We arrive at Malacca Straits a few minutes early for our Friday night booking. The restaurant is tucked away inside the Quadrant Building’s courtyard, just off Broadway, and was bustling when we arrived. The girls and I had pre-perused the menu online and were looking forward to trying pretty much all of the specials!
We’re now into Week 3 of the Malaysia Kitchen Bloggers Summit, and it’s been great so far, trying lots of new dishes at lots of new restaurants! I would absolutely love it if you could shoot me some LIKES (just follow the link, and it’s at the bottom of the post), and I might be off on a foodie adventure to Malaysia!!
The fresh coconut juice ($5.00) caught my eye, and the sweet juice and fresh coconut flesh was the perfect foil for some of the spicier dishes that we ordered. Steph, Linda and Betty decided on Chinese tea.
We start with the Otak Otak, ($12 for 3 pieces) which I hadn’t tried before. Spiced fish fillets are wrapped in banana leaves and cooked in coconut milk. It was quite spicy and also a little dense in texture. It has had mixed reviews on some Sydney food blogs, and maybe it wasn’t quite what I was expecting, or the restaurant was having an average day in the kitchen, but this wasn’t my favourite dish of the evening.
I did however love the Char Tau Keuh, ($11.80) a fried radish cake with sambal, bean sprouts and eggs. It’s another dish I had never tried before, but that is the thing I’m loving most about taking part in this Bloggers Summit! The radish was nicely fried but still kept a lovely soft texture, and I would definitely order it again in a heartbeat.
After being denied our Hainanese Chicken Rice fix a few days earlier at Kopitiam, we had to try it here. The steamed chicken ($9.50) was served with fragrant rice, chilli sauce and cucumber, accompanied with a bowl of clear soup. The chicken was beautifully tender and the rice was flavoursome. It ticked all the boxes and satisfied our Chicken Rice cravings.
The Penang Kapitan Chicken curry ($14.80) was described as boneless chicken in a “special sauce” with ground spices and herbs. The curry was mild and creamy, and the chicken pieces were nice and tender.
We ordered the Cereal Prawns, only to be told that they were sold out. It was a little disappointing since Helen had raved about them after her visit! Instead we order the Angel Hair Prawns ($23.80) – crispy prawns in buttery egg floss with curry leaves. Very similar to the soft shell crab dish we had at Alices, this was delicious, but quite rich. We had quite a lot left over, which Steph took home to A.
I think the highlight of the meal for me was the desserts, I loved all three that we ordered! The Kuih Ketayap ($5) was a delicious pandan flavoured crepe filled with roasted coconut and palm sugar, served with vanilla ice cream. I seem to be instantly enamoured with anything pandan flavoured and this was no exception. I could have easily eaten the whole thing on my own!
Surprisingly, it took until Week 3 before we ordered Cendol ($5) which consists of shaved ice over chewy pandan flavoured cendol, coconut milk and palm sugar. I loved it, though the palm sugar would possibly make it a little bit too sweet for some!
Of course we had to try Malacca Straits’ version of Ais Kacang, the Air Batu Campur, or ABC for short ($5) to see how it compared to the others we’ve enjoyed in recent weeks. Interestingly, this one came with crushed peanuts on top (which meant Steph couldn’t eat it, boo) but secretly, I really liked this addition for a bit of crunch to offset the jelly and cendol that was buried underneath the ice. This one and Alices are now tied for my favourite ais kacang in Sydney!
A good option for a cheap lunch or dinner, I’m sure Malacca Straits is very popular with uni students at lunchtime. Actually, I wish I had known about it when I was studying nearby! While it was disappointing to miss out on the Cereal Prawns, I think it’s worth a trip back in the future to try them, as well as the delicious sounding Sticky Rice with Mango that is available during the summer months.
Spicyicecream dined as a guest of Malaysia Kitchen
Malacca Straits on Broadway – 66 Mountain Street, Broadway Ultimo (enter the Quadrant Building courtyard) (02) 8021 7069