I remember in my younger years, Istana was a regular restaurant joint for my family… delicious chicken rice is all I can recall of this place. Even now, Istana is STILL known for it’s Hainan chicken + rice.

Strangely, just before my trip to Hong Kong and Singapore, I had a craving for CRAB (I think it was from all the food research I was doing…) My last visit to Istana was a few months back and I had an absolute FEAST!! All I remembered was that the crab was SO tasty and NOONE else ate it except for me. So I just had to return to satisfy this strange craving of mine.

Chilli soy sauce + 'sar char' sauce

At every Chinese restaurant, there is always a small dish of condiments. ‘Sar char’ sauce is what they call ‘Chinese BBQ sauce’ and is just minced dried shrimp with chili, oil, etc. One of my favourite sauces! More info here Wikipedia.

Prawn crackers - on the house

These are a ‘typical’ Chinese food snack. I haven’t had these in AGES but they were a great stomach filler. Quite prawny but a little bit oily.

The famed Hainan chicken

This is the famous chicken dish served at Istana. The chicken looked nice and juicy and the chicken rice was very tasty (but luckily not too oily).

The chicken is usually served with shallot+ginger in a salty oil. I love eating this with rice. It’s VERY tasty!

Kang Kong

This “Chinese Water Spinach” vegetable dish is a common Malaysian dish. I find it full of flavour and the spinach soaks up the flavour immensely! It has a prawny flavour due to the shrimp paste they use to cook this dish. mmm YUM!

Salt & pepper tofu

Mmm! I really like the flavour of salt and pepper anything… This was a little bit of a letdown due to too much batter on a little bit of tofu but the flavour was still nice. This was served streaming hot and best eaten that way!

Singapore Chilli Mud Crab

And finally, the dish I had been CRAVING for… crab! I’ve had this dish on many previous occasions to Istana and found that it tasted different this time round. The sauce wasn’t as tasty but good enough! The crab was full of meat, well maybe because I was eating the claw (my favourite part!). It’s fun eating crab with your hands because you can lick the sauce afterwards! nom nom nom!

In most Chinese restaurants, you usually find the chopsticks in a paper tube bag with instructions on “How to use chopsticks.”

I must admit, me being an Asian, I can’t use chopsticks the proper way but I get by using chopsticks the “holding a pencil way”. I’ve read and tried following these instructions many many times, but never seem to grasp the concept for holding chopsticks the “correct way. I’ll just stick to Teresa’s way of holding chopsticks.

I believe the quality has dropped at Istana in recent times as I remember the food being tastier and more flavoursome. I’d personally prefer to go to Alice’s if I was up in this area. But, if you ever need to satisfy a crab craving, make a visit to Istana. And maybe grab yourself a chicken too!

Istana

Shop 15a, 230-238 Pennant Hills Rd
Thornleigh NSW 2120
Ph: (02) 9481 8855

© teresa for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 11 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Sydney North

Ever since Mamak opened, it has been our destination of choice for a quick bite to eat if we are in town after midnight. I think my body is starting to reject kebabs once it hits midnight, must be a result of the copious amounts which I consumed when I was younger. Though the good news is, I have replaced my late night kebab fix with a hearty dose of Mamak who open until 2am on Friday and Saturday nights.

If you arrive after 6pm, you will most likely notice the long queue making it’s way along the pathway outside Mamak. We notice Mamak attracts diners from all sorts of cultures and occupations. From office workers to Malaysian families, word on the street is that Mamak know’s a thing or two about Malaysian food.

I’ve been to Malaysia and had alot of hawker style food there. While Mamak isn’t Malaysian street style quality, it’s pretty decent enough when it comes to ‘authentic‘ Malay. My colleague who is originally from Penang  gave Mamak one thumbs up, was that enough for me to realise Mamak is pretty up there when it comes to aleviating the cravings that Sydney based Malay’s get when they want Malaysian food ? No, but it sure does come close. 

Roti canai ($5)

I reckon this is the most bang for buck snack $5 can buy, well maybe except for the Hungry Jacks Stunner meal. The roti is freshly made at the front of the store and is delicately crispy on the outside but soft and fluffy on the inside (in hindsight this is probably how everyone describes the roti). On the side you are given two curry dips/sauces and a tiny (but hot) portion of sambal. I usually end up asking for another plate of sambal, it’s sambalicous. 

