A Whiff of Lemongrass

My maternal grandmother passed away half my lifetime ago. During my school holidays when I was in primary school, it was the norm for me to travel south from Penang to PJ where my grandma used to live. Grandma Yeoh was a cynical woman who had a fast-forward education on life at a young age when her husband, an architect and a painter, passed away, leaving her to tend to 5 growing children. She’d put on a gruff exterior, perhaps not knowing how to show her affection towards me, but her actions reflected her kindness. I’d faithfully follow her to the market everyday where she’d buy only the freshest ingredients for the day’s meal and chat with the various stall owners, from the vegetable seller to the man chopping up the pork. Sundays were spent in reverence as she attended the Lutheran church in PJ. Usually, after a hard day’s work of cooking and cleaning and sharing the latest gossip with the neighbour, she’d sit down on her rickety old chair in front of her black and white TV to catch the latest offering on RTM. I, on the other hand, would creep into the storeroom to hunt for treasures stored away in musty old boxes. It was in that barely-lit storeroom that I found my first inspiration to dabble in art; my late grandfather had a wealth of books on art that gave me my foundation in a lifelong love affair.Everyday, Grandma Yeoh would dress up in her crisp cotton kebaya top and her batik sarung held up by an intricate silver belt. She cooked, cleaned, shopped and rested in those outfits. Meals were always prepared on the charcoal stove at the back of her house. Food like tau yu bak, babi pongteh and other straits chinese food were commonly served in her household.

Eating nyonya food brings me back to the past and my friends will attest to the fact that I behave a little strangely in nyonya restaurants where in my imagination, I have travelled back in time.

All this reverie because of Old China Cafe. 🙂

Back to the present, Old China Cafe is an old guild hall of the Selangor & Federal Territory Laundry Association. Walking through its wooden doors, I feel a sense of belonging in this dimly lit place, the same chinese music playing in the background. According to its website, “the two large mirrors that face each other are traditional feng shui mirrors that Chinese believe would perpetually reflect the good luck when the first rays of the morning sun light up the interior”.

This is the first of a 2-part series. Today, it’s all about the one-dish meal. This restaurant is located on the fringe of Petaling Street and like its sister, Precious Old China, it seems to appeal more to the expatriate and tourist crowd. As a result, the waiters normally confirm the degree of spiciness one can tolerate in a meal. I recommend going spicy all the way.

Bouncing Barbie was keen on eating rice, so she ordered the nyonya fried rice. Barbie and Pretty Pui both agreed that it was a little bland (perhaps due to the fact that Barbie didn’t want garlic in her meal) despite asking for an extra spicy version of this dish. The rice is fried with mixed vegetables and belacan and is served with a piece of chicken, grated cucumbers and papadum.

Pretty Pui was immediately attracted to the nasi lemak. Unlike normal nasi lemak, the rice in this dish is coloured with bunga telang (blue sweetpea flowers). This dish is served with chicken curry, crunchy fried ikan bilis (anchovies), kangkung (water convolvulus) and slices of cucumber.

I’ve always liked the curry laksa in Old China Cafe. The aroma of lemongrass is prevalent in this curry, rich with santan (coconut milk). This noodle dish has several prawns, taufu pok (fried tofu), sliced fish cakes, shredded cucumber and half an egg.

If you’re dining here, be prepared to spend some time drinking in the ambience and waiting for your food as service can be a little slow. Nevertheless, it is a nice place to spend a lazy afternoon with old friends, dead or alive. 😛

Part 2 will cover several new dishes introduced in Old China Cafe. Stay tuned!

Old China Cafe

11, Jalan Balai Polis,50000 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-20725915

Whenever we drive past Sek Yuen, we’d tell ourselves that we should go there some time soon. We generally enjoy old-style dining, and the facade of the restaurant with its washed-out, peeling paint was a good reflection of the interior.

