Perhaps you've noticed: food looms large in my life. And like all good food-obsessed folks, my conversations over meals shared with others are often dominated by talk of the next meal to come. Sometimes I even get a couple of meals ahead of myself.
This was the case almost two months ago when Dave and I, having placed our orders for fish head noodles, were waiting outside Ampang Food House for a table. In the middle of wondering what exactly our tastebuds would be nose-to-nose with (so to speak) in a few minutes, I noticed the cafe next door and the specials posted on its blackboard. Mee bandung, laksa utara, sup tulang -- none of the dishes were familiar, but I was pretty sure they would be, within 24 hours.
We returned to Ampang Park the next day (hey, I never said this blog was in chronological order) and made a beeline for Cafe Selaseh. It was doing a good business -- not as rip-roaring, packed-out as Ampang Food House (we waited just 2 minutes for a couple of seats), but steady enough to be encouraging. Also encouraging, for a joint that serves Malay (as opposed to Chinese Malay) food, was the fact that the cafe's clientele was primarily Malay.
We ordered noodles -- mee bandung and laksa utara -- first, figuring that if we had the teeniest bit of room left when we were finished we could probably slide down some soup. Laksa utara means, literally, "northern" laksa -- thick round rice noodles in a thin, fishy, coconut-free broth that can range in color from brown to brownish-purple.
We'd encountered a laksa along these lines several times before, at a sweet little cafe in our neighborhood that closed only 6 weeks after we arrived in KL. <sob> That place served laksa Kedah, Kedah being one of the northwestern Malaysian states bordering Thailand (Perlis is the other). The Thai influence in laksa Kedah (and utara) is strong: tamarind sours a thick, pungent broth made with flaked eel or fish. Cafe Selasah's laksa utara soup is thinner than that in the laksa Kedah served at our now-defunct local spot, and lacks the plentiful flakes of fish that gave the latter a good deal of body. The taste is similar, though: pleasingly strong on piscene aroma-- yes, stinky even -- sour enough not to cry out for the bowl's kalamansi lime half, with a wee hint of chili.
In addition to kalamansi, the laksa is garnished with half a hard-boiled egg, cucumber and pineapple matchsticks, and chopped cilantro and mint. A zippy bowlful ... but I'm afraid I still pine for the laksa Kedah down the street.
I pined for absolutely nothing (except a second bowl), however, after tucking into this serving of mee bandung.
Judging from the name, mee bandung is Indonesian in origin. Bandung, capital of west Java, is Indonesia's third-largest city; the majority of its population are Sundanese who have historically had their own culture and, presumably, cuisine. The question that I can't answer, never having travelled in West Java, is if mee bandung displays any of the characteristics of Sundanese food.
But back to the matter at hand. Mee bandung has just about everything I'm looking for in a noodle dish: thick, chewy noodles (yellow mee) and a complex, spicy gravy (too thick to be called a broth) made from dried shrimp and chilies, garlic, shallots, tomato, and ground peanuts (which give it a lovely grainy mouthfeel) that's as wonderful to look at, in all its brick-red glory, as it is to eat.
Prawns, squid pieces, and a just-runny-enough poached egg hiding beneath the noodles provide protein; chopped Chinese celery adds crunch, color, and a bit of bitterness to counter the natural sweetness of the gravy's tomato and peanuts. Selaseh's version is on the fiery side; my mouth was still tingling several minutes after finishing the bowl. And it's rich; much as I wanted to (and I really wanted to), I just couldn't contemplate a second bowl.
We never made it to the sup tulang (lit. "bone" soup -- but it's beef soup), but we have it on good word that it's worth a try. After describing 10-year-old Selaseh's offerings as "real homestyle Malay food" the Malaysian gentleman seated next to us to us urged us to give the soup a try on our next visit. He paid it perhaps the highest possible compliment: "It reminds me of my mother's."
In addition to the mee and laksa (and guaytiaow -- see the blackboard) Selaseh cafe offers nasi lemak daily. It too -- along with the sup tulang -- appeared to be very popular.
284 Ampang Park (2nd Floor). Take the LRT to Ampang Park, exit to your right, and head straight through Ampang Park shopping center to the stairs at back. Climb a flight, turn to your left. Selaseh Cafe is down the row a bit.
I was in Bandoeng in 1993 and don't recall ever having eaten this dish or seen it offered. Of course, I was there for only 2 (?) 3 (?) nights and could have missed it. But I think that this dish might be purely Malaysian. "Bandung" likely has another meaning in Malay/Bahasa. The word suggests a few things to me but I can't seem to pin down an alternate meaning...Mee of course is Fukienese for mien (noodle).
Posted by: RST | 2005.10.25 at 11:55
Oh, and of course even if a similar dish existed in Bandung when I was there in 1993-it probably wouldn't have been called Mee Bandung.
Just did a little googling. The dish is from Muar in Johor. The name bandung means "mixed together" (hmmm, I was thinking in another direction...)
Posted by: RST | 2005.10.25 at 11:59
Aargh... the gentleman seated next to us suggested the dish has Indonesian origins so I just assumed Indonesia-Bandung. My pocket Malay dxnary shows bandung (berbandung) to mean "a pair"? Any help, Malaysians (or Singaporeans -- I know the dish is available there too)?
Posted by: Robyn | 2005.10.25 at 19:08