Roti telur bawang ($6.50)

 This roti is more like an omelette, with a strong presence of egg and red onion. I prefer the traditional roti over this one, I found it a bit too soft and lacking crispyness. But in saying that, I think it is supposed to be an omelette ‘like’ roti.

Milo ais ($3.50)

 All that roti worked up quite a thirst. My friend keep asking me why I pay $3.50 for a glass of ice cold milo, they have a good point. However for some reason, the milo tastes better when your eating spicy Malaysian food. 

Kopi 'O' ($3.50)

 Malaysian black coffee.

Nasi Goreng ($9.50)

 I was a little bit dissapointed with this dish. It had all the ingredients covered with prawns, egg, beans, shallots and chilli but the dish itself was lacking a bit of kick. There wasn’t enough ‘charcoal’ ness to it, it tasted like the average ’special’ fried rice which most Chinese takeway joints serve. On the plus side, the portion was very generous and it did well to soak up the remaining curry we had. The colours were vibrant and the sides of cucumber, tomato and a wedge of lime added some nice freshness and tangyness to the dish. 

Ayam Goreng ($10 for 4 or $3.50 per piece)

This is one my favourite items on the menu. I call it AFC, Asian Fried Chicken. On this occasion, the chicken was tender, moist, piping hot and contrasted superbly with the golden crispy skin. I wish they sold these by the bucket so I could have some while watching Friday night footy.

Kangkung belacan ($12)

 We were definately lacking some shrimp paste this evening and I was quite dissapointed. The spinach was fresh and crisp, but for $12 I expected more flavour.

Kankung panjan belacan ($12)

Same story here, the lack of shrimp paste was evident. While I understand shrimp paste might not be everyone’s kettle of fish, it is perhaps the key ingredient in both this dish and the one above. 

Nasi Lemak + curry fish ($6.50 + $3.00)

 Mamak does nasi lemak fantastically well. You start with the base price of $6.50 which buys you coconut rice, peanuts, crispy anchovies, a hard boiled egg, cucumber and a dollop of sambal. If that isn’t enough for you, you can slowly start to add chicken or curries to the dish. We chose the curry fish on this occasion and it didn’t dissapoint. 

Sambal udang ($16)

 The prawns are stir fried in a spicy sambal sauce. Two words, VERY SPICY. They tasted delish, but perhaps they could have included a few more prawns. We had to fend off each others chopsticks while probing for the lone piece of coriander as well.

Chicken / Beef satay ($14 dozen or $8 half dozen)

We opted for half beef and half chicken, the best of both worlds. The sticks of meat were charcoal grilled and the smokyness was evident. Along with chunks of cucumber and red onion, a massive bowl of chunky peanut satay accompanied the skewers.

Satay sauce

Ayam berempah ($14)

These bit sized pieces are fried with various herbs and spices. Very similiar to the ayam goreng above.

Kari kambing ($14)

 Mamak serves various types of curry, but we opted for the lamb. The lamb was tender and the curry was wonderfully aromatic albeit a tad salty.

I love Mamak and I find myself making regular visits every couple of months. The decor is clean and smart despite being slightly squashy, but this adds to the Malaysian experience. The menu is small, but atleast they do all the dishes very well.

Mamak
15 Goulburn Street, Haymarket Chinatown, Sydney
Tel: (02) 9211 1668
Web : http://www.mamak.com.au
Open Monday to Sunday 
Lunch: 11.30am to 3pm
Dinner: 5.30pm to late 

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: hawker, roti

I find that one of the worst things to do on a beautiful saturday evening is to be cooped up at home, in the kitchen cooking dinner for the family. Obviously, Howard’s mother shares the same sentiments, as she suggested we try a relatively new Malaysian restaurant.

Unsure as to whether it would be a busy place or not, Howard insisted in making a booking, just to cover our butts. We found it a little difficult to locate the restaurant, as it was not in the central Church Street of Paramatta, but in a little side street on Wenthworth Rd. Parking was not an issue, as there was a carpark behind the restaurant, and as it is away from the happening area, we were assured of no traffic.

At 6:30pm, the restaurant was quite empty, with only 3 tables other than us that were occupied. The waitress recommended that we try their Chef’s suggestion, Banquet for four ($50). Looking around the room, we noticed that all the other three tables have also ordered this. We took the waitress’s advice, however sensing that the dishes would be inadequate for 5 people, we ordered a couple of extra dishes.

