Taste of Malaysia: A tour of three Malaysian restaurants

Last year, I was lucky enough to get a few tickets to go to the Taste of London festival through my sister who works in marketing. Not only did I get to watch a very hungover Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall totally mess up baking a cheesecake, but got to meet a few well know chefs and most importantly of all, got to eat loads of great food. It was a really enjoyable day and as soon as I had left, was already looking forward to the 2010 version.

One of this years sponsors is "Malaysia Kitchen 2010", a year long programme associated with promoting Malaysian food in Britain. As part of their sponsorship, they have created the Taste of Malaysia area, educating the public about Malaysian cuisine whilst providing food from Awana, Satay House and Tukdin, three popular Malaysian restaurants in London. In order to kickstart Taste of Malaysia, I was invited along with a few others on a Malaysian food "crawl" taking in food from these three restaurants. I could hardly turn down an invite involving food from my homeland and happily signed up.

First step on our culinary tour was Awana. Located in the heart of Kensington, this is very much high end Malaysian food. On entrance to the attractive dining room, awash with leather and teak, we were introduced to Hailong Wang who plied us with some of the house speciality cocktails. Adequately lubricated, we were shown to a dedicated area where they grill their satay and fling their dough until they make a bread called "roti canai". It was pretty interesting to watch how thin they get the dough before folding to get a similar multi-layered effect, a bit like in filo, to get a light crispy texture. Soon our food was ready and we were shown to a table to sample it.

Out came a variety of food. As well as the plain roti (served with curry and dal) and some gently charred and quite delicious chicken satay, we were served some beef rendang filled bread (murtabak), pomegranate salad and a little pastry case stuffed with an assortment of tasty little titbits, the name of which eludes me. I have eaten at Awana on a fair few occasions and whilst the food is always quite good, the prices reflect the neighbourhood and it can all add up.

After finishing our food and thanking our host, we were soon whisked away onto our next destination, Satay House in Paddington. A smaller restaurant catering to the masses, this was already full to the brim with smiling customers when we arrived. Meandering inbetween customers chairs and tables, we made our way to their downstairs dining room, got our drinks and soon the procession of food started.

The "control" of chicken and beef satay were first to land. Slightly thinner and a little chewier with a sweeter baste. These were still appetising and came with traditional accompaniments of rice cakes, cucumber and onion. Other dishes included prawns, plain fried vegetarian noodles and the best dish by far, their beef rendang. A rendang is essentially a slow cooked dry curry, deeply flavoured with spices and chilli and cooked in a coconut base. This version had a wonderful chilli kick which had a slow burn and did not detract from the highly spiced and fairly tender meat. And just as we finished, deep fried wings with chilli, garlic and soy were brought, almost as if they hadn't stuffed us enough. On the contrary, we (well, definitely I) were struggling under the sheer weight of their hospitality. With one stop to go, I took one, enjoyed it immensely and ignored the rest sitting in front of me until it was time to leave for our last destination.

By this stage, I was on the verge of throwing the towel in, but under the impression that the third stop meant dessert, I gee'ed myself up and entered our carriage rather full and happy. The final stop was Tukdin just "tucked in" around the corner from Lancaster gate tube station. What we encountered when we arrived was not the promise of desserts, but more food. The owner was intent on showcasing his menu to us so who were we to complain.

Malaysia is split into three main ethnicities (Indian, Chinese and of course the Malays) and whereas the first two restaurants felt more swayed towards the Chinese, this was definitely a Malay restaurant. As the Malay's are predominantly Muslim, no alcohol or pork is to be found on the menu, and all the meat is Halal. As the food rolled out, the satay was once again first to arrive. This time served off the skewer, the chicken had an even sweeter baste with a deeper combination of ginger and other spices. Not bad at all. More food kept coming and at one stage, we had to request smaller portions as most of were on our last legs and we didn't want to insult the restaurants hospitality by leaving piles of food behind. Nevertheless, we sampled everything we were given, including chilli mussels, plain fried mee (egg noodles), a chicken rendang, sweet and sour sea bass and my favourite of all, a light variation on a stir fried beef yellow curry.

So, just over three hours, three restaurants and about 15 different dishes later, we were done. It had been an excellent experience and it was great to get a little taster of what will be on at the Taste of Malaysia next week. Out of all the three satay we had tried (our "control" dish, if you may), I enjoyed Awanas offering the most. More subtle flavours and a better char won me over, although opinion was vastly divided amongst the group. Horses for courses some might say. I would have liked to have seen more traditional Malaysian dishes such as rojak and nasi lemak, but really just a minor niggle. Overall, excellent food, great company and big thanks to Sauce Comms for organising. Make your way to Taste of London next week (17th to 21st June) and experience a taste of Malaysia for yourself!

Please have a look here if you fancy checking out a few more of the photos.

Awana - 85 Sloane Avenue, London SW3 3DX

Satay House - 13 Sale Place, London W2 1PX

Tukdin - 41 Craven Road, London W2 3BX

Enter the Tiger - Chinese New Year at Mandarin Kitchen and Pearl Liang

I am not a great Chinese person. You just need to look ^ (up) at the title of this blog to realise that I am rather crap. But one thing I do strongly believe in is Chinese New Year. Not because I normally get some money from my parents, but I have been brought up to believe in it and much like Christmas, it's a great excuse to go and have fun, and maybe more importantly, eat. Based on the lunar calender, the actual day varies every year, and this year sees it falling on the 14th February. Some are going to be celebrating Valentines Day, but my heart will very much be with welcoming in the year of the tiger.

