11.12.05

A Night in Malaysia

Posted in Uncategorized at 12:08 pm by trueepicure

I wish. But I am in Pasadena, which makes for some interesting food opportunities.

I went walking through Old Pasadena yesterday and happened upon some interesting looking stores and restaurants along the way. One of them was a restaurant called “Kuala Lumpur”.

I’ve never had Malaysian food before. I live for Thai food, Japanese food, and prior to my allergy issues, Chinese food (especially dim sum, though I still do dim sum occasionally). I’ve eaten Burmese food several times, and I have Korean on the list of foods to try. But never Malaysian. Why, probably because I live in the white bread capital of the southwest. But I digress.

Kuala Lumpur is a small restuarant, with no more than 15 tables. But don’t let that confuse you. The food has a big taste. We started with leek dumplings (Teo Chew styyle with shrimp, pork, Chinese leeks and a sesame/soy/green onion sauce.) These are the sort of dumplings that you are used to from Chinese restuarants, but with a lighter and a more interesting taste. For our entree, E had Nasi Lemak (beef and chicken rendange, sambal ikan bilis, calamari, peanuts, eggs, and coconut -pandan rice. I had Coriander Chicken, which sounds kind of boring, but it was really quite interesting. The chicken comes in a sauce with coriander, cilantro, chili, cumin, and yogurt. You also get coconut-pandan rice (lovely steamed rice with a light coconut flavor), acar (a Malaysian pickle that is out of this world - more on that later), and gailan (asian broccoli).

While the chicken was quite good, and very interesting, the thing that really made the dish was the pickle. No cucumber here, just cabbage, carrot, jicama (maybe), pineapple, tumeric, chili, and the usual pickle suspects (vinegar, sugar?, etc.). When I saw “acar” on the menu, described as “Malaysian pickle”, I had to try it. I figured it would be something like I imagine kimchee to be. Sour, stinky, and an acquired tasted. It was, instead, quite lovely. Hot because of the chili, but sweet with fresh pineapple, and crunch with the veggies. I definitely have to find a recipe and or a local source when I get home.

I would definitely recomment Kuala Lumpur to anyone interested in good food at a reasonable price. Next time I’m going to try the Roti Canai (sesame oil pancakes served with your choice of chicken, beef, or veggies). The woman at the table next to us had it, and it looked really interesting.

Kuala Lumpur
69 West Green Street
Pasadena, CA 91105
(626) 577-5175
Closed Mondays

Permalink