Muar Town

Muar town is located in the state of Johor and is a historical town. Historians told us that it was part of the Majapahit Empire in 1361 and that Parameswara established a settlement nearby before he founded Melaka. That means it is even older than the Melaka Sultanate.

The buildings in the town.

The stalls along each side of Jln Abu Haji.

The town is located at the mouth of the estuary and is about 155 km away from Kuala Lumpur, approximately half way between Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. If you are on your way to Singapore, do a little bit of detour and visit this town. You will pass by Sultan Ismail Bridge, the bridge across the river which was built in 1962. A second bridge was built in 2005 to ease the congestion at the town centre.

Notice also the many pre-war shop houses and association buildings at the town centre. Many of these buildings are still in use and well preserved. The buildings are coloured in blue, yellow and pink to enable visitors to identify the streets.

Some of the old architectural buildings:

Government Buildings with British architecture
Masjid Jamek Sultan Ibrahim mosque
Sultan Abu Bakar building
High School building
Old Telekom building
JKR building
Custom Department building

GPS Coordinates of the town: 2° 3'00"N 102° 34'00"E

Muar Food

Try the chinese food by stopping by the many eating stalls at Jln. Abu Haji and enjoy the hawker food. The food stalls are set up along both sides of the street. Many of the stalls are family based business and have been in existence for the past few decades.

One of the specialty of this town is the famous Otak-Otak which consist of mackeral fish paste mix with garlic, chillies, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass and santan(coconut milk). They are then made into paste wrapped in banana leaf. They are then grilled using charcoal before being served to the customers. Otak means brain in Malay language hence the name otak-otak is not surprising as the final look of the fish paste resembles the brain in appearance and texture.

These days, the varieties that you can get apart from fish are chicken, prawns and cuttlefish. Newer variety will probably be the innovation of the future. The price is about RM0.60 to RM0.80 per piece depending on the type you buy.

Mee bandung and assam pedas are also famous in this town. Assam pedas is a fish dish that is cooked in tangy gravy and is usually taken with steam rice.

The otak otak being grilled using charcoal.

The famous rice cakes.

Another delicacy is the varieties of colourful rice cakes known to the local as Teochew Chwee Kueh. It is a delicious rice cake that is cooked with salted raddish. Other traditional food include the dumplings which are made from glutinous rice. If you are still hungry, try the fried kueh teow, chicken bun, dim sum, carrot cake or the noodles.

You can request for the rice cakes to be heated up first before taking them.

The carrot cake being fried.

434 Coffee

The other specialty of the town is "434 coffee" brand. You can purchase some at the following address. It is located Opposite Bentayan Express Bus Station/Pagoh Bus Stand.

Sai Kee Kopi Serbok Sdn. Bhd.
34, Jalan Maharani
Tel: +6 06 951 3828

Operation Hours

Most of the stalls at Jln. Abu Haji open from 5:30pm until late at night. The other Chinese hawker food is located at Bentayan Hawker Centre.