I do not claim to be an aficionado on Chinese New Year, far from it actually. As I have spent my entire life born and raised in the West, my actual knowledge of this celebration is limited to what is celebrated by my family. There are tonnes of eating and non-eating traditions around Chinese New Year and one of the "non-eating" revolves around cleaning your home. For example, you need to make sure you sweep outwards to rid your home of evil spirits, making sure your home is clean 3 days prior to New Years day. After the day of New Year, you are not allowed to clean for a week, otherwise you will be sweeping your luck away. Another of the traditions that we follow in the family is what is known as the reunion dinner. Held on New Years eve, the whole family gets together and eats. This year (actually, most years), we ate at Mandarin Kitchen.




There are a few traditions that we uphold at this meal. One is ordering "Yee Sang", a raw fish salad. Signifying good luck, this salad is kept as separate constituent ingredients on a single plate before, under strict orders of my mother, the whole family gets stuck in with their chopsticks. Apparently the higher you toss the salad, the better your luck will be. Can't say I believe it that much, but I wasn't taking any chances!



Some people also say steamed fish is essential, although on this occasion, we went for some crab with the obligatory noodles. Noodles symbolise longevity and are an essential ingredient in every Chinese New Year meal. No self respecting Chinaman would dare go without.

Writing this has actually been quite difficult. I have never experienced Chinese New Year whilst in a Chinese country and whereas my parents try hard every year to instill within us some tradition and Chinese values, I think sometimes I struggle to understand the true meanings behind the traditions. Essentially, it is a way of bringing family and friends together, so I decided to try and organise another feast for some of the great friends I have made this year.



This time, the venue was Pearl Liang (which ironically has strong links with Mandarin Kitchen). After a few discussions (where I had hoped nothing was lost in translation), I managed to book the large private dining room for an "intimate" meal with 16 of my chums. Some foodie related, others just related.



We drank and ate and were merry. We ordered plenty but the cornerstone of the meal revolved around two whole suckling pigs. After the initial parade where they were suitably papped by its adoring public, they were whisked away to the kitchens for the crisp skin to be portioned up.



On return, the glossy skin was devoured with light and fluffy pancakes, pleasant crunches echoing around the dining room as all conversation stopped. Aaahs of pleasure followed as the skin slowly disappeared to reveal a now rather naked piglet. These were whisked away once again where they were portioned up into three plates and distributed across the three lazy susans.



At the end of the meal, I handed out some red packets called ang pow (or hong bao/lai see depending on where you are from) which traditionally contain money and are handed out by those older or those married. No such luck for these guys, they just got chocolate money but I thought it would at least distinguish this feast from any old get together. (Please check out Catty and Lizzie for another view of our little celebration)

So that was it, my Chinese New Year in a few words and some pretty pictures. Keong Hee Huat Chye to you all (That's happy new year in Hokkien) and here's to a prosperous year of the Tiger!

Mandarin Kitchen - 14-16 Queensway, London W2 3RX


Pearl Liang - 8 Sheldon Sq, Paddington, W2 6EZ

Eat Chinese: Pearl Liang, Paddington

If you read my previous post about the Mandarin Kitchen, you’re going to find much of this next write up very familiar. The final stop of my weeklong eating odyssey was Pearl Liang. Now, what can I say about Pearl Liang, it’s pretty much Mandarin Kitchen with all the bells and whistles. This is like the better younger, better looking sibling.


So what differentiates this place from Mandarin Kitchen (MK)? Well, quite a lot actually. Although the rumour has it that many of the chefs and waiters from MK left to be part of this venture, there is plenty which makes this place stand out.

Although the menu is very similar to that at MK, Pearl Liang puts a more modern twist on traditional ingredients as well as offering dim sum throughout the evening, a sure fire winner! My family are very predictable, we always end up ordering the same old things, but we know what we are going to get is going to taste fantastic, advantage us.



And Pearl Liang certainly didn’t disappoint. First up, deep fried baby squid (SHOCK!). Now, these are awesome at MK and I think anywhere would struggle to compete. These are however very nice, with a nice light batter and the squid not overdone (a cardinal rubbery error). To go with this, we had some aromatic duck, more succulent than MK but not as flavoursome.


I decided to order some Xiao long bau as an added extra and these were very good. Firm meat, good bite left to the dumpling skin and absolutely gushing in piping hot soup. Note to self, must come here for Dim Sum.


First courses over, enter the crab. As we had eaten Lobster noodles earlier in the week, we went for the cheaper and fishier alternative. Now, crab is one thing I dislike. A lot. So no crab for me, but I ate the noodles and they were delicious. Rich in flavour and even though I don’t like crab, I appreciated the subtle fishiness.



In my eyes, the mains are really where Pearl Liang excels. We ordered many dishes and not one let us down. For the vegetarians amongst you, we went for Tofu with mixed mushrooms (nice enough, but its tofu!) and Monks vegetables with Taro ring (basically a big Wu Kok). I loved the taro, and the interesting varieties of vegetables were doused in the most wonderful gravy.



For the meat options, we had crispy chilli beef (where unlike your usual takeaway versions, you could actually see and taste the beef) and chicken with dried chilli and spring onion. These were both very nice and unlike much other Chinese food, didn’t taste full off additives, didn’t leave a greasy taste in my mouth and tasted of the ingredients just as the chef intended.

I have been faithful to Mandarin Kitchen all my life. But there are just so many things at Pearl Liang that make it a much more fulfilling experience. For example, I don’t have to hold my breath every time I go to the toilets (although they could do with making it clearer which is the men’s and which is the women’s). And the decor is beautiful inside with private dining rooms. And the staff are far more attentive.

Pearl Liang is a great example of everything a Chinese restaurant should be. I just feel guilty every time I come here (thankfully, I’ll live).

Pearl Liang (Website)
8 Sheldon Square, W2 6EZ