Food lover in paradise

What say you on the issue below?

Wide array of multicultural dishes leaves one spoilt for choice.

PROBABLY the most controversial and most argued subject in Malaysian life — no, not Man United and Liverpool — is food, a subject so important that even the tradititional greeting “Sudah makan?” doesn’t translate as “hello”, it literally means “Already eaten?”

I was inspired to write about food this time when I was sitting in a European-themed restaurant, fighting a battle with three vigilante cockroaches that were defending their turf, which just happened to be my dining table.

I’m a believer in peace to all men and beasts — except mosquitoes, they get what they deserve! — so I told the waiter about the necessity to move tables and left the roaches to their business. When the food arrived, it was less than great. In fact, I could do better myself at home instead of spending my RM140 on chewy lamb chops and a seafood soup that made the dishwater at home seem appealing.

On a budget: Nasi Lemak is cheap, tasty and fills a gap.

My wife was busy on her Ipad2 and her Blackberry simultaneously Googling, Tweeting and sending SMS and oblivious to all this until we needed to move tables.

So what’s this got to do with Malaysian food? Well, as I paid the bill, I looked at the time and realised it was almost 3pm and the hawkers at the Mayflower restaurant in Brickfields would be finishing up now and perhaps having a cold beer after a long hot Sunday’s work over hot stoves and I wished that I was there two hours before, with the noise and hustle and bustle having Peter’s Pork Noodles and Moorthy’s Indian Rice, which all in never comes to more than RM30 for my wife and I, and satifies my soul.

If you have never been there, I strongly recommend it. My wife has the pork noodles with bee hun and I have koay teow, both with the obligatory soft egg on top and then we hit Moorthy for some of his freshly fried tenggiri fish and prawn curry. It is beyond divine — the fresh, juicy, succulent fish oozes flavour and is perfectly moist inside.

I love eating, I love food and I am disappointed when it does not meet my expectations. We are given five senses and my favourite is taste, so for you expats out there who grace this page with a little time, here’s a “heads up” on some good nosh, hearty tucker, proper grub, some honest-to-goodness makan sedap.

Basic home-cooked food is always amazing and there’s no MSG. My wife’s friend does the most delicious chicken rice and lamb rice that I’ve ever tasted, I can almost smell it as I’m writing.

Firstly, as I’ve said several times before, the rule of thumb is; if the restaurant is empty, it might not be so great and the food could have been “hanging around” a while. I’ve heard of places that take unsold meat dishes and cook them again in another way to be served, so don’t just bulldoze your way into the first place you find.

However, even “clean” places can be dodgy; I spent 10 days getting friendly with Mr Tandas after eating some lobster, so beware, it’s Asia, it’s hot and food doesn’t behave itself like it does in cooler regions.

So, as I was saying before I got distracted, there are some things you should try that I thought were pretty good, some are cheap and some a little more on the pricey side but not too crazy if you have a budget.

I can’t remember the name of every hawker in Kuala Lumpur so I apologise in advance if you have to just drive around an area asking people, but hey, it adds to the adventure!

If you know Kepong, then you’ll be familiar with the Hong Kong-style chee cheong fan, a soft rice flour pancake rolled around prawns or barbeque pork. There is always a queue to buy it and it is clean and cheap.

Next to the bank on the way into Jinjang there was a stall that served pan mee, it was that homemade kind of thick noodles with a simple and honest soup and was so popular, many Sundays it would be sold out. There might not be too many mat sallehs going there, as I recall the children pointing and saying “Wah, ang moh”, I think it means red hair, but generically it means white person, it must have been a shock to meet a gastronaut.

There are numerous steamboat restaurants at Manjalara and the barbeque chicken at the side of the road is just amazing.

Another dish to try if you feel adventurous is Beggar Chicken. you can find it sold at a mobile stall by the side of the road, priced at around RM30, it comes in a red hot clay casket and when you break it open, oooh, the smell of this baked chicken in herbal juices is definitely going to get you drooling. Beware when carrying it home, it’s very hot.

During Hari Raya, I had a brief overdose on lemang, a kind of rice inside bamboo and pulut with chicken and beef rendang, sweet spicy, coconut-infused curry-style dishes and any other traditional Malay foods I could grab. And there are numerous hawkers in the evening with simple treats like a good curry puff or fried sweet potato fritters are a must-try, not regularly though, because they don’t do the 99% fat-free ones.

Nasi lemak is cheap, tasty and fills a gap, but again, take it easy, because there’s no dietary info on the side of those polystyrene packs. Satay, is a great snack, basically barbequed meat on sticks and Kajang is apparently famous for it.

I love bak kut teh, one of those wholesome pork soups that shouldn’t be missed. There is a halal version called chick kut teh if you don’t eat pork, I have bak kut teh in Kampung Baru Subang but there are many places to find it.

Being a fan of multicultural eating, I’ve mentioned Malay and Chinese food, but how about my Indian brothers?

A friend in the Hash makes bone marrow curry. I tried this dish for the first time around three years ago, and it is out of this world.

It is lamb bones with the marrow inside prepared in some seriously delicious spices, but I have never seen it in an Indian restaurant.

My wife’s grandmother makes a lamb dalcha that is to die for, it is so tasty even light can’t escape its gravity.

If you want a simple straight up recommendation of good famous Indian foods, head to Jalan Gasing and try Lotus, the crab curry is delicious, if there’s any left when you get there. Sri Paandi, near University Hospital in Petaling Jaya, has great banana leaf which is a mixture of Indian-style dishes served on a banana leaf and preferably eaten with your hands.

I took my two retired English friends there, it was the first time they ever ate their main dish with their hands and they loved it, but beware, you might need to wait for a table; that’s how busy they get, no danger of old food there.

As I’m way overenthused now after all this food talk, I’ll head off in search of makan, only problem is, with so much choice what do I eat?