"We happily slurped it up"
When I invited an Indonesian classmate to come with me, she agreed so fast you would think she hadn't had any Indonesian food for a year. As we escape college grounds during lunch hour, she declares, “It's alright, it's only class. This is Resto Surabaya!”
We make our way to the restaurant, which reminds me of so many other Indonesian restos not just in KL, but in, well, Surabaya. Sparse with the occasional handicraft, smells of sambal and bacem in the air – my lunch date's enthusiasm is so contagious that I cannot help but tap my foot impatiently for our food.
Drinks arrive first. The soda gembira is served a little differently than other places; they pour in the milk and syrup first, and give you a can of ice cream soda separately so you can mix it to your desired sweetness. We also have teh kotak, which I cannot go without ordering at an Indonesian restaurant.
Soto ayam lamongan arrives first. Similar to soto madura, it's filled with soun and chicken strips in a clear yellowish broth. We dive into it with our hands, happily slurping up flailing strands of noodles noisily. The chicken is chewy yet soaked through with the broth, while just a touch of sourness hits the back of my throat.
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"Wonderful fish paste delights!"
The parking here is not ideal, in fact my car was once hit pretty badly and the person took off. I didn’t even realise anything happened till I made my way back to the car stuffed and satisfied after a yong tow foo binge. It’s a good thing that I was on a high from my meal because I would have reacted a lot differently to my dented in hood.
But let’s get back to the food…there is something so sinfully delicious about deep fried tofu skin parcels and vegetables stuffed with fish paste. The mixture of chilli sauce and sweet bean sauce highlights the subtle flavours of each piece of yong tow foo, and you can easily go overboard with ordering especially if you’re hungry.
On the menu there are the usual suspects, tau fu, stuffed brinjal, bitter gourd, chilli, lady fingers, fish balls, fried sui kau, and foo chok. A must try is the fried foo chok, fish paste wrapped in tofu skin and deep-fried. I could easily eat a whole plate of these in one go...crisp on the outside and once you bite down the skin gives way to bouncy fish meat. Another fried delight is the sui kau, a deep fried dumpling where the fish paste is pureed with other vegetables to give it slight texture and a more complex flavour.
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"The aroma of grilled fish will have you drooling"
I was quite surprised to see that this little hidden away makan spot was quite packed at noon, and I am told that by 2pm you’ll be lucky to get anything at all. How do people even find out about the food in an area like this? I knew I was in for a treat.
The waft of fresh fish sizzling on the grill hit me as I entered and my tummy rumbled, a deep low grumpy rumble. This made me a little impatient waiting in the line eagerly with my plate in hand, but I knew I had to wait because good things come to those who are patient.
There is a good spread to choose from and I can see why many make this a favourite lunch stop…nothing beats a laidback kampung style meal in the midst of a busy workday. We made our way back to the table with plates of rendang, perkedel, ikan pari, paru, daun singkong and of course the famous sambal hijau.
I tucked straight into the rendang as soon as we set it down. As the sliver of beef touches my tongue I experience fireworks in my mouth, the complex mélange of flavours are all balanced well. The only thing I would have changed would have been the texture of the meat, it is a bit tough and chewy and I love my meat to melt in the mouth.
The perkedel here is not a smooth mush of potato that is fried, but instead textured with bits of spices and other herbs speckled within. The grainy potatoey texture makes this a pleasure to eat, especially when topped up with the rendang gravy. This alone could have been my meal and I would have walked away happy.
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"You can eat it bones and all!"
One of my favorite joints to visit after school was near my best friend's house. We'd trudge there, still in our uniforms and gorge ourselves silly on banana leaf rice so we could really sink in to our afternoon naps that we school kids so desperately need. Until now, whenever I eat there, it brings back a flood of memories of many a happy siesta. The food was and still is pretty darn good. The place, is Kavithas.
Recently, I had another one of my infamous curry craves. Our designer happened to be with me, and she suggested that we head to Kavithas because she had never tried it. Who was I to argue with such sound logic? We drove on over to the sleepy suburb of Taman Petaling and ordered enough for 4 people (there were only the 2 of us).
First off, fried ikan bulus. Crispy and flaky, these small fish texturally match curried rice so well. On some days, it gets so crunchy that you can eat it bones and all (once I ordered 5 for that reason!) The fried chicken today was especially good. We were a little surprised, however, that they chopped up the chicken into smaller pieces - tearing into a big piece of chicken is infinitely more fun. We also had something called "mutton adhe", which was basically a mutton masala. It was the spicy kick the meal needed, though a touch boney.
