All Entries Tagged With: "Malaysia"
Seri Malaysia Restaurant on East Hastings, Vancouver
Malaysian cuisine means a lot of different things. This is because Malaysia is a multi-racial country. While the Malays makes up about two third of the population, a large percentage of the population is made up of Chinese and Indians.
So when you mention Malaysian cuisine, it could mean either Malay cuisine, Chinese-Malaysian or Indian-Malaysian cuisine. They are distinctly different. Malay cooking is influenced a lot by Indian cuisine and is characterized by the use of spices.
There are many Malaysian restaurants in Metro Vancouver. Most of them are actually Chinese owned. As far as I know, there are only two pure Malay-Malaysian restaurants. Do you know why there are so few Malay owned restaurants? This is because most of the emigration from Malaysia are the Chinese and not Malays. I have a lot to say about the reasons and such but I guess this blog is just not the forum for it.
One of the Malay restaurants is Kedah House. We like their weekend buffet which is only $10. It is not a big spread but it is pretty good.
The other Malay owned Malaysian restaurant is called Seri Malaysia. We had been eating at Seri Malaysia many times already. If it had not been so far from home, we would have eaten there more. The food is authentic and good but the service is something else. Jamal, the man behind the restaurant often runs everything in the restaurant! But we expect that and have a lot of patience eating here simply because his food is good … well, most of the time.
You may click on the menu above to see a larger image. The menu is a 1-pager which includes a very good selection of Malay food.
When fmed organized a chowdown to Seri Malaysia, it was not hard to say “yes” even though the timing sucks for me. Actually, I ate there just two weeks prior.
I got to Seri Malaysia on the dot but everyone was already all settled down and ready to eat. I felt like I was late. Then I found out that all the food were already pre-ordered!
I was thinking … “Oh no, I hope they ordered my favourite dish”.
Whew!
They did order the Briyani Kambing (lamb). Nine out of ten time, I would order this dish. Seri Malaysia makes this very well and is simply the best Lamb Briyani in town. While the serving is still big, I thought it used to be bigger. It was like ridiculously big that will be enough for two people. Of late the serving appears big, just no longer ridiculously huge.
Just underneath the rice is lots of … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Bo Laksa King’s Delivery
Full Disclosure
This post is written based on complimentary samples from Bo Laksa King’s new delivery service.
There is something really different about Bo Laksa King’s.
Some of you would remember me writing about Bo’s Laksa about two months ago. I went out of my way to check out Bo’s Laksa simply because of rave reviews from Chowhounders. It is not often that Chowhounders gets excited altogether at the same time.
It is definitely a find. I think it’s because Bo Laksa King’s has this certain element of surprise because they operate in such humble setting. You will never expect to find a laksa counter inside a convenience store anywhere else.
Not only is the laksa great, both Bo and his wife Tiffany are genuine people. People do find them very approachable. I remember Michelle telling me during the 12B dinner that they had such a great time chatting with Bo for TWO hours! They are obliging and can easily relate to just about anyone.
A lot of people are rooting for Bo. I sense a lot of support for him to expand his business. Well, he had finally done so — but said that he wants to not grow too fast and have the quality of his food suffer. So he had decided to start a delivery business — with an expanded menu. He just started the delivery business earlier this month.
Last week, Bo wrote me an email asking us to provide him our home address and phone number. The reason is he wants to send some samples to try. We were hesitant to accept this because we live in the south end of Richmond and he operates from Vancouver near the Joyce SkyTrain station. It is a long way to do delivery.
But he was very persuasive and seeing that Bo and Tiffany are such great people, we did not hesitate to help him promote his business to chowtimes’ readers. The only condition is that he must send us his Laksa! Other than that he can send us anything else he wants.
The timing were perfect. Bo sent the samples to us just in time when we were about to get settled down to watch the Vancouver 2010 Opening Ceremony on TV. We love it and certainly very different from getting pizzas for sure.
Bo’s Laksa is second to none. It is still the same price ($7.50) and equally as good. The laksa soup was still really warm when we got it and he delivered this in two containers … one for the soup and the other for the noodles. This is a good way to prevent the noodles from getting too soggy. We like our laksa soup really hot and went to microwave it really hot.
From just serving a few dishes at his counter on Joyce St, he now has 33 items, many of them new. You can check all of his offerings on his new website: http://www.bolaksaking.com/
After the Laksa, the next thing we tried was the Papaya Salad. We had heard also good feedback of his papaya salad but have never tried it before.
