Malaysia Kitchen is about promoting Malaysian food around the world: London, New York, Canada, New Zealand and now Sydney, Australia. The concept is simple, hawker style food served up by the best local Malaysian restaurants.
In Sydney, this Malaysian government initiative comes alive as a pop up experience in a laneway next to the State Theatre. The outdoor laneway, long communal table and open kitchen reference hawker style eating, but this is a much slicker, hipper experience complete with brightly coloured lanterns and cool beats. The local Malaysian restaurants tonight are Chinta Ria, Jimmy's Recipe, Jackie M and Mamak and the entry fee is just $10. They must be doing something right because the queue is incredibly long, you have to see the video below to get a perspective on the demand.
We were lucky, thanks to the sweet people at pulse communications to skip the line to our reserved seats (noodlies readers know I hate queues). The food was then delivered in quick succession, fast but we never felt rushed.
First up was roti and chicken skewers from Mamak. It's hard to describe the fluffy, tasty texture of the roti, which went so well with the chicken and sambal sauce.
Next, fish curry from Chinta Ria, an old favourite, but one which I've not been to for a while. The curry made a very effective argument for me to return to Chinta Ria. The fish had held together tightly but broke up easily and nicely upon contact. There's something magical about that bright red curry sauce, not overpowering but incredibly tasty.
Nasi lemak from Jackie M said everything, and includes everything: rice, sambal, dried anchovies, eggs, peanut. Some call it the Malaysian national dish that can be had anytime. This version looked and tasted authentic, a smorgasbord of complex and simple flavours.
I'm very, very partial to a bowl of laksa at Jimmy's Recipe. Many have hailed it as the best laksa in town and I'm not disagreeing. Rich with coconut cream but also lightly tart from lemongrass, with a very generous serving of noodles and chicken.
This noodlies Sydney food blog experience was thanks to Malaysia Kitchen Australia and Pulse Communications.
Malaysia Kitchen Australia
State Theatre Laneway
via George Street, opposite QVB, or follow the queue
Ends with lunch and dinner on Friday 18th
Wow, that's a pretty big serving of nasi lemak to have with everything else too. Hope to make it here some time this week
ReplyDeleteall the pics were for the two of us, Tina, but you're right there was a lot of food for $10
ReplyDeletethat's a pretty good deal for only $10. i was thinking you'd only get 1 dish. not sure if it's worth lining up though. it's a lot longer than Mamak's famous long lines hehe :-)
ReplyDeleteyup, Simon, incredible value.. drinks are extra, beer was $8 from memory. yeah, the line is already infamous..
ReplyDeleteOMG the queue is long... but the food looks so good
ReplyDeleteFood was great, same quality as you'd get in the restaurants... amazing given the limited room they have in the open kitchen. Great value too, $10 for four courses.
ReplyDeleteIt does like great value, worth the wait!
ReplyDeleteI REALLY REALLY want to go to this tonight, but I don't think I can handle the massive queue. I'm impressed by the quantity of food though. Pity it's not being held somewhere that can deal with more people.
ReplyDeleteLateral eating... who knows, the queues might lessen tonight... yesterday was first night
ReplyDeleteHey MelbaToast, it's hard to know what it will be like tonight... I reckon word's gotten out about the long queue.. might put some people off and actually make the queue better... but then again, everyone knows it ends tom night... good luck
ReplyDeletelols.. arent u lucky to skip the line.
ReplyDeleteKen and his friends are going tonite haha.
Yeah, just luck Dolly, I really won't queue up.. will be interested to see what Ken thinks of it all.
ReplyDeleteWill sort out dinner in March.. crazily busy right now.