SedapRegent Place
501 George St
Sydney CBD
Sedap is a bit of an enigma. It's tucked away down a laneway off George Street in Sydney CBD and as such a bit hidden away. In fact you probably wouldn't find it unless you were looking for it.
Are we ready to find food in laneways in Sydney, like they are in Melbourne? The answer is clearly yes, and the popularity of Sedap proves this point very well.
It was busy when we got there and crowded by the time we left. The food arrives quickly though, so the tables turn over quite quickly. So if there's a queue at the door don't be scared away - you'll be inside and eating soon.
Roti canai goes so well with Malaysian food. You use it to mop up the curry and sauces.
Here at Sedap you can watch the roti being prepared and cooked through a glass window into the kitchen. A few places are doing this now - and why not?
It looks very easy when they do it - as it probably should. We've tried it ourselves at home and it is a bit harder than this - but then practice makes perfect.
We watched the roti being kneaded, stretched and folded - again and again - until it became wafer thin.
Then it was cooked and served with home made curry sauce and then eaten with an eagerness that probably wasn't that dignified!
It was a simple description - traditional Malaysian curry whole fish with mixed vegetables - but the idea of whole fish and curry grabbed us.
What arrived at the table was even more impressive than we had expected. It was swimming with colour - yellows, greens, reds - and on top was this massive whole fish!
We love fish! If you do too, and love curry, then you will be extremely satisfied with this dish.
Best of all - it's huge. This is a massive serving and needs a very large bowl to fit it all in.
Sedap has several Malaysian snacks on offer - hawker snacks in fact - on their menu and they change periodically.
We've always enjoyed lo bak so it was good to see that this tasty entree was there.
Lo bak is kind of like a pork sausage roll.
It is actually very thin sheets of bean curd encasing spiced pork mince with some added bis of vegetable for texture and flavour.
These ones were great and lived up to expectations.
They were served with a few slices of fresh cucumber as a garnish and some tangy sweet chilli sauce that went well.
We hadn't had chee cheong fun before.It was such a simple dish that possibly tasted better than we expected - even though it looked good enough for us to order it in the first place.
Chee cheong actually means pig intestine - but there isn't any of this in the dish. The thin noodles are rolled in long stands that end up looking like pig intestines. Fun of course means noodle.
These noodles were sprawled on their serving plate and then generously coated in plenty of sweet soy sauce and chilli sauce.
It was a tangy tasty combination that we kept picking at right through the meal and even after we were completely full.
Our final dish was Sedap mee hoon - a combination noodle dish. It was nice as a side instead of rice but could also serve as a "meal on a plate" for one if you were hungry and wanted a bit of everything.
To drink we grabbed a lemon pepsi and a barley drink. Both were served in jars and were simple and refreshing.
Sedap offers traditional Malaysian food in simple surroundings.
It doesn't stand on ceremony and simply lets the food do the talking. It's popular so the food must be saying a lot to plenty of people.
We certainly enjoyed it.
Sir and Mlady's visit was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.