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"Chewy, fresh with superb broth"
There is, to me, a holy trinity of Japanese noodles: ramen, soba, and udon. Up until now, udon has always ranked a little lower than the other two. Always a little too tough, swimming in uninspiring broth, it never really grabbed me. But tonight I am about to discover that the problem all along, was that I had never eaten fresh udon. And that, my friend, makes all the difference in the world.
Sanuki Udon is named after the Japanese province famed for udon, and is tucked into the quiet end of Taman Desa, a seemingly unlikely locale for great Japanese food. The owner, Seiji Fujimoto, was working for a department store when he was transferred here some years ago. He moved back to Japan and promptly quit his job. Looking for business opportunities and greener pastures, he decided to open an udon restaurant in Malaysia. He preferred Malaysia for its infinitely more relaxed pace than Japan, and realized there were no specialized udon places here. After taking a short course, he opened Sanuki Udon a little more than a year ago.
Prices here are so cheap, it's almost unbelieveable. A basic bowl of udon with broth or egg will set you back only RM5, while a bowl of tsuke men (udon loaded with vegetables) costs only RM10. My dinner companions and I order a variety of toppings and side dishes, sip on green tea and wait. The restaurant is quaint and cosy, filled with families, groups of girlfriends and sarariman (salarymen). Very quickly after, our food arrives.
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"A must order: BBQ Rib-eye platter. "
When I first entered the restaurant it was still early in the evening and majority of the tables were empty which had me a bit worried. Once we ordered though, people started trickling in and before we knew it the restaurant was buzzing with activity. This lifted my hopes for the food to come.
Service here is attentive and you can choose to grill your own food or let them do it for you. They expertly swish and flip the meats around to ensure even cooking and coax out the delicious flavours. You can even pick whether you want the food cooked in the kitchen or tableside, a good option for those who would rather not leave a place smelling like food.
One of the specialties here is the bulgogi that is cooked on a crystal quartz platter. This cooks the meat so that it is tender and juicy but it doesn’t char. It is almost like a slight boil, which traps in the rich bulgogi flavours. This comes with glass noodles and an assortment of veggies and mushrooms. I enjoyed slurping down the noodles glazed with the sauce. The small platter was still large enough to be a complete meal for 2ppl, which means that the large platter would be plenty for a large group.
When you order a meat dish you automatically get a platter of 9 different banchans. If you order other dishes you have the option of ordering banchan on the side in sets of 3, 6, or 9. Out of the various banchan I quite enjoyed the deep-fried shredded seaweed and the sticky sweet fried anchovies. The kimchi here, while good, lacks that strong pungent garlic punch that I enjoy. After all what is Korean food if you don’t leave with garlic breath?
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"We were oohing and aahing in pleasure"
Restaurateur Beppe de Vito brought the Il Lido brand here in the hopes of changing Malaysia’s fine dining scene. With over 15 years of experience in the fine dining scene in Hong Kong and Singapore he is surely qualified to give the fine dining market here a push.
The sleek and trendy restaurant here certainly does impress. Interiors are in hues of grey, gold, black and chrome and the dim lighting with downlights strategically placed above each table elevate the experience. This is certainly the spot to choose if you’re looking to enjoy a romantic dinner, a quiet family meal, or engage in a business talk over pasta and wine.
We started off our dinner with the pan-fried goose liver as well as a rucola salad with Pecorino cheese, walnuts and pear. The goose liver here is silky smooth and seared just right. Pears, nuts, and cheese are an amazing match and you can hardly go wrong with it. We were a bit disappointed though to find that they skimped a bit on the Pecorino, which is the best part. All in all, lovely appetizers that got our mouths watering for more.
Next we moved on to the pasta course where we shared a linguine with jumbo prawns and spicy pork sausage, a pumpkin tortelli with sage, and a champagne risotto with shaved truffle. The spicy heat is much appreciated in the linguine dish, it cuts the richness of the prawn and amps up the flavour. The pumpkin filled tortelli is pure genius, the chunky sweet filling pairs well with the tangy drizzle of aged balsamic. The one that tops my list however, is the risotto. This one screams pure fatty indulgence. It is rich with the pungent shaved truffle giving it a wonderful muskiness. A total orgasm in the mouth!
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"Tender, peppery chunks of beef"
I am perpetually in search of good guramie. I remembered a short-lived Warung Guramie on Jalan P.Ramlee nestled between Beach Club and some other club. Didn't really make it. Fungsiwaty, the lovely lady who runs Anggrek Kuring shakes her head, "you can't find guramie here at all, restaurants either use ikan nila or tilapia."
