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2009-06-07
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Southeast Asian cuisine has always been one of my favorites as I love bold flavors and spicy food. The gathering organized by 公子 came just at the right time as I was starting to crave for spicy SE Asian cuisine. The feast at Satay Inn 沙嗲軒 wasn’t focused on dishes of a particular region, but rather a mix of signatures from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia ( 星馬+印尼菜). The dishes from these regions, while similar in some aspects, do have their own uniqueness that differentiates each from one an
Southeast Asian cuisine has always been one of my favorites as I love bold flavors and spicy food. The gathering organized by 公子 came just at the right time as I was starting to crave for spicy SE Asian cuisine. The feast at Satay Inn 沙嗲軒 wasn’t focused on dishes of a particular region, but rather a mix of signatures from Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia ( 星馬+印尼菜). The dishes from these regions, while similar in some aspects, do have their own uniqueness that differentiates each from one another. I am no expert in Sinagporean or Malaysian food, but Indonesian food is near and dear to my heart. A kitchen usually can’t be specialist of all but one or two, and it was shown in our dinner that night.
The trio of appetizers tried to introduce us to the flavors of all three regions. The Indoesnian shrimp paste salad 印尼蝦膏沙律 was a familiar dish to me and this was assembled with ingredients like jicama(沙葛), pineapple, apples, bean sprouts, etc. Normally the Indonesian salad used green mango and had no fried crullers (油條), but here the chef seemed to have a Singaporean-influenced “fusion” version and used green papaya and fried crullers instead. So calling it 蝦羔什菜沙律 was probably more appropriate. The dressing, which relied heavily on Sambal Terasi (a type of Indonesian sambal with shrimp paste), palm sugar, tamarind, chili, etc, was too mild to the usual rendition I had in the past, and the pungent flavor of the terasi was not profound enough when mixed with the fruits. Was the chef afraid that we would be intimidated by authentic, bold flavors? He should have known his audiences better!
The Satay Combo 什錦沙嗲 shouldn’t be new to anyone, and our combo consisted of beef, pork, and chicken. All three types suffered from being too dry and tough, and the peanut sauce, again, was lacking the nutty peanut aroma. The Scrambled Egg with Singaporean Chili Crab Sauce 星洲辣蟹汁炒蛋 was the best of the three appetizers, and while it was still lacking strong and spicy seasoning, the scrambled egg was soft and the sauce added a slight sweetness which made it more palatable.
Mildness seemed to be a concurrent flaw for the dinner, as the Bak Ku Teh 馬來排骨茶 was again lacking depth and intensity. There was a lightly discernible herb and rib-meat flavor, but it was just not strong enough. Perhaps the kitchen didn’t have sufficient time to prepare the concoction, as I think the flavor would have improved significantly if the broth was further boiled down for more concentration.
The name Buttery Black Pepper Shrimps 牛油胡椒蝦 led me to believe that it would be full of buttery goodness and black pepper kick, but I wasn’t able to find either in the actual dish. I had high doubt that butter was really used, and the black pepper was probably ground too far ahead of time that all the aroma was lost before the dish was prepared.
When the much anticipated Hainanese Chicken 星洲海南雞 arrived, I was absolutely excited as I was have been longing for the chicken jelly! (as noticed by my neighbour 辣子!). I wasn’t disappointed, as there were plenty of chicken pieces full of semi-translucent jelly underneath the crispy thin skin. The texture of the chicken was quite good, and none of the pieces that I tried were too dry to chewy. Too bad the chicken was close to flavorless (afterall, it was frozen chicken) and had to completely rely on the three condiments 三色醬 which weren’t particularly exceptional in my opinion. Nevertheless, I was sated by the chicken jelly, and almost forgot about the Hainanese Chicken Rice 雞油飯 which we kept waiting and waiting and waiting…
And after more than 20 minutes, the chicken rice finally descended to our table. Everyone immediately dig into the gigantic bowl, only to find that the rice was quite hard and dry, with the chicken oil and flavor insufficient to lubricate the rice. Probably worked for those who liked rice on the hard side, but it was just too underdone for my taste.
Chili Crab 星洲辣椒蟹 was another dish that I was eager to try, but this version was again more on the sweet side of the flavor spectrum. The crab meat was a little stringy without oil-blanching beforehead, albeit meaty and big. The pool of sauce, while sweet and not spicy as one would have expected, actually tasted fine and went well with rice, and if there was bread or roti I would have probably soak it up as dipping sauce.
Rendang Beef 印尼巴東牛肉 was definitely not very Indonesian, probably more Singaporean or Malay in style, as I couldn’t identify the turmeric flavor in the seasoning spice. While I don’t want to sound like a broken record, this dish again suffered from mild seasoning. The beef was tender though, so it was fine when a bit of chili sauce was added.
After a long delay, the Chai Tau Kueh 星洲鴛鴦炒蘿蔔糕, Sambal Okra 參巴手指豆, and Laska 蝦膏鮮椰汁叻沙 finally showed up. The fried radish cakes were done in two ways, one with dark soy and the other with pickled radish and eggs. The flavor was pleasant but the radish cakes were too mushy that it was hard to pick up by chopsticks. The laska was a pleasant surprise, with the delectable coconut broth complemented extremely well with the two types of noodles (油麵和米粉). Every slurp was a combination of mouthwatering flavor and texture. Delicious!
After three hours of eating, drinking, and waiting came the 4 desserts: 摩摩喳喳、紅豆冰、雪糕涼粉、馬六甲椰汁西米. These got to be the most authentic of all the dishes tthat night! In particular, the sago pudding 馬六甲椰汁西米 tasted exactly like the ones that I had in my childhood with the coconut milk and dark kopi syrup creating a sugary swirl, and together with other desserts, a series of childhood memories suddenly appeared in front of me like a movie.
What makes Southeast Asian food special is the intense assertive flavors that smack you in the face, but overall the food at Satay Inn was just too timid to have such impact. I think the kitchen was probably not experienced in managing dinner feast for such a large group of customers, and hence the quality of food suffered quite a bit when compared to their usual standard (as seen from previous positive reviews).
Although the dinner had some misses and suffered quite a bit in service, there were still plenty of enjoyable moments, like the celebration of our friend’s birthday with the delicious Mimosa napoleon expertly cut up and plated by CSY and the savory and sweet bird nest’s pudding by Superbaby. We joked, we laughed, and we sweated, not from the spicy food but from the lack of air conditioning , but yet I really got an immense amount of pleasure just spending with a group of friends who all love food! 公子, thank you once again for all the work you put in to provide us with the opportunity to share food and friendship. I look forward to another gathering with more fun and laughs!
張貼