Teh Tarek $4.00

Teh Tarik is a type of Malaysian drink made up of tea and condensed milk. It is usually made fresh with a special pulling technique. The teh tarik here wasn’t very authentic at all. It took about 2 minutes from when they took my order until my drink arrived. It tasted like instant teh tarik and I am pretty adament this is what it was as I could not taste any condensed milk. Having had teh tarik many times at Mamak and being able to see them make it fresh with the pulling action, this restaurants version is an epic fail.

Grilled chicken with satay

The grilled chicken pieces were moist with a hint of herb marinade. Serving the chicken pieces covered in the satay sauce, enabled each piece to be well coated with the lovely peanut mixture. The dissapointing factor about this dish was that the grilled chicken pieces were cold when served, alluding to pre-cooked meat.

King prawn curry

An aromatic and thick curry sauce was generously filled with mixed vegetables and giant king prawns. The curry sauce was fantastic, the flavour was strong and consistent and worked wonder with the roti we ordered.

Roti Canai ($1.80)

The roti did the job in soaking the curry however it was a tad oily. I suspect that the Roti was those pre-packed ones that only needed to be fried before serving, possibly not freshly made.

Pan fried fish fillets with ginger and shallots

Tender pieces of fish were lightly pan fried and dressed with a light soy sauce and topped with shallots , ginger and chilli. The fish itself was crispy and soft but the sauce had no bearing on the taste of the dish at all.

Char Koay Teow (Wok-fried flat noodle with prawns,egg & beansprout $13.80)

Thick pieces of rice noodle were accompanied with a generous portion of beanspouts and prawns. I found this dash lacked the ‘burnt’ taste you would expect for char koay teow. Perhaps their wok wasn’t hot enough?

Ginger chilli sauce and sweet soy sauce (kecap)

Ayam Hainan (Steamed chicken hainanese style)

The chicken was perhaps the highlight of the night. Glistening pieces of moist chicken were consistently tender and tasted even better with the accompanied sauces. The fact that each piece was deboned, made it all the more delightful to eat.

Belacan Sayar (Stir kangkong with chilli shrimp paste)

The kangkong tasted as expected with copious amounts of chilli shrimp paste, fantastic.

I found our visit to this restaurant a bit of a hit and miss. The chicken was outstanding, but I felt some of the other dishes did not live up to its full potential. This is perhaps due to the insignificant flavour of the ginger sauce served with the fish and inadequate heat sauce for the Char Kway Teow. In saying that, Kuala Lumpur Malaysian Cuisine joins the ever growing list of quality Malaysian restaurants. While it’s yet to reach the heights of Mamak in Chinatown, it does a pretty good job as a Malaysian food alternative if you happen to be in the Paramatta region.

Kuala Lumpar Malaysian Cuisine

Level 1, 23 Wentworth St
Parramatta NSW 2150
Phone (02) 9687 9889
web : http://www.klmalaysiancuisine.com.au

……. Oh and here are some pictures of our quick trip to Max Brennar, since it was just around the corner.

Fondue for two $16.50

Chocolate Souffle with strawberries and chocolate lick ~ $14.00

Max Brenner
Shop 2187, Level 2, Westfield
159-175 Church Street
Parramatta, NSW 2150
Ph: (02) 9635 7566
Web: www.maxbrenner.com

© Linda for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 14 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

My personal belief is that once you’ve had the pleasure of tasting Singaporean/Malaysian food served at hawker stores, there’s no turning back. Whenever I have cravings for Singaporean/Malaysian food, we look back at the photos of our gastronomic adventures in Singapore and Malaysia and thank god for our great genes. Blessed with inheriting stomach of steel, we were able to sweat it out with the locals and eat in places most people in Sydney would deem rude and unhygienic. Who cares if you’d have to; witness the “chef” in his sweat soaked singlet and gum boots stir frying your noodles, share tables with a group of old ladies going about their daily gossip, or even sit under the hot tin roof sweating you ass off while being aggravated by the spinning fan producing no relief. The bottom line is, it is those places that will serve you dishes that has been passed down from generation without any modification to cater to the modern era.

We found that Sinma Laksa House is one of a few Singaporean/Malaysian restaurants that serves food true to it’s heritage. Upholding the tradition of hawker stores, SLH is a serlf service restaurant where you’d be expected to get your own cutlery, cups and water. Don’t expect the waiters and waitresses to smile or ask how they may be of assistance to you, just confidently walk up to the counter and collect your own menu, then walk back to the owner (no one else- as they do not speak english) and place your orders.

