Meal #5 – Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, is the location of the world’s tallest twin towers: The Petronas Towers (452 m). The meal we had at Rasa Malaysian Café also reached these lofty heights – the best meal we’ve had so far on our culinary crusade.

Rasa Malaysian Café
Flavour of Malaysia
Fully Licensed (BYO – Wine Only)
Tue – Fri 12.00pm – 2.30pm
Mon – Sat 6.00pm – 10.00pm
29 Waverley Road, East Malvern 3145
(Opposite Caulfield Plaza)

The take away menu for Rasa Malaysian Café boast that they serve “The Real and authentic flavour of Malaysian cuisine!!!” and if their décor is anything to go by (including two large statues of Buddha – because one is never enough!) they have every intention on following through. Their take away menu (which should be awarded a prize for flagrant self-flagellation) continues to advertise that they have been reviewed and recommedned by: Cheap Eats, Good Food Guide, Dine Out and Melbourne Foodies; they even go on to self-claim the title of “Best Malaysian cuisine.” And you know what? They probably deserve all this acclaim and more.


Nevertheless, only three of our gastronomic gurus joined us for this journey – the rest apparently experimenting with a new-fangled thing called a life… Still, with Sai, Rami and Caroline in attendance, we had to deal with the usual silly-celiac and kinda-kosher dietary requirements anyway. Although the menu had no pig products and it was easy to steer away from the shellfish, the waitresses were very helpful and accommodating to our gluten-free glutton.

Entrée:

Rojak – Malaysian favourite - apples, cucumber, pineapples and seasonal fruit, mixed in an appetizing rojak sauce.

Pandan Chicken – Chicken pieces wrapped in pandan leaves, gently cooked over griller to bring out the unique taste and fragrant aroma of pandan leaves.

Mains:

Nasi Lemak – A complete meal on a plate. Coconut rice served with anchovies (ikon bilis), peanut, achar (vegetables pickles), cucumber and egg. Served with Beef Rendang.

Melayu Spicy Beef – Sliced beef sauté with traditional Malaysian spices.

Rasa Special Chicken – Tendered chicken pieces marinated with tumeric, fresh coriander leaves and sesame seeds, served with our special tumeric sauce.

Side Dish:

Roti Kosong – Plain roti chanai bread

Dessert:

Black Rice Pudding.

Entrée:

The Rojak was a unique dish – cold cubes of sweet fruit covered in a savory sauce; this would make a great snack on a hot summer’s afternoon. The Pandan Chicken was simply amazing – you’ve really just got to try it for yourself!


Mains:

Wow! Simply wow! We were asked whether we wanted the Melayu Spicy Beef served mild, medium or hot – of course we went hot. When the waitress came to collect the dishes at the end of the meal she was bewildered that all the dried chili pieces were gone – apparently they were there to flavour the sauce, not to be eaten! Our bad, but boy was it good! The Rasa Special Chicken was like KFC, but done well. The chicken pieces were deep fried, but lightly and with no excess oil. The flavour of tumeric and coriander worked magnitudes better than the Colonel’s 12 herbs and spices! Of course we had a side of roti – because hell, roti should be served with every meal!


The Nasi Lemak was a celiac’s dream. Although we’ve had Beef Rendang at both the Sumatran (nice sauce, bad meat) and Singaporean (nice meat, bad sauce) restaurants, this was the best version of the dish with both nice meat and nice sauce.

Dessert:

Although we were too full to even contemplate dessert, one of our merry trio decided to go for the complete meal. The others watched in amazement as he packed in the black rice pudding.


Overall:

As you’ve probably guessed by now, we absolutely loved the food served at Rasa Malaysian Café, but the meal was great for many other reasons. The service staff were friendly and kept topping up both our water glasses and Jasmine tea mugs (yes, the tea was served in mugs!!!) so that we never actually seemed to finish them. After we had had finished our meal we were encourage to stay and talk for as long as we wanted (with our tea being continuously re-filled) – in fact we were still encouraged to stay while the staff ate their own dinner. After their dinner the owner of the restaurant came and chatted with us too.

Overall this was a most delightful meal and we highly recommend that any of our culinary crew who were experimenting with getting a life, come and try this place in the not so distant future.


P.S. - In fact, it was so good, we considered coming back for dinner again the next night. The only thing that stopped us, however, was not common sense, but the fact that Rasa Malaysian Café is closed on Sundays.