Malaysian Food and Restaurants

[Sakkarin Profile]

Following Renee's comments about her Malaysian pastes, I thought it might be an idea to return to some Malaysian food ideas, as I haven't made any Malaysian dishes for a while.

As a start, I thought I'd dig out some info from my old files, and came across a copy of The 2013 Malaysian Restaurant Guide, a 36 page leaflet with a rundown of all the Malaysian restaurants in the UK, championed by Gary Rhodes, who was dubbed "Malaysia Kitchen Ambassador". It listed 52 Malaysian restaurants across the UK.

I thought I'd check to see if they were still there, using Google street view (you can flip between current view and earlier dates). So far of the 16 I've tracked down, only four remain. I find it particularly sad as the ones that have disappeared include the Melati in Soho, which was where I first encountered South East Asian food back in the early 80s, as a colleague was their in-house designer, and used to take us there regularly.

Bear in mind that 2013 was was a year after I started this board...

CENTRAL LONDON
C&R, Rupert Court
GONE Jam Makan, Pall Mall
GONE Malaysia Kopi Tiam, Charing Cross Road
GONEMelati, Gt Windmill Street
GONEMelati, Peter Street
Rasa Saying, Macclesfield St
Rasa Sayang Express, Oxford Street
GONE Suka in Sanderson Hotel, Berners Street (seems to be)

NORTH LONDON
Bintang, Kentish Town Road
GONE Feringgi Bay, Edgware Road
GONE Gourmet Garden, Hendon
GONE Kampung, Winchmore Hill
GONE Puji Puji, Balls Pond Road
GONE Sedap, Old Street

OTHER UK
GONE Sri Banana Leaf, Birmingham
GONE 1 Malaysia Cuisine, Cardiff

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Our Malaysian Restaurant went a long time ago - Shamsudeen's Singapore-Malay Restaurant aka Sam's, a local institution throughout the 80s, 90s and early 00s. I suppose 25 years is a decent run, and both Sam and the lease retired around the same time. Wonderfully basic premises, great grub, friendly, BYOB (Sam was technically Muslim, though enjoyed the odd pint, so they were unlicensed)
I still dream about the murtabaks and the noodles

One of the best chicken curries I've ever had was the one provided for you to help yourself in the lounge at Kuala Lumpur airport, a version of the Captain

[Renee Profile]

How very sad that so many Malaysian restaurants have closed down.

My friend Monica Newman who used to post on the BBC Food Board, went back to Malaysia after spending five years studying over here at Bispham College. We had some wonderful times around Manchester Chinatown and Wing Yip's. When she stayed with me, she took over the kitchen! She was a wonderful cook.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Sounds great Renée

THE place at the moment is supposed to be Roti King near Euston, cheap and basic, and the dishes look much like Sam's. As recommended by Mr James Wong

https://rotiking.has.restaurant/

Could even be a Foodie meet?

[jeral Profile]

I've never had Malaysian nosh. What are its distinctive tasting notes or ingredients pls?

[Renee Profile]

The food served at Roti King looks wonderful Sue! I just wish that I was nearer!

[Stokey Sue Profile]

As you've mentioned it, I'll post this here

This is an excellent article on the new research on red meat, written by Gid (aka Health Nerd), a very good Australian epidemiologist. in language intended to be clear to any interested person

https://medium.com/@gidmk/is-red-meat-good-for-you-3292ed6cd200

[Binky Profile]

That is a very interesting article, sue.

All I can say is that I ate no meat (maybe once a year at Xmas when visiting family oop north) from 1982-2008. It did me no good at all, as I have very precarious health now (two different cancers, and now metastasised breast cancer).

My diet now is far more varied and we eat meat once a week, mostly chicken and beef, but lamb when I am dining out. I went through a phase of craving liver and onions, with mash and gravy - I suppose it was my body telling me to eat that sort of protein.

Anyway, I have to go for a blood test every third Friday and the nurses are all amazed at the improvement in my blood. My results are completely normal (which they shouldn't be for someone on palliative chemo) so whatever the papers say, I am sticking with meat. (Boeuf bourguignonne in the slow cooker as we speak, as it were).

[Stokey Sue Profile]

I think I posted on the wrong thread, but I'll leave it here for now

well done on the bloods Binky

I'm waiting for the results of a routine screen but not expecting anything exciting
As a former pro, I'm interested that they have changed the test profile, so you don't have to be fasting when you give the blood sample, much easier, more reliable (as people aren't cheating) and probably in fact a better choice of test for diabetic screening - HbA1C rather than fasting blood glucose

[Otterspocket Profile]

We have a couple of decent places locally but seen a shift to pan Asian restaurants where Thai , Chinese , Malaysia etc all sit alongside each other on the menu offerings

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Yes, we seem to be heading pan-Asian round here too

Trouble is you lose the finer points it seems to me, there’s Malaysian in the Bang Bang oriental food court, it’s ok but a very short menu and no murtabaks (sorry, I’m obsessed now)

[Sakkarin Profile]

There's been a "Pan-asian" restaurant round here for years, but it's rubbish.

