One of the things I learned from going to college in the States was that Indian food is not limited to spicy curry, tandoori, nasi kandar, and roti canai. There were a host of other dishes that are mostly vegetarian, and mostly absent from the local Indian/mamak restaurants back in KL.
Later I would find out that India is a big country, with varying culinary cultures in different regions. The version of Indian food here in Malaysia is mostly influenced from the Southern region of India, while those available in States usually originates from the Northern region.
ingredients of baingan bharta, vegetarian
My favorite dish from this Punjabi/Northern Indian cuisine is Baingan Bhrata – a name that took me a while to remember and be able to spell it. It is basically an eggplant dish with mixture of onion, tomato, garlic, chili (or capsicum) and curry spices all cooked into almost like a pulp.
While presentation is never easy for something that looks like a pile of mud, this dish is quite strong tasting and flavorful. This is not a difficult dish to prepare, but one that is quite tedious in preparation, but here goes!
the key is to roast the eggplant first
Ingredients:
stir-fry everything till soft, add garam masala too
Instructions:
Serve while hot, goes well with chapati or basmati rice but normal steamed rice will do too.
Happy cooking!
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Last Friday we braved the traffic and traveled to Solaris Mont Kiara for a lovely dinner at Shuraku thanks to the invitation from Mei.
The quaint Japanese restaurant is located just above Maybank on level 2, with the ambiance that is only made possible by the inclusion of Japanese diners in addition to Japanese magazines, old clocks, hanging ropes, and the sound and smell of a yakitori bar.
Shuraku at Solaris Mont Kiara
The dishes for the night were already chosen for us so the six of us just sat back and relax. We started the night with some Asahi beer and a couple glasses of Japanese cocktails that were served from this portable carbonated dispenser, we had a pear flavored cocktail, it was lovely.
salmon tamago, beef steak salad, unagi
Appetizer, if you would, were seared salmon on tamago (sweet egg omelet), the sweet and savory unagi on tofu, and some tasty beef steak salad.
pork belly, chicken wings, chicken gizzards, chicken thigh and leek yakitori
What we really came here for though, were the yakitori. While yakitori literally meant grilled fowl, at Shuraku, they also serve it with yummy pork belly too.
Of course, we also had chicken thigh with leek, chicken wings (I must say the way Japanese grill their chicken wings is a lot better than our Malaysian style, much easier to eat and much less messy), and my favorite – chicken gizzards.
soba salad, roast eggplants
Soba salad was refreshing but slightly awkward, I still prefer the good old cha soba, this is a bit too fusion for me.
The roast eggplants however, was super awesome. There’s a type of sweet (peanut/mayo?) sauce they add to it that made it so rich and really made my taste buds happy. Kim and I devoured the whole thing, including skin!
salmon and tuna maki
We shared a salmon and tuna maki too, so yah, they do have raw fish and do a very fine job preparing the maki. Great in both presentation and taste, I must say.
kimchi, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake/pizza), mushroom
Curiously, Shuraku also serve up a pretty good kimchi dish, and with pork belly in it of course.
Okonomiyaki was rich and quite filling with all the mayo and sweet sauce, I just realised last I had this was in 2005, documented in this post, at Lowyat plaza.
sake, teriyaki, ciki!
Ah, there’s also this meatball skewer that was served with half boiled egg. Interesting combination that somehow worked.
Haze, Kim, Ciki, Cumi, Gareth, KY
We ordered several more yakitori of various flavored and had an awesome night. Prices at Shuraku are reasonable and doesn’t vary much from other similar Japanese outfit. Do check the place out if you love authentic Japanese food that isn’t just confined to sushi and sashimi
Address:
Shuraku
13-2, Jalan Solaris Mont Kiara 1,
Solaris Mont Kiara, off Jalan Duta
50480 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.174049,101.660037
Tel: 03-6203 0561
One of my favorite restaurants at the Curve is Waroeng Penyet that serves the pretty unique ayam penyet (flattened fried chicken) that was completely new to me only slightly over a year ago. I have been there quite a few times since but always loath the idea of having to brace the traffic and having to pay parking to get my favorite Indonesian food.
