Found 2 blog posts with tag: Malaysia
Nimbus
Where? Nimbus (Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia) Map Menu
When? Tuesday December 20, 2022
Who With? My Parents
Food Style? Asian Fusion
After frustratingly navigating through Kuala Lumpur’s rush hour, we’ve finally made it to the restaurant. Normally this journey would take us 10 minutes, but today, it took us 40 minutes because we also made a wrong turn, in addition to the multitude of vehicles on the road.
Anyway. In my final week in Malaysia, we’ve decided on Nimbus, a fusion restaurant with an interesting mix of French and Asian cuisines. The interior is playing Christmas pop and there’s two other tables on this quiet Wednesday evening. They offer a seven course degustation, a four course meal for two and a la carte, but since there’s three of us, they’re letting us do the four course for three pax.
Mocktail
Shark Attack
The shark comes with berry juice that you squirt into the cocktail, making it look like bloody murder in a green pool. I love it, great theatrics. The drink is nice and refreshing, especially after the chaos of KL traffic. There's a prominent lime and mint flavour.
Appetiser
Wheat: truffle butter
The home-made brioche is served warm and is very inviting. There's a strong truffle taste in the butter and it's really good.
Entree
Salmon and bottarga: smoked capsicum sorbet, prawn paste, fungus
There's an interesting combination of flavours on the plate. The sorbet is cold and adds a strange sensation; it’s smoky and sweet at the same time. The salmon is pretty tasty. Hoisin sauce ties everything together. The fungus is pretty nondescript but adds some crunch. I didn’t detect any of the bottarga - that's salted and cured fish roe pouch, usually from the grey mullet or bluefin tuna - even though it was clearly visible.
Pre Mains
Oyster Royale: herring roe, truffle jus
This is steamed egg custard with oysters and herring roe, topped with a dried oyster oil, very much like an elevated chawanmushi. It's smooth and delicious, intensely aromatic with a strong sea flavour and some hidden oysters that have sunk to the bottom. It's beautifully presented.
Mains #1
Tamarind baked barramundi: confit potato, green pepper coulis
My choice is the barramundi, a name from the Australian Aboriginal language meaning "large-scaled river fish". It's beautifully cooked, glistening in the middle, smooth and juicy. I can taste those typical Asian flavours of green onion, kai lan and tamarind mixed with French influences of potato and roe. It's not bad, but I'm filled with food envy after seeing how good my parents' food looks...
Mains #2
Prawn bisque noodle: grilled river prawn with gochujang, bunga kantan, ikura
The bisque is absolutely delicious. It’s got that strong prawn taste with a hint of char from the intense heat on the shell. The prawn is cooked perfectly, and is smooth and succulent. The pasta is okay - it’s home made squid ink noodles - but really just a means of soaking up that delicious bisque. There’s a hint of chili and kafir lime, it’s aromatic and sumptuous. Definitely the better option tonight. The prawn is large and meaty, almost like eating a lobster. Khim is done with her meal so I take over and abandon all sense of decorum as I suck the prawn head of all its juices, using my hands to break open the shells. The bisque doesn’t escape me either, I’ve completely consumed it all. Yum!
Dessert
Hazelnut and chocolate: duche de leche, matcha, coffee tuile
The presentation is elegant and refined, like what I would expect from a French patisserie. It's rich and nutty, with a slight saltiness on the hazelnuts to balance the sweetness. The matcha is subtle but adds yet another dimension to the dessert by providing bitterness to the other elements. There's lots of crunch from the biscuit and nuts, and it's an excellent end to the night.
It’s an expensive meal (even after conversion!) but pretty enjoyable. Not something I’d go for multiple times but definitely a great showcasing of Asian flavours.
Posted by Jeremy at 5:15am on Sunday January 29, 2023 :: 0 comments :: 
Restaurant Malaysia
Where? Restaurant Malaysia (Eixample, Barcelona, Spain) Map Menu
When? Tuesday January 4, 2022
Who With? Me
Food Style? Malaysian
Okay yeah I know, why am I eating Malaysian food in Catalonia of all places. Well, I was recommended this place by a former coworker from New Zealand who now lives here and his credibility is on the line. We used to regularly go for Malaysian food back in Wellington so he at least should have an idea of what is good and bad. I’m going to see just how authentic they are and whether they live up to my high standards.
Drink
Teh Tarik
My teh tarik is pretty damn spot on. Chocolatey and creamy, it’s just how I remember it from home. It doesn’t have that frothy milk layer from being "pulled" and it’s probably from a packet, but I don’t care, this has set a good tone and I'm in a good mood.
Entree
Kerabu Tauhu: fried tofu with sliced cucumber, onions, peanuts and sweet chili sauce
The tofu is beautifully crispy and the sweet chili sauce is perfectly spicy. It’s definitely home made and not that weak rubbish you normally get from a supermarket. I’m more used to the cucumber being thinner but it’s not a dealbreaker. The best version I've had of this dish is from KK Malaysian Restaurant in Epsom, Auckland. That’s two out of two, let’s see how the main course stacks up.
Mains
Char Kuay Teow: stir-fried flat rice noodles with prawn, chicken and bean sprouts
Of course I have to order the kuay teow, it’s my one favourite dish that I can’t cook at home. First glance: the noodles are wrong. They’re too thin. Carrot is not normally fried with the noodles but there’s not a lot so I can let that slide. The most important question is whether this has wok hei - breath of the wok - that wonderful smokiness that the wok imparts to the ingredients when frying things at a high temperature. A smell of the food, then a taste…yep, there it is. Delicious. The taste is pretty good and better than what I was expecting. The sambal belacan I’ve ordered goes well with the meal, adding that salty spicyness. The noodles being small are really my only complaint about this, and it’s important because it’s harder to eat with chopsticks, otherwise this is a big pass from me.
Dessert
Bubur Hitam: Indonesia sweet black rice with coconut milk
Okay I’ll get a dessert as well. Bubur hitam is something I have never seen outside of Malaysia, not even from my favourite Malaysian restaurants in New Zealand. I can tell it’s been microwaved because some parts are nuclear hot and some parts are luke warm, but the flavour is pretty on point. The gula melaka tastes just like it’s from home, and the aroma of coconut is excellent. Again, a few flaws but still a pass.
As I’m finishing up, I can hear the kitchen yelling out some things in Bahasa, and that pleases me because it means they’re from Malaysia, Singapore or Indonesia, and they know what their food should taste like. It turns out one is from Indonesia, one is from Johor Bahru, but the chef is from Kuala Lumpur, and actually I can also hear some Cantonese being brandied about. I’ve been burned at least three times by people who claim they know Malaysian food but in fact have only spent a few months or years in Malaysia and don’t know what the proper flavour profile of this complex cuisine should be. I had a good chat to the staff and it was lovely to hear that accent again.
Oh yeah I got a small discount too for being so enthusiastic about the food. Yuss!
Posted by Jeremy at 3:41am on Wednesday January 19, 2022 :: 0 comments ::