I did a check of all of the restaurants in that 2013 brochure, and it is sad to see that only 19 of the 52 restaurants are still in business. It's interesting to see what the ones that have disappeared have become, there seems to be a swing towards Japanese restaurants, and as you've mentioned, a "fusion" mix of SE Asian styles. A couple have changed name, which suggests finacial troubles - this spreadsheet shows what the ones that have gone are now.
http://www.sakkarin.co.uk/foodforumpix/ ... angone.png

Jeral, have you really never had Malaysian food? Some famous ones are Laksa, Rendang and Nasi Goreng fried rice, and of course the classic Satay.

This post of Sunflower's on KK's fab thread in 2012 is excellent, Malaysian and Indonesian seem to cover most of the same areas, I'm going back to it for ideas! Some great dishes I'd forgotten I'd made on there.
http://carta.co.uk/foodforum/viewtopic. ... t=20#p1528

About the only classic dish the thread misses is Roti Canai, which I've made in the past, but never quite as flaky as this lady's youtube version, and her dall curry to go with it looks good too. On my to do list...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyWBH3P-PXI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqo8v-tbdOY

[Amyw Profile]

I suddenly remembered how good sunflowers blog was the other day and she’s got a great selection of Malaysian recipes http://sunflower-recipes.blogspot.com/s ... UNEIAN?m=1

[Stokey Sue Profile]

The aforementioned Mr Wong is not a fan of pan-Asian it transpires

https://twitter.com/botanygeek/status/1180218957338419202?s=21

[Sakkarin Profile]

The saddest thing on Sunflower's blog is that she has a link to a long list of recipes that were only on the BBC Food Board, which are now all dead links. Let's hope she continues to leave her blog up, even though it's now 7 years since she stopped updating it.

I fortunately still have one or two of my favourites that I printed off. That's one of the drawbacks of the internet, unlike books, everything is temporary, and can disappear overnight. Apart from newspaper websites, which I suppose have a duty to archive, much of what's around now will be gone 10 years hence. Even promises to archive are pointless, as proved by the BBC Board, which disappeared very quickly after the archive was put in place.

I had a look at that Bang Bang Malaysian restuarant's webpage, and it seems it's Halal, which I guess means no pork. That BBC list of Sunflower recipes is very heavily weighted in favour of pork!!! As am I.

Yesterday I remade the generic Indolaysian dish I posted the ingredients piccy for in that previous link, with lots of the fresh turmeric and lime leaves I had stashed away in the freezer, and some shrimp paste which I dare not read the use-by date of. By the way, they are still selling fresh turmeric in Tesco! Nowhere round here to get galangal any more, that will have to wait till my next Wing Yip trip.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

There used to be (25 years ago) a Malaysian restaurant in Epping. It was lovely, one dish that sticks in my mind to this day was a dry fried mixture of whole dried fish and peanuts. I went several times with different people, always had the fish & peanuts. It was striking that the blokes liked it and the girls didn't.

[Renee Profile]

I've just watched the video for making the Roti Canaii and that is exactly the way that my friend showed me. They were so light and flaky, but it is quite a long process, having to leave the dough balls in the fridge overnight, but well worth it!

[Sakkarin Profile]

BM, was the dried fish dish a "snack" or a meal proper? I vaguely remember having a dried fish dish at Yeohin Plaza many many years ago (around the time that I had the beef tendon stew), however the more recent use of them that I have photographic proof of was one I made in Stokey's Korean thread, where it was more of a side dish.
http://www.carta.co.uk/foodforumpix/kor ... ies-75.jpg

"...the blokes liked it and the girls didn't", that sounds like a good idea for a thread!

Renee, I'm going to start some roti dough now and hope about 5 hours will be enough for it to become useable, so I can have some tonight. The other intriguing dough is Popiah skins, but I doubt I'll EVER master that, I have visions of a pile of scrambled dough as they all stick to the pan. No doubt the next time I go to Wing Yip it'll be the first thing I see, but I've never seen commercially made popiah skins on sale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE8bORiKSGU

[Badger's Mate Profile]

The fish & peanuts dish was listed in the vegetables section of the menu, I'm reminded of it whenever I see the Vegetarian Society slogan about fish not being vegetables.

I suspect it was supposed to be a snack, perhaps with a drink, like the Chinese duck tongues.

[Amyw Profile]

What an interesting thread . I’m pretty ignorant about all the different types of Asian cuisine as round here , there’s either Wagamamas or just generic Chinese restaurants , though we do have a few Oriental supermarkets which I love looking round in , though I’m not very au fait with some of the ingredients