A Whiff of Lemongrass

The stall serving naan and tandoori opposite Ampang Point doesn’t have a signboard, but the folk at FriedChillies call it Uncle Aru’s.  Crowds throng this place daily for the most scrumptious naan and the tastiest, juiciest pieces of tandoori chicken and fish.  I generally avoid using superlatives because the “best” is always arguable, but I haven’t come across a fluffier, tastier piece of naan in my life.  Try the garlic + butter naan (2 in 1) – it is my favourite.  They’ve somehow perfected the method of cooking in a tandoor oven.  Chicken pieces, even breast meat, come out tender and juicy with the right amount of spices, and the fish (tenggiri) with lime juice squeezed over it is just divine.  While I rave about the naan and tandoori, the accompanying curries and sambhars don’t excite me as much.  There is no such thing as perfection.  Didn’t someone say that the search for perfection begins with the detection of imperfection?

Plain naan

Succulent pieces of tandoori chicken

Butter and garlic naan

Tandoori fish

Celebrity spotting at Ampang stalls – former national walker and former national hockey player

Thanks, Jun Chan, for introducing this place to me!

On a different note, with the beginning of a new year, the following verse rings true to me and will be my assurance that everything has its purpose:

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Here’s to a wonderful 2011.

That Naan and Tandoori place
Tel: 012-354 5624
Open for  dinner.

GPS coordinates: 3.157067, 101.750141 (+3° 9′ 25.44″, +101° 45′ 0.51″)

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Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” – Matthew 19:14

I had arrived early at our meeting point at La Risata, and none of my friends were in sight. We had planned to eat Korean that night at a restaurant in Ampang, near La Risata.  I called Paprika to find out where she was.   “Ummmm, there’s been a change of plans…..we’re eating at La Risata instead,” she said.  Okayyyyy.  The restaurant was already bustling with patrons despite it being a weekday night in a relatively quiet part of Ampang.  Boo turned up first, then Paprika and Hunky.

“I’m in labour,” Paprika said, in a slow and even tone.

What??” I exclaimed, having seen one too many ER scenes on television.  “Shouldn’t we rush you to a hospital??”

“It’s okay,” she replied, “we will finish dinner first, then go to the hospital.”

Okayyyyy.

And so we ate and laughed and ate some more.

Little baby Biskit was born the next day.

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Best of all, I’m a Junior Godmother! (Thank you, Paprika!)

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We remember events….people….stories….smells….tastes.  Restaurants are just vehicles for memories to take place.  It was by no means my first visit to La Risata since the refurbishment and menu change this year.  In fact, I was at La Risata a couple of month earlier on the invitation of its proprietor and my friend, Lissa.  For a halal restaurant, this one trumps many other Italian restaurants which are not similarly restricted by the choice of ingredients.  The owners are constantly involved in the running of the restaurant and in the menu selection, and their perseverance and passion is reflected in the output.  I generally dislike eating pizza, but at La Risata, I devour the pizza.  My favourite is the thin crusted Pizza D’Anatra, lightly covered with smoked duck, anchovies, caramelised onions, rocket and mozarella.  The buttery aroma drives me crazy.  Another favourite at La Risata is the gnocchi.  Gnocchi is typically served in a sauce-based dish, but at La Risata, there is a special gnocchi dish called Gnocchi Ai Gamberi where the little potato dumplings are sauteed with prawns and herb butter.  The texture is both bouncy and slighty crusty.  Lissa tempted me once with a dish that was off the menu – crab ravioli.  I’ll never forgive her for introducing that dish to me because I am haunted by memories of that experience – the crab meat had been cooked and extracted earlier, then sealed in the ravioli and cooked in a buttery sauce scented with sage.  It’s a labour intensive dish – one that can’t be whipped up in an instant, and Lissa refuses to use any of the canned stuff in her ravioli, so I shall have to just live with the memory until it fades away in ten, maybe twenty years.

Sigh.

Gnocchi Ai Gamberi

I can’t remember what this is called, but it tasted like French toast. Comfort food.

Brodetto Di Cozze – NZ Blue Mussels with garlic and white wine soup

Insalata Bresaola E Rucola – Air-dried beef, rocket salad, chick pea with a lemon olive oil dressing & parmesan shavings

My favourite pizza

Filetto Di Merluzzo con Vongole E Fagioli – Pan-fried fillet of cod with cannellini beans & clams in a tomato & white wine broth

The stuff that haunts my dreams

Penne Con Gamberi E Pesto – Tube pasta with prawn & basil pesto sauce. My experience with this dish has been inconsistent. My first time was a reasonably thick pesto sauce which clung to the pasta, my second was a watery dish that appeared to be hurriedly prepared.

Sicilian Bombe – Meringue covered liquored sponge filled with lemon cream flambéed with brandy – cold on the inside & hot on the outside. A dessert reminiscent of my distant childhood where Bomb Alaskas were the vogue.

The rustic interior of the newly renovated restaurant

There is nothing avant-garde about the food at La Risata.  The food is traditional and familiar, and that’s not a bad thing when one wants to just chill out with friends over wine and good, well-prepared food.  Judging from the many patrons whom Lissa recognises from years back, La Risata houses many memories, not just mine.

La Risata (Ampang)
16 Pesiaran Ampang
55000 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-4252 6269

La Risata (Damansara)
128 Jalan Kasah
Medan Damansara
50490 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2095 9572