Bo’s Papaya Salad is $6.75 and consists of shredded green papaya, tomato, onions, cilantro, crushed peanuts, fresh red chilli, dried shrimps, green beans, mix with garlic, lime, and vinaigrette dressing.
What we like best about the Papaya Salad is that it has a lot of dried shrimps and a few chili sprinkled throughout that gives a bit of heat in some bites. It was crunchy as we munch on it. Taste-wise, it has a pleasant sourness and spiciness to it.
The Pan Thay Stir Fry is $7.75. This is described as … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
KL Series: Satay in Haji Samuri, Kajang
This is my last post in this KL Series.
Well, I have been in Malaysia for almost two weeks now. Dad’s funeral was exactly a week ago and I will be saying goodbye to everyone the next day. I wanted to visit his grave before I leave for home, to say goodbye for one more time.
After the visit, the entire family drove to Kajang for Satay (or Sate in Malay). The Kajang town is famous for its Satay. During that week I was there, there was a local food show called Hojiak which showcased Haji Samuri Satay — purportedly the original Satay in Kajang.
It was quite a drive from Cheras to Kajang. I was quite surprised how easy it is to locate this place. I was told that it is by the stadium. So, I just looked out for the stadium’s floodlight towers. I remember having Kajang Satay in somewhat dilapidated stalls. Am glad to see that they now operate in a proper building.
The best thing is that they now have air-conditioned dining halls. The place, although not plush, is really a fantastic change. It certainly is a more comfortable environment. They have even decorated the place with antique pieces.
Satay had been known to have originated from Indonesia but for many Malaysians, they are adamant that it is a very Malaysian meal. Satay are normally eaten for dinner. They consists of simply chunks of meat on skewers and grilled over coal fire.
The most common Satay meat is chicken although there are beef, lamb and even rabbit meat. Chicken is still many people’s favourite though because it’s juicier and moist.
You know, there are ten of us and we ordered a total of 140 sticks in all. This is simply the best dinner we had since I was in KL — not just because of the food.
Satay can only be great with a perfect peanut sauce — and lots of it too. Haji Samuri does not skimp on the sauce and gives you all that you want. They come round to fill up the big bowl of sauce when they are empty. I like it spicy and put in a generous blob of chilli on it.
Mmmmm … yummy. I like my satay fat and juicy — especially if they have a bit of chicken skin on it and slightly charred at the edges.
The sides includes cucumber and onions. Another favourite is the ketupat. Ketupat is basically boiled rice which is contained in a handmade pouch made from coconut leaves. The ketupat is very much a symbol of Malay cuisine.
Satay goes great with freshly pressed sugar cane juice.
If you want to look for the original Kajang Satay, you must check out Haji Samuri. Their simple SK logo is unique and easy to spot.
The entire family was there and we had such great time. Everyone was finally cracking jokes. I had so much fun that I did not want to leave that night. It had been an eventful two weeks since the passing of my dad. I know things will be alright for everyone. We still miss him but over time it will get better for everyone. We had great memories with dad that we can treasure forever.
Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Zipangu Japanese Restaurant at the Shangrila
Thanks for enduring my many postings on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia. This is the final posting in this series. From tomorrow I am gonna take a long rest from blogging and pass the baton over to Suanne. It was just a 2 week trip but did manage to blog 28 entries in all. Wow, Suanne had not blogged for 4 straight weeks — that’s not fair!
Joyce treated me to dinner at the Zipangu Japanese Restaurant in the Shangrila Kuala Lumpur. The Shangrila KL is perhaps still the No 1 hotel in KL. It used to have been voted as the No 1 hotel in the world. Joyce had a corporate membership in the hotel. For that she gets 50% off.
We were deciding over whether we should go for the RM$98 (US$ 25+) Buffet or try something different. We opted for the Japanese restaurant because there were a long queue at the buffet restaurant waiting to break fast (it was Ramadhan then).
The entrance were grand. We had to wind our way along walls of wine. Pretty amazing and I was thinking … gosh! how much is this meal gonna cost!!
The restaurant were impressively laid out. We could see the kitchen at work from where we were. This is so authentically high end Japanese restaurant. The service were prompt. They must have the best waiters and waitresses in the entire city. They not only looked pretty/handsome but they do come across as very intelligent and professional.
Joyce and I could not recognize most of what was in the menu. So, we opted for the Set Dinner. Each set dinner costs RM98, same price as the buffet. I went for the Tempura Set Dinner while Joyce chose the Salmon Set Dinner.
What came first was a tea pot for each of us! I initially thought that it was tea.