So when I spotted this place on the way home after a round of hitting golf balls everywhere at the Sunway driving range, I immediately suggest to Horng that we should just have our dinner there.
clean and air conditioned interior
The set up of Ayam Penyet AP is just a notch above your normal kopitiam. There are a few tables alfresco style for those who might want to have puff after meal, and also plenty of tables for those who prefer air conditioning. The restaurant is clean and comfortable tho there isn’t any effort being put in interior decoration.
The menu here is a bit more extensive compared to Waroeng Penyet, other than the standard Ayam penyet, they have beef, cat fish, prawn, bakso (beef ball), mixed vegetable, and a few types soups too.
ayam penyet, ikan penyet (keli), and terung penyet
We ordered ayam penyet, lele penyet (keli, cat fish), and terong penyet (eggplant) to go with two rice for dinner.
The ayam penyet (I had the drumstick) was just as tasty as their counterpart at the Curve. Crispy, flavorful, and with that very addictive hot sambal. I also like the fact that they give more crispy bits.
The deep fried cat fish too was not bad in its own, very aromatic and soft in texture. And as a person who loves eggplant, I absolutely adore the terung penyet. The crispy bits and sambal works very well with the contrasting soft texture of fried eggplant. Very delicious.
satisfying dinner
Ayam penyet was priced at RM 7 (already the most expensive item in their menu!), the fish was RM 6.50, and eggplant only RM 2.50. Two plates of rice at RM 1.20 each and you have a very satisfying dinner for way less than RM 20.00!
I am sure this is one of the places I would visit repeatedly.
you can see Ayam Penyet AP from LDP just before heading up to the suspension bridge.
Other than Mentari, they have another outlet at Subang Jaya (No. 74, GF, Jln SS15/4, Subang), and Bangi (No. 9, GF, Jln 15/1D, Section 15, 43650 Bandar Baru Bangi) as well.
Address:
Ayam Penyet AP
No 17, GF, Jln PJS 8/17,
Dataran Mentari,
46150 PJ, Selangor
GPS: 3.076950, 101.613282
Tel: 019-577 5399
After watching the Astro AEC program (channel 19) “Our Root” on the Baba and Nyonya cultures featuring Kelvin the noob on Sunday. We decided that it would be fitting to have some Nyonya food for dinner to celebrate his success in dodging the grandmother’s “got bring gf back or not?” question on satellite TV. So we headed to Ah Tuan Ee’s Place in SS2.
“jiu hu char” or fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish
There are actually no less than 4 Nyonya restaurants in SS2. The others are Restaurant Bibichick, Melaka Street, and well, Nyona Restaurant. I have sampled them and they were all pretty decent.
Ah Tuan Ee’s Place has a much more refined interior decoration and a nicer ambiance comparing to it’s counterparts. The illustrated menu is especially helpful if you are not familiar with traditional Nyonya food.
nice ambiance and illustrated menu
For the three of us, we ordered a “jiu hu char” (fried mengkuang with dried cuttle fish), sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, and fried asam prawn to go with steamed rice.
“jiu hu char”, sambal salted fish, egg plant with sambal, fried asam prawn
The food were pretty good, especially the super simple dish that is the salted fish sambal that goes very well with white rice. The egg plant was a little too oily, but the prawn and “jiu hu char” dishes reminded me of my mom’s cooking, it was great. (My mom isn’t a Nyonya, but Penang Chinese cooking is similar in many ways). It was a pretty good meal.
Ah Tuan Ee’s Place is just a block from SS2 Square
The food were good, however, the price isn’t very economical. I guess you do have to pay for the nice ambiance after all. The meal for 3 costs us RM 77, that includes a 10% service charge and the 5% government tax.
Address:
74, Jalan SS2/72
Petaling Jaya
47300 Selangor
GPS: 3.118673, 101.625810
Tel: 03-7957 2915
