madam kwan's

as mentioned in a previous post, we had lunch at klcc after i picked my passport with a new visa stamp at ampang park. it was between having pizza at california pizza kitchen or having malaysian cuisine at madam kwan's. after further discussion we decided on madam kwan's since my dad isn't huge on western food. besides, i think they were also thinking about how much i want to eat as much malaysian food as i can for my whole break here.

friday afternoon usually meant huge crowd in klcc and we got there at about noon. we were worried about getting a spot at the restaurant since the working crowd would start bustling in at about that time. so i rushed to madam kwan's to get us a table. as soon as we got the table, the crowd starting pouring in. any later than the time we were there would force us to wait for a good half hour before we can get a seat. since we were still waiting for my second sis to come meet us for lunch from work, we started out with an appetizer and dessert.

appetizer/desserts courses| we started off with fried chicken wing which ended up being really tasty. i didn't have much expectation but i was surprised by the hint of garlic and it was crispy on the outside and succulent on the inside.

my dessert of choice was the sago gula melaka (RM5.90). it is malacca palm sugar with tapioca pearls in coconut milk. i love love love this dessert. although my mom said that it is easy to make, i thought the combination of the richness of coconut milk and the thickness and sweetness from gula melaka made it an extraordinary simple dessert with complicated flavors.

my mom ordered to ais campur or ais kacang (RM6.50), literally translated as "red bean ice" which have shaved ice atop some fruit cocktails, etc and then drizzled with some syrup. my mom seemed to enjoy it. my niece on the other hand enjoyed the ice since she finished most of the shaved ice and left the other stuff..lol.

entree| we ended up not waiting for my sister and ordered our food first. my mom and  i shared their famous nasi bojari (RM21.90), a madam kwan's signature dish. it comes with shredded beef rendang, asam shrimp (shrimp in a spicy and sour sauce), a generous piece of chicken leg that was fried to perfection and the tri-color rice was fragrant and flavorful. madam kwan's herself described nasi bojari as follows in an old article from NST:

Nasi Bojari is from Indonesia where the rice is meant for royalty, and is layered red, yellow and white. "We can’t do it here," said Madam Kwan. So she did the next best thing — frying the rice with bits of chicken, garlic and dried prawns and lightly tinging the rice with red, and yellow from turmeric. "It’s rice for royalty," said Kwan, which is why the Indonesians who come to dine have not had it before. There are little bursts of flavours in the rice from the ingredients in it.

the shredded beef rendang was great and i like the sweetness, sourness and tinge of spicyness of the shrimp although i think the shrimp was cooked a tad too long. the chicken, although fried to perfection reminiscent of the fried chicken wing in terms of texture, it was a tad salty for my liking. the serving was huge and my mom and i were both stuffed.

p.s. i guess i got too excited to try the dish that

i only remembered taking the pic halfway.. lol

my dad ordered the fish noodle soup which is a bowl of noodle soup with slices of fried red snapper with some pickled vegetable. i tried the soup, it was tasty and it was a huge bowl of it. my dad said he was more than stuffed once he was done.

my second sister finally arrived and she ordered the nasi lemak (RM15.90) which came with chicken curry and sambal. i didn't try it myself cos i was very much full and didn't want anymore food. she did say she enjoyed her food but i think she preferred nasi bojari.

since we knew that my niece can't eat a lot in general, we ordered a dish from the kiddo's menu - spaghetti with bolognese sauce (RM 9.90) that came with a serving of mixed vege and creamy mushroom soup on the side. it seemed like my niece loved it and my mom and sis had a taste of the creamy mushroom soup and liked it.

overall it was a pretty good experience. i had mixed feelings about the service they offered - some of them very friendly, others almost always had a frown on their faces. thank goodness they didn't decide to kick us out since we were sitting there for almost an hour and a half during their busy time of the day. food came out at a decent time but i have to say the nasi lemak came out in a jiffy.

my opinion of the place is that it was spacious and decorated with an asian flair. i was actually pleasantly surprised that my parents loved the taste of the food. although the prices are pretty high when compared to the ones you could possibly get from coffee shops out on the streets, the serving size were decent.

if i thought about it, i think my favorite dish was my sago gula melaka :)

disclaimer this is written based on my personal experience and opinion. experiences and taste buds may vary for others.