran Taiwan 古早人台湾粥餐馆

125, Jalan Sutera, Taman Sentosa, Johor Baru

Open daily 11am-2am

Phone: 07-334 4526

For more slice-of-life stories, visit lifeforbeginners.com.

* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.