As this is a favourite of ours, a tradition that H and I have initiated with a couple of friends, Nogz and Gness, we order our usual.

I think I speak for most people when I say that my only experience with mee goreng are the packet Indonesian ones. Unlike tha packet one, SLH uses thick strands of egg noodles stir fried with eggs, carrots, chinese cabbage and slices of chicken breast soaked in a lovely tomato sauce gravy. Our friend Gness, an experienced indonesian foodie, proclaimed it one of the best Mee Goreng he’s had.

Penang Kway Teow

Reminicsing of our trip in Penang, the dish that stood out for us was the Kway Teow. Penang Kway teow uses thick rice noodle, stir fried in a frying pan atop an engulfing heat source. The rice noodle is stir fried with prawns, cockles, egg, chinese sausage, beansprouts and chives, all dressed nicely in a lovely dark/light soy mixture. Despite its efforts to stay true to the traditional recipe, SLH, lacked the heat source, thus was fried for a longer duration, resulting in an overcooked dish, with the rice noodle broken up into pieces. However, I must give them credit for not skimming on the seafood.

Teh Tarek

The Teh Tarek served at SLH did not have the “pulling” texture one may expect. It was drinkable, however, did not compare to Mamak’s.

Singaporean Chilli Mud Crab $56/Kg

The main reason why H and our friends have continuously made the trek to SLH is their Singaporean Chilli Mud Crabs. Here, we are able to choose the crabs we want from the tank and select the degree of spiciness. I’m embarassed to admit that whilst in Singapore, H and I, never had their chilli mud crab, therefore we cannot vouch for it’s authenticity. Despite this set back, we were quite impressed with SLH’s version. The sweetness of the fresh mud crab combined with the slighty spicy gravy made this dish unbelievably delicious. To ensure that the gravy did not go to waste, we mopped each and every inch with our baguettes until the plate was dry clean.

Call to make a booking a couple days in advance to ensure that the mud crab is available. We found that the price of the crab per Kg differ on the two previous ocassion we visited, depending on the season.

Giant Crab Claw

Complimentary Fruits

Like most chinese restaurants, SLH served complimentary fresh fruits.

Sinma Laksa House is definitely NOT a place one would go to for a romantic dinner or to expect great services. It’s a place you’d meet up with a group of friends or have dinner with the family. Order a couple of their fresh mud crabs, fried to your liking, with a couple of Malaysian/Singaporean delicacies like grilled stingrays, satay sticks or roti, accompanied with beer from the pub across the road, you’re gauranteed a messy but fun filled night.

Just a quick note, do remember to bring your own bread to mop up the chilli mud crab gravy, as SLH does not supply any bread. We found that a couple of loaves from Baker’s Delight did the trick.

Finding Malaysian/Singaporean food which retains the authenticity of hawker style other than Sinma Laksa House has been difficult for us. Can you help us out by recommending your favourite hawker style restaurants?

Sinma Laksa House
3/391 Anzac Pde
Kingsford NSW
Phone: (02) 9313 7663

© Linda for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kingsford

As a Nasi Lemak addict, I thought it was only right that I ordered Madam Kwan’s signature Nasi Lemak. Howard on the other hand wanted something “different”, so instead opted for Nasi Bojari. As accompaniments to our meal, we also had their fresh mango juice, which disappointingly tasted like bottled juice.

Nasi lemak ~ $5.50

After waiting at our table for less than 10 minutes, an arrogant waiter trudged towards our table and handed us our dishes. As we were starving at the time, the huge serving was a big plus. However, right from the start of the first fork, I knew that we had made the wrong decision. The chicken curry was too soft while the assam prawns were overpowered by onion.

Nasi Bojari ~ $7.00

The dish consisted of: red and yellow rice, fried with “garlic, chicken and dried prawns,” which was actually undetectable; fried but moist chicken thigh, with a hint of spices; assam prawns; soft, melt in your mouth beef rendang; and a hard boiled egg. As I was so impressed with Howard’s dish, we decided to swap.

To be honest, I feel that we were only paying for the beautifully decorated interior which was clean and air-conditioned. For the price that we paid for our meals, I found it to be too expensive and over-rated. The ~$2.00 Nasi Lemak at KLCC food court was much better.

Madam Kwan’s @ Gourmet Emporium
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
168, Jalan Bukit Bintang
Kuala Lumpur

Opening hours; 10:00am – 10:00pm

http://www.pavilion-kl.com/content/home.php

© Linda for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Kuala Lumpur, poultry