KL Kitchen
Where? KL Kitchen (Chinatown, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) Map Menu
When? Thursday September 30, 2021
Who? Me
Food Style? Indo-Malay
It’s been a long time since I got to sit in a restaurant by myself and enjoy writing about food. 18 months of sadness much of which was spent in lockdown really took its toll on my food blog (and my mental health) but with the vaccine rollout largely a success in Ontario, we can finally enjoy dine in again.
I’m in Chinatown to try out an Indo-Malay restaurant called KL Kitchen. There’s a variety of Indonesian, Malay and Thai food available, as well as a Malaysian snack shelf full of delectables like keropok, instant noodles, durian biscuits and Penang white coffee. Most notably missing from the menu is Nasi Lemak, the national dish of Malaysia, but since I’m pretty good at making it myself, I’m not too fussed about its absence. Instead, I’ve ordered something that is difficult to make at home: CKT
Mains
Char Kuay Teow
Char kuay teow is delicious flat rice noodles, bean sprouts, onion, chives, eggs and meat (in my case, beef, but often chicken, Chinese sausage or seafood), fried together in a hot wok to impart that famous and absolutely important smokiness - wok hei. Here, they’ve hit all the notes correctly. It doesn’t sing of my favourite CKT from Penang’s auntie with the red hat, but it is very good and something I would order again.
I think it’s missing a bit of seasoning so I ask for a bit of sambal on the side. The waiter is surprised I know what sambal is and asks me if I’m Malaysian; I smugly grin and explain that I was born there but grew up in NZ. He gives me a knowing nod and fetches the sambal. It hits the spot.
Posted by Jeremy at 12:20am on Monday January 17, 2022 :: 0 comments :: 