#33 Nyonya Malaysia Cuisine
Posted on August 14, 2007
Filed Under Best of the Best, Malaysian | 6 Comments
Dear Readers,
It’s time to kick it up a notch here on 50meals!
Here’s what I’m going to do, but I’m going to need your help.
First of all, I think it’d be awesome if you guys sent in your pictures of you eating hard core food. We’ll do a post featuring you, the readers! Feel free to include a dish along with a picture of you! Not only do you get to see yourself on 50meals.com, you’ll get to see other readers! You can even write a note to introduce yourself, I’d love to hear from you.
Additionally, I’m going to print out a few hundred business cards to give out to you, and the idea here is two fold: You can share with your friends and tell them about the site, and secondly, when you visit any of the restaurants you’ve seen on 50meals, you can give the waiter/ress the card and say “I found you on 50meals.”
The idea here is that when owners realize how many people are coming to them because of this website, we can work out something along the lines of discounts for 50meals readers or some other goodies. You can E-mail me and I will send out 10 cards to you. There, that’s two ways you can own a piece of 50meals.com. Sound good? Let’s do it. Let’s share our passion for good food!
E-mail your photos and business card requests to KevCheng (at) 50meals (dot) com. Please include a real name and address.
Now, onto Nyonya
This is the last of my New York entries. I had spent one long weekend here and walked away with some excellent experiences, and I had saved the best for last.
This is one of my favorite restaurants in the world. Malaysia sits on the southern tip of the East Asian continent, dangling halfway between China and India. Malaysian feels like it’s like half Chinese, half Indian food. I love Chinese food because of its great variety, but sometimes it’s too greasy and a little played out for me, I love the strong flavor of Indian food, but sometimes it’s just too spicy, too strong, Malaysian food is like a perfect blend of both, blending intense flavors with excellent variety, and above all, a great sensibility. This is comfort food with some claws. and it suits me just right.
It’s a nice, warmly lit wood and brick dining hall. This place gets crowded, I tell ya, we barely got a table when we got there, the people behind us had to stand and wait.
We start with the Roti Canai. Which is a thinner, crispier version of the Indian Bread, Naan. It’s soft in some parts, crispy in others, you tear off a piece and dunk it into the chicken curry that on the side and plop it in your mouth.
Here, let my aunt Connie demonstrate. Aunt Connie shares my love for good food, and every time we’re at Nyonya, the two of us go to town like no other. Warm, flavorful curry, crispy and chewy bread. Spec-ta-cu-lar. The juxtaposition of the different textures, soft and crispy bread with the rich curry is amazing.
Next up is their beef curry stew. This is unbelievable. Incredibly tender beef in a rich curry sauce. I’m a huge curry fan, and this is curry turned up to 11 for me. See, Japanese curry is solid, but they all taste about the same, Indian curry is strong, which is good, but sometimes it’s just too spicy and I end up with stomach trouble. Thai curry is good, but they’re not always substantial enough, or maybe the places I go are just a little stingy with their meat. This stew is everything I want curry to be. Flavorful, distinct, and loaded up on tender beef just screaming for a bowl of rice.
Aunt Connie found out I had a food blog and we went for the whole nine yards. Here are the gigantic prawns. They were huge, and whatever sauce was on it knocked it out of the park.
Hainan Chicken, a very standard dish you can find at southern Chinese restaurants. By itself, it’s like Clark Kent, a little bland. It’s basically boiled chicken with a tangy soy sauce splashed on top, but once you dip it in the hot sauce, it takes off its glasses and change into some colorful tights and turns into super chicken! Entirely different from what it was before, SO GOOD! Remember to eat with hot sauce.
Pineapple fried rice. Oh, the little umbrella on top makes you feel like you’re on vacation! Screw the low carb diet. I ate this with the beef curry. It was worth the weight gain.
Being a responsible adult, aunt Connie ordered the garlic stir-fried on-choy. Pretty standard here.
Sizzling plate tofu with meat sauce! Excellent, excellent flavor. Soft tofu, great meat sauce. Goes great with the rice. The hot plate browns the tofu and sauce a little and gives it a bit of an edge.
Believe it or not, it was me, Aunt Connie, Cousin Sarah and little Katrina who ate this table full of food. I think that speaks volumes about my extended family.
And for dessert, shaved ice!
…and red bean soup.
Oh, I could barely walk. This meal was so ridiculous, I can’t believe we finished it. Everything was great, and the beef curry stew I had been looking forward to did not disappoint. I don’t know why such an awesome restaurant is tucked into Brooklyn’s 8th Ave Chinatown, but I’m so glad we have it. This place was pretty cheap too, it’s great for a big group of people. Always always ALWAYS order the Roti Canai and the beef stew. There’s a whole lot more of the menu I have to explore. It’s all just so amazingly flavorful and prepared with such confidence. I’m hungry just thinking about it, this place is highly recommended for its comfort food. And it’s definitely in my top ten restaurants in the US.
Nyonya Malaysia Cuisine
5323 8th Ave
(between 53rd St & 54th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11220