You need guramie to make it curl up in those lovely wings because it's "tipis". At Anggrek Kuring they have a standing fish. A fish that is curled open and then made to stand as though it's breaking through water and rising to the surface. They use kerapu but because it's "buncit", they have to fry it with a bit of flour or else it won't stand.
Still with hot, white rice and sambal terasi a well fried fish, is
a well fried fish. The stunners of our dinner today however, is the sapi lada hitam. This is NOT an Indonesian daging masak kicap as I mistakenly called it to slaps from my Indonesian designer. This is a dish of it's own, tender beef chunks that melts in your mouth with a fragrant peppery sauce riddled with onions and chillies. This dish is a come back factor for this restaurant. We kept ordering extras.
Earlier as we were entering, I saw a sign for Ayam Pressto. It looks a little like ayam penyet. I thought maybe it's 'hey pressto! Here's your chicken' or it's in someway 'pressed' so that it's tender.
Goes to show how little I know Bahasa Indonesia. And that's what I like about the language. It has all this cute, almost literal words that rolls off the edge of your tongue- similar but different. Just when you think you know it, it surprises you with twists in meanings and flavours. Not unlike their food. Take for instance Pressto (Malay? English-inspired? Or something entirely different?)- a word you think you should know and yet means something completely different. To 'pressto' in Indonesian means to steam a chicken until the bones are tender.
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"Flavours linger on your tongue"
Brickfields is a bit of a mystery for me. I've lived in either KL or PJ for my entire life but have yet to explore the depths of this place. The smell of curry on every street, the colors everywhere, the people who smile as they jostle through the crowd. Like I said, I'm not particularly brave. But if I want good Indian food, this is probably the place.
I had trawled the Internet the night before, and the name Jassal Tandoori Restaurant popped up. Tandoori. Promising. I haven't had tandoori in a while. Plus it is barely a ten minute walk from KL Sentral which means I don't have to drive! Always a good thing.
I make the trek and arrive at the smallish but very cosy restaurant. I place my order for sizzling chicken tandoori, palak paneer (a weakness of mine), garlic naan and paneer paratha. I couldhardly wait. Smells were emanating from the kitchen, driving my saliva glands crazy. Patience is a virtue, I scold myself. When the dishes arrive, my stomach is going bonkers.
I tear into the naan with abandon. The garlic naan is absolutely delicious, loaded with enough garlic to ward off vampires or your date. It's not as fluffy as most other naans you get, but I rather like this version as the ratio of garlic to roti is in my favour. The paneer paratha is a bit of a conundrum. Last I checked, paneer meant cheese, but the menu says it contains herbs and chilis so I order it anyway. This, I thoroughly enjoy. Stuffed with chopped herbs, it is both crispy and chewy, a feat for any respectable roti maker.
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"Medium-rare perfection and meltingly tender"
Ayers Rock Butchery and Grill is situated quite deep in the heart of Bukit Jelutong, where I reside. As a meat lover, my interest was piqued when it opened. It is a small unit, occupying one shop-lot. At first glance it seems rather out of place, but this could be because it’s in the middle of a housing area, and its neighbors are a mamak shop, a laundry and a 7-11. As the name suggests, it sells meat for customers to take home, and also grills it for you there, should you choose to buy and eat-in, which was what I did.
The first thing that caught my eye when I walked in was the meat cases. I have to say you don’t get a lot of choice, but it was a small joy to see whole sides of rib eye, striploin and a few full-length tenderloins lying in the chillers. There was also a side of Wagyu sirloin, which made me smile even more. The restaurant itself is clean and simple, with heavy use of red and wooden furniture. The décor evokes an Outback cowboy life, with hats and replica guns hanging on the wall. It was quite busy the night I came. Rather cutely, each table is adorned with a salt and peppershaker in the shape of hugging friends, and a bottle each of tomato sauce, chili sauce, mint sauce, Tabasco sauce and HP sauce.
I sat myself down and was handed a menu by a gentleman in casual attire. This is probably the simplest, most straightforward menu I’ve ever seen. No fancy descriptions, and just about two half-pages long. It simply lists the types of steak (rib-eye, striploin, tenderloin, t-bone, ‘aussie’ which is rump; and there are different varieties such as grain-fed and even Wagyu), lamb items, a few seafood items and some burgers. All of them came with a side of salad and fries or potato salad. Best of all, the steaks were VERY affordable compared to the bigger steakhouses. As a point of reference, Ayers Rock rib eye is a relative bargain at RM35 compared to RM50 at a place like TGIF.
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