Opening the lid, we found out that it is soup with piece of meat in it. We mulled for sometime over how we’re supposed to take this. That was when the waiter came over and ever so politely explained to us the dish.
You see, we are suppose to first pour the soup into a small plate and sip from it. Forget the lime on the plate — it’s supposed to be squeezed into the pot.
After the soup’s gone, we picked the meat from the pot and eat it from the plate. It’s basically one prawn and mushrooms. This was really good — great start.
They also served a small bowl of salad. I am never a fan of cold salad.
Next dish looked good until we’re told that it’s duck liver! I wished they did not described this to me because it tasted really good. At this point, I really felt like one of the judges on Iron Chef tasting unique and exotic food.
Some vegetables. Nice and crunchy … don’t know what it is called. I like it even though it is a cold dish.
This is Joyce’s salmon main dish. The salmon fillet looked too small to me. Joyce said it was really good.
Oh yeah, what do you call this? Daikon?
This is my partly eaten Tempura main dish. It was not bad but compared to Joyce’s salmon, I wished I had ordered that instead.
Miso soup … must have miso soup, right? BTW, is it right that the proper way to drink it is to slurp as loud as possible straight from the bowl? I guess it is because they did not give us soup spoons like those we find in chinese meals.
We ended up with green tea ice cream with a dash of red bean paste. It was quite different but would still prefer chocolate anytime!
For Malaysian standards, this meal is really expensive. For Canadian standards, this is a steal. Anyway, thanks for this meal Joyce. It was great meeting up with you again and catching up on old times.
So … here it is … the last posting on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia! What do you think? You think I had fun? At the end of the two weeks I was hopelessly home sick and was just dying to get home to Vancouver.
Recipes for the next few weeks … no more travel … over to you, Suanne!
Singapore-Malaysia Trip: Red Door Nyonya Cuisine
On my last full day in Malaysia, I brought my niece and nephews for brunch in the neighborhood shopping mall. It was only about a 5 minutes drive to the Jusco shopping mall in Kepong. There were a lot of choices at the mall and it took us a while to decide where to eat.
We came across the Red Door. What enticed us was the big poster of their menu. They serve mainly traditional Malaysian food, specifically Nyonya cuisine.
Oh yeah, I had always wanted to say this. In Malaysia, the standard cutlery is a spoon and a fork for almost all food except for noodles. When I first came to Canada, it took me a while to get used the cutleries issued, which is just a fork and knife. We got to ask for a spoon. Canadians used a fork even for rice where in Malaysia, the spoon is used to scoop up the rice and the fork is to push food onto the spoon.
I ordered the Sambal Fish Rice. This dish came with two fish about 8 inches long. Don’t know what type of fish this is though. The chilli sauce is a bit sourish and certainly spicy. The okra (known better as ladies fingers in Malaysia) and eggplant (or Brinjal) adds a good balance to the spicy-sourish taste to the chilli.
The Sambal Fish Rice came with prawn crackers, fried peanuts, eggs and the sambal. I like mixing it all up before diving in. This dish costs RM9.80 (less than USD $3)
I can’t remember who ordered what but here are the rest of the dishes we had. Below is the fried rice. It’s a simple dish served uniquely on a small wok. This one costs RM5.80 (about USD $1.50).
Theirry ordered the Asam Laksa which is a sour fish based soup noodles quite popular in Malaysia. I think this one is very spicy because I think Thierry was struggling to finish the entire bowl. This dish costs RM5.80 (about USD $1.50).
Sambal Prawn Rice came with a choice of steam rice or Nasi Kerabu. We had a mix. Nasi Kerabu is the blue colour rice. The prawns in the sambal was quite small. Looks really good.
For appertizers we ordered something called Top Hats. It came with fried cups and filled with shredded vegetables. The dipping chilli sauce was great — really hot. This is about RM3.50 (USD $1 only).
We liked the Golden Money Bags. It is basically the same as the Top Hats, just packaged differently. I was thinking that this type of food would be great in picnics or parties — good conversation pieces.
My favourite niece, Tracy, ordered the Hainanese Chicken Chop. It looked very delicious — with fried potato wedges and carmelized onions on gravy.
This is what I had for drinks — cendol. I had so much shaved ice dessert the past few days. I can’t get enough of them. I am gonna miss these type of shaved ice dessert when I get back to Canada.
The ABC … looked awesome except that I hate red beans in the ABC.
This is the penultimate posting on my series on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia. I have been posting for the past three weeks. After this series, Suanne will take over and post her recipes. She had quite a bit lined up already. I had a few emails from people saying that they miss Suanne’s recipes … so stay tuned.
