Happy New Year everyone!
2009 looks like it is going to be a good year for South-East Asian food in London. After the resident blogger's take on Malaysia Kopi Tiam, I am happy to introduce you to another eatery at Leicester Square, Rasa Sayang, which commenced operations just a couple of weeks ago and which claims to serve both Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine.
It was a cold blustery winter evening on one of the first days of 2009 when my group chanced upon it. I was pleasantly surprised by its minimalist (albeit Ikea inspired) design. Nothing fancy but certainly classier than the usual gaudy design of its Leicester Square neighbours.
A nice touch was the black and white photos of life in Malaysia and Singapore on the walls. One in particular caught our attention. A photo of a man with a bared upper body, his back to the camera, waiting at a metal counter with canned drinks stacked high at the side, and a middle aged woman in the background making drinks. The man is presumably a coffee shop assistant waiting for his customer's drinks to be ready so that he can deliver them to the customer. A common scene that would hardly attract a second glance in the hustle and bustle of every day life in Singapore, but as a snapshot frozen in time, it transported this group of Singaporeans in London back home in an instant.
Recovering from nostalgia, we ordered our food. The mains menu was pretty good, with a wide range to choose from. Our group ordered satay (skewered meat, like kebab), gado gado (a vegetable salad served with a peanut sauce dressing), nasi lemak (coconut rice served with curry chicken and fried peanuts), hokkien mee (back home, it is fried broad yellow noodles in gravy with seafood) and cha kway teow (dry fried broad rice noodles with seafood).
The deserts selection was rather pathetic. Just 3 dishes and hardly the usual suspects. No, they don't have ice kachang or chendol. I am afraid I can't remember they were, only that ondeh ondeh (glutinous balls coated with coconut with a syrup filling) was one of them as that was what we ordered in the end. We were delighted with the drinks menu though as it featured our favourites: milo (malted drink), milo dinosaur (milo but topped with a heap of milo powder), cin-cau (grass jelly drink), cin-cau with soya milk and of course, teh tarik (frothy milk tea)!
The verdict? Overall, we were pretty pleased with the food. At £6 to £7 per dish, the mains cost more than those at the Malaysia Kopitiam, but taste more authentic. My companions were very pleased with their nasi-lemak, the gado-gado and the cha kway teow. A friend was disappointed with his hokkien mee. Instead of yellow noodles, the dish was made up of what looked like udon. Definitely not what he had in mind.
I had the laksa which was not bad, but different from what we had back in Singapore. Singapore laksa consists of rice or yellow noodles in a broth of rich, velvety gravy of coconut milk, spices, dried shrimp and chilli, with toppings of fresh prawns, cockles, and sliced fishcake. The version served at Rasa Sayang would be better described simply as curry noodles and no, there are no cockles.
If you want Singapore laksa, you would be better off making your own with Prima's prepacked laksa mix. The ondeh ondeh is also off the mark. We can't quite figure out why it tastes salty when it should be sweet. Everyone was happy with their drinks though and their teh tarik was heavenly. At £1.50 per serving, their teh tarik is cheaper than that served at Malaysia Kopitiam, though it must be said that it comes in a smaller glass. The teh tarik was a perfect companion to the curry based dishes which were fiery hot as they should be. If I must choose, I would say that the teh tarik at Rasa Sayang is better than that at the Malaysia Kopitiam.
Who knows, we may just have our Chinese New Year Eve's dinner at Rasa Sayang. Now if only Prima will open a restaurant, similar to their eatery in Singapore’s Centrepoint, in London. Prima apparently has concept restaurants in China, the States, Canada and Vietnam. When will there be one in London? That will make my day!
Yours,
Twinkle Toe
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Have you ever wondered where the multitude of restaurants in Leicester Square get their supplies of hor fun (flat rice noodles), cheong fun (rice noodle rolls), lor pok gau (carrot cake) and wu tau gou (yam cake) from? Certainly from some factory located in London suburbs or even outside London. Then again, it wouldn't be fresh would it?
