Malaysia holds a place dear in my heart, I lived there for three months and half the girlfriend's family is from there and both these things played a large part in my culinary education. It's a country steeped in culture, a melting pot of different races that comes through in their heritage and their food. I've blogged loads about Malaysian cuisine with good reason - Malay, Chinese and Indian have come together to make one of the most diverse cuisines around: flaky roti canai stalls lie next to Chinese restaurants dishing out very Chinese steamed buns and very Chinese-Malaysian pan mee; Indian curries are churned out along with the Indian spiced fried noodles, mee goreng; and this is before you've moved onto the Malay dishes, rich and fragrant beef rendang, pungent sambal with nasi lemak (coconut rice) or the crunch of cucur udang (prawn fritters) to name a few. This is a cuisine that really deserves to be eaten and maybe Malaysia Kitchen's dining card will help spread the word.
Malaysian Kitchen is a Malaysian government initiative that hopes to increase exposure to Malaysian food and I was lucky enough to be invited to a dinner in Queensway's Kiasu restaurant promoting its dining card. The full details of the card (along with how to get one - it's free) can be seen here but in short it entitles you to at least 20% off at any of the participating restaurants. Based on my experiences at Kiasu then I think it's worth making there one of them.
For me Malaysian cuisine is unique in the coming together of Malay, Chinese and Indian dishes (and Kiasu had them all on the menu) but our meal was firmly rooted in the Chinese and Nyonya elements of the cuisine. If you don't know, Nyonya cuisine is a marriage of Chinese and Malay cuisine that came about due to the marriage of Chinese and Malay people. Malaysia has a history as a home of trading ports in the region and one of the first was Malaka, which before Singapore rose in prominence was the main port in the region. Here Chinese settlers took local brides and swayed towards local life, from this the cuisines of China and the Malay combined and the entirely separate Nyonya cuisine was born, using methods and ingredients from both races and giving us delights such as kang kong belacan and laksa, the noodle soup that is so rightly famous.
Back to Kiasu and our meal began with 5 starters - there was so much food that one dining companion didn't believe me when I said that these were only the starters. The chicken and beef satay tasted authentic (if not a tad overcooked), spice heavy and not the cloying peanut butter renditions that have made it on to too many menus, the supplied rice cake cubes being the perfect means to get more sauce into your mouth. Chye tow kway - steamed rice flour and daikon cake stir fried with eggs and beansprouts - and the ngoh hiang - deep fried pork mince in beancurd skin - took me back to meals in Kuala Lumpur's SS2, a trip down memory lane I was more than happy to make. Crispy squid had the all important crunch from the cornflour based batter, a dish that reminds me more of China than Malaysia but very tasty nonetheless. The final dish was probably the highlight for me though and it was entirely new to me - kueh pai tee. These crisp baskets (made with three types of flour and fried on a mould) were filled with shredded turnip and topped with coriander and prawn. The basket was gorgeous, crunching under the bite and delightfully grease free.
Whilst we were eating the owner (I assume) waxed lyrical about all the dishes and the preparation of everything from scratch (including all the chili sauces), she was obviously very proud of the cuisine in general and their kitchens, a sentiment that's a pleasure to hear.
I'll admit that by this point I was feeling full but I had to pull myself together for the main courses. Honey glazed ribs were tasty enough if not reminiscent of a standard Chinese, a low point of the mains. The Singaporean influenced trio of chili crab, char kway teow and Hainanese chicken rice soon put all thoughts of being sated aside though. The crab was the usual mission to eat, messy enough when plain boiled but this is taken to another dimension when coated in a sticky chili sauce, as always it was worth the mess and the effort to get to the sweet flesh inside. The side of deep-fried mantou reminded me of donuts without the sugar, I still can't decide if I was a fan or not. Hainanese chicken rice, simply boiled and served on chicken stock boiled rice, is made by the sauces and the raw ginger and garlic (maybe not one for a first date) and fragrant chili didn't disappoint.
Char kway teow (fried wide rice noodles) makes it on to many a Chinatown menu but near always ends up being a Singapore rice noodle copy, differing only in the type of noodle. Here the generic curry powder version seen too frequently over here was replaced with the dark soy sauce of its homeland. This dish should be cooked in lard and whilst I don't know if Kiasu managed that I was delighted to see the cubes of crisp pork fat scattered on top, the first time I'd seen them on these shores. By this point we were nearly there, with just a small (luckily) bowl of laksa to contend with. There are many types of laksa with the common theme being thick, circular rice (laksa) noodles and the laksa leaf gracing a fragrant stock, most (but not all) are coconut milk based and this was of that variety. A mouthful later I was instantly transported back to Malaysia with the familiar herbal overtones, slippery noodles and grated cucumber.
To finish off we first had chendol - crushed ice with palm sugar and coconut milk alongside some blands beans - the kind of thing you see lots of in south east Asia. They're not my favourite type of dessert but I polished this off anyway, it seemed rude not too. Next up was durian ice cream, made from the infamous fruit which I happen to adore. The ice cream was rich and heady, capturing the flavour (and aroma) of the fruit perfectly, too much for some at the table but a welcome end for me.
The best things in life are free, especially when they give you money off, so I intend to use my Malaysia Kitchen card and take the opportunity of some reduced dining out on one of my favourite cuisines. Whilst looking through the Malaysia Kitchen website I noticed The Malaysian Restuarant in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes is also on the list. I went there at the end of last year for my birthday and whilst I didn't get around to blogging it I had a lovely meal, this time with more of a leaning towards Malay cuisine. Again the owners spent time talking to us (telling them I lived in Malaysia for a while piqued their interest) about the food and seemed genuinely proud too, which they had a right to be as the food was again authentic and tasty. Another establishment, alongside Kiasu , which I think is well worth a visit.