Entering the restaurant, it was like we travelled back through time; there were old kopitiam tables and sturdy wooden chairs that had withstood the test of time, white ceiling fans and dusty fluorescent lights suspended by wires and windows without shutters.

In a country where progress is reflected in our country’s employment and where locals are in the pursuit of more ambitious vocations, it is heartening to see that cheap foreign labour is not employed in this restaurant. The servers in this restaurant are withered, shrivelled uncles and aunties wearing white pagoda T-shirts over white shorts.

A bespectacled, wizened man with fingers nimbly skimming an abacus was presumably the “cashier”.

Chopped wood for the stove is stored at the back to cook the food the traditional way.

The food that you will see below is from an accumulation of two visits. The first time, we went there with no idea what to order. We were impressed with what we had tasted. Our second time was a more educated trip, but unfortunately we were overenthusiastic, and thus we overordered!

I’m a big fan of pork trotters. Unfortunately, Pretty Pui isn’t, so it was a nightmare for her as she thrust her chopsticks into the thick fat in search of lean meat. We tried two types of dishes: stewed pork trotters, and stuffed pork trotters with chestnuts, onions and mushrooms. Both are delicious, but the “small” portion of stuffed pork trotters was still too much for 5 of us.

The pei pa duck with its crispy skin would have been more enjoyable had it not been for the thick layers of fat that left one feeling full after consuming it. At first, I tried spitting out the fat, but that left my jaws tired. After that, I was merely tearing off and eating the skin and leaving behind the fat and the meat that seemed to be fused together.

Our dish of chicken came steamed with black fungus, ginger and kum chum (dried lily buds).

We tried two types of tofu dishes; one was seng kua taufu cooked with mushrooms and ridge gourd (petola), and the other, tofu with mixed vegetables. Both dishes came with a starchy egg sauce that was good enough to drink by itself.

We loved the kah heong chai (literally translated as village vegetables) which consisted of nam yue (red fermented bean paste), black fungus, fried foo chuk, chinese cabbage, transparent glass noodles and kum chum. We ordered this on both visits as it was absolutely addictive.

The fluffy, white rice steamed in little aluminium bowls not only looked adorable, but tasted great too.

Note: The airconditioned restaurant is located nextdoor. Same food, different environment. You decide.

Sek Yuen Restaurant
313-1, Jalan Pudu
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-92229457
Airconditioned restaurant: 315, Jalan Pudu.
Tel: 03-92220903

When work gets me down and I need some comforting, the only way to go is Japanese. I have two favourite restaurants (friends, take note :-P), Zipangu at Shangri-La KL and Iketeru at KL Hilton.

As it turned out, I was working on Thursday (a public holiday) and feeling sorry for myself, and that is how I magically found myself in Iketeru…looking scruffy and woebegone but excited at the prospect of soon savouring comfort food.

Scouring the menu, I zeroed in on happy food…nothing out of the ordinary, nothing exciting, just plain, simple, delicious Japanese food. From unagi kabayaki to sanshina sashimi to ebi tempura to chawan mushi.

Only one dish was not my usual order. Fugu sashimi. I’d read enough about fugu to know that it may be one of the most dangerous meals in the world, but I had faith that I’d live to tell the tale. The fugu fish was sliced very thinly to the point of being semi-transparent and was served with vinegar, finely chopped radish and spring onions. The key is to dip it, very lightly, into the tangy concoction, and not soak it in the vinegar or you’ll end up wondering what happened to that expensive slice of fish. I found it very chewy, the texture being a cross between a fish and a squid.

After that lovely meal, I ended that perfect evening watching our Malaysian girls win The Amazing Race Asia, and watching Talha and Nicholl find out that they are not what women want, or at least not what Marina, Nivi, Nadia and Aishah want.

Iketeru at KL Hilton

3 Jalan Stesen Sentral

Kuala Lumpur Sentral

50470 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2264 2264/Fax: 03-2264 2266