[Manchester] Nings

[Harters]

In spite of the colonial history, the UK is a bit short on Malaysian cuisine. There are, I think, only two restaurants in the metro area – Bunga Raya in Hazel Grove, which has provided our only other experience, and Nings, up the seedy end of Oldham Street in the city centre.

It’s difficult to fault anywhere that can put on two courses of edible food for under fourteen quid and I’m not going to try too hard. This midweek menu offers around half a dozen starters and perhaps a dozen mains. In the latter category, there’s a range of curries, noodle dishes and the like. My partner decided to go with this. She started with gado gado salad – warm vegetables and tofu, topped with a peanut sauce. Pleasant enough although two appearances of carrot, sliced and grated, seemed excessive. The sauce, nicely peanutty, needed more of a kick from something – chilli, soy sauce – something..... anything.

This was followed by beef rendang. A generous serving of long cooked, tender and very flavoursome beef with the thick sauce just clinging to it. A little sweet and underspiced for her tastes, she declared that, shock horror, the version at Tampopo is better.

Meanwhile, I’d ordered from the main menu and, in effect, ordered two breakfasts. First up, roti canai. An interesting flatbread, more the texture of thin flaky pastry than bread and quite oily, together with a dish of a pokey vegetable curry sauce to dip into. The second dish, nasi lemak, gets internet descriptions as the “national dish”. Arranged on the plate, chicken breast topped with satay sauce, fluffy well cooked rice, a little salad, a fried egg, a little dish of a fiery sambal and the oddest very tiny salty dried chewy fish. Well I suppose Malaysia brings together disparate communities into one country, so why not bring together disparate ingredients onto one plate and call it the national dish. Why? Because it doesn’t work very well, that’s why. Nothing vile about it and I cleared my plate with no problem but it was no more than OK.

So, there we are. One of those Tuesday meals where you go and have your tea, rather than dine out, if you see what I mean. But if you’re in the centre and in need of something asian that’s a little different from the usual Chinese or Indian, it might just do the business. And it certainly won’t break the bank.

[Harters]

I hear of a place in Northenden called Lotus which appears to be mainly known for its South Indian food but also has a Malaysian menu. On me list to try in the coming months.

[klyeoh]

That's great - please post a review on CH on this place when you've been. There's also a South Indian restaurant chain in Malaysia called Lotus, specialising in banana leaf rice. About 7% of Malaysia's population (i.e. around 2 million people) are Indians - mainly Tamils, but also with sizeable Malayalees, Telugu, Bengali & Punjabi presence.

[klyeoh]

My sympathies, Harters, sounded like you stumbled upon a not-very-good Malaysian spot.

- Gado-gado: a good version should have long beans, beansprouts, boiled poatoes, fried tofu, hard-boiled egg, bits of boiled cabbage, all blanketed with a thick, flavoursome peanut sauce, redolent of chilli, turmeric, galangal (blue ginger, Thai: kha), lemongrass, belachan (shrimp paste), assam (tamarind), some palm sugar. The whole concoction should have a nice balance of sweet-sour-salty-spiciness, with the crushed peanuts lending a rich taste and incredible texture. There should be any need for salt/soy sauce or extra chillis as a result;

- Beef rendang; an authentic version would be very difficult to replicate in the UK as you'd need fresh turmeric leaves, fresh kaffir lime leaves & candlenuts (Malay: buah keras), for example. A genuine beef rendang is also pretty labour-intensive - hours of slow-stewing with constant stirring, till you get melt-in-the-mouth chunks of beef. Generous & correct combination of spices used will determine the flavour of the beef rendang. Also, at the end, "kerisik" (golden-fried grated coconut flesh) should be added for additional flavour and also to give the rendang its characteristic texture (a bit like Brazilian use of farofa on feijoada); BTW, Re: Tampopo- that's not a Japanese restaurant, is it?

- Roti canai: if prepared correctly, it should be almost be Malaysia's answer to the croissant - light, flaky & buttery. If not, it'll be greasy & stodgy. Normally served with an Indian dhal (yellow lentil) curry, or a strong fish curry;

- Nasi lemak; a good one should have rich, coconutty flavour (from use of coconut creme in cooking the rice) with a hint of pandanus leaves & sometimes lemongrass or ginger. The rice should also be slightly salty already. The tiny fish is "ikan bilis' and should be crisp & crunchy, and shatters at the slightest bite - if yours is chewy, it's not freshly prepared! Normally, Malaysians serve nasi lemak with chicken or beef curry, or chillied cuttlefish, boiled egg, acar (pickled carrots, cucumbers, sesame seeds in turmeric-scented dressing), fried egg, or fried chicken. The end-result should be wonderful, instead of a mish-mash of substandard ingredients thrown together carelessly.

[Harters]

Tampopo is a Manchester based mini-chain (with branches in Leeds, Bristol & Reading) that does a range of east asian dishes. I love it - but then I'm not a purist about "authenticity" of food - it's either good or it isnt.

http://www.tampopo.co.uk/

[klyeoh]

East Asian - that's okay then, coz I was a bit thrown off by the name: "Tampopo" - named after that famous Japanese foodie film about a woman who wanted to find the perfect broth for her Japanese ramen noodles. For a moment, I thought your partner was comparing Indonesian rendang to a Japanese dish - thanks for the clarification :-)

[zuriga1]

You have been very busy, Mr. Harters. I trust all these visits were not in the same week. :-)

[Harters]

Several months, Ms Zuriga. This one in May.

[Sharmila]

I ate here for the first time a couple of months ago. I found my food to be pretty okay, though still falling short of what I would consider good renditions of Malay dishes. My roti canai was good, and I did enjoy the kueh for dessert at the end, although the portion was massive! Beyond that though, I just wish the tables weren't so close together - everyone is so squeezed into that space.

[klyeoh]

A takeaway Nasi Lemak lunch pack I got in Kuala Lumpur this morning, containing: coconut rice, beef rendang, ikan bilis (crisp-fried anchovies), groundnuts & lots of red chilli paste.