BABA CHARLIE MALAYSIAN - KING ST WHARF, SYDNEY

Baba Charlie Malaysian
30 Lime St
Sydney CBD

The Sir and Mlady team met for a Christmas bash at this popular restaurant recently.

Baba Charlie serves a wide variety of Malaysian food, with a few added extra dishes from neighbouring countries as well. We ate a lot, a real lot, and the whole team thought the food was great.

We each had our own particular favourite dishes, but we all agreed it was good Malaysian food in a prime location in the CBD.

Here is a long pictorial run through of the many dishes we had on our lovely finale to the 2015 year.

We ate a lot of food at Baba Charlie, and we'd gladly eat there again. The Malaysian food we had was delicious, packed full of big flavours, great ingredients and with plenty of variety. We worked our way through a big chunk of their menu too!

Sir and Mlady's visit to Baba Charlie was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.

KRETA AYER - KINGSFORD, SYDNEY

Kreta Ayer
466 Anzac Pde
Kingsford, Sydney

Kreta Ayer is a bustling Malaysian restaurant in the suburb of Kingsford, in Sydney's East. It's close proximity to the University of New South Wales makes it a popular choice with students It's always full and most evenings, there is a queue of people waiting outside. This evening The Counts were dining with two dear friends, who's love of Malaysian food is almost as strong as ours making them the perfect companions.

We arrived early on a Friday night and found a table almost immediately (and also avoided the queue which later became quite long). The restaurant has a real street food ambience. There are  picnic style tables, with benches or stools. When it comes to Malaysian food, we generally know what we like and what we are going to order before we even look at the menu. Tonight was different though, the menu at Kreta Ayer has over 200 items on it.

Roti is a standard item we order at every Malaysian food experience we have and tonight was no exception.

We ordered two servings (we like it a lot) and here at Kreta Ayer they serve it with a lovely curry sauce.

The Roti was delicious, buttery and flaky.

The curry sauce was a great dipping agent too.



Satay Skewers are another favourite of ours.

We deviated away from our usual chicken satay order and went for the mixed skewers which comes with beef skewers as well as chicken.

It was nice to try something different and to our surprise, the beef with satay sauce was actually a good combination.

Next up some Tauhu Goreng. A traditional Malaysian dish which has tofu (deep fried) and is covered in fresh and crispy bean sprouts and cucumber. The tofu is quite tasty on its own but becomes a taste sensation with the amazing sauce it is served with. A thick sauce prepared with shrimp paste, soy sauce and tamarind juice. Not sure what it's called but we loved it.


As we finished our starters, we enjoyed a glass of wine from a bottle we bought conveniently at the liquor store just down the road. Kreta Ayer is BYO both wine and beer, which is fantastic. Count N tried an Iced Ribena Soda with Longa, a refreshing and sweet non alcoholic drink. It was bursting with flavour though a bit on the sweet side.

Our first main to arrive was the Malaysian Crispy Fried Chicken.

This was a huge serving of golden pieces of fried tender chicken.

They were cooked well and were extra crispy on the outside but soft with very juicy meat on the inside.

It was hard to stop eating this dish.


Next up some Sambal Squid. Now Sambal is a traditional Malaysian sauce made with quite a lot of chilli and other flavoursome ingredients like garlic and ginger and this combined with squid makes a very tantalising dish.

Just a warning folks, this one is quite spicy so be prepared for some squid with quite a bit of kick.



Moving away from the hot and spicy but still on the seafood theme, we also tried the Kreta Ayer Soft shell crab which was crispy and served on a beautiful salad bed. It was a vibrant and fresh dish.

Kreta Ayer also caters very well for vegetarians, with quite a few vegetarian dishes on their menu, so don't worry if meat or chicken isn't your thing.

We tried the Chilli Eggplant and the Mixed Vegetables. The Chilli Eggplant dish had thick pieces of fried eggplant smothered in a chilli sauce which tasted a lot like Sambal (maybe it was Sambal?) and the mixed vegetables were steamed, quite crispy and were covered in a spicy coconut milk sauce. It was a lovely combination and tasted awesome (again, bit spicy).

Finally, no Malaysian food experience would be complete without Nasi Goreng so despite us being quite full, we ordered it as a finisher to the evening. Now, when you are eating a good Nasi Goreng, you expect a dish that is full of flavour, has a hint of spice and of course some egg.

The one here at Kreta Ayer ticked all the boxes. It was delicious.






















Kreta Ayer has a pleasant relaxed atmosphere,  a huge variety of food on their menu and and is very well priced. We definitely would consider going back next time we are in the mood for some Malaysian food, you should to.

The Counts, who review for Sir and Mlady Dine Out, visited to Kreta Ayer supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.

 

JIMS MALAYSIA - HAWKER LANE IN WESTFIELD CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Jim's Malaysia
Westfield Chatswood (Hawker Lane),
1 Anderson Street,
Chatswood, Sydney

Being frequent eaters of Malaysian food it was great to see this tasty cuisine here at Hawker Lane.

Jim's Malaysia offers hawker (or street) food so it's quite appropriate to find it here.

For a small place they actually offer quite a big range of food here and we were fortunate to be able to sample quite a few of them.

We of course sampled their laksa. It's hard to resist laksa when eating Malaysian. However it's usually so filling that you rarely have room for anything else once you order this rich coconut curry noodle soup. This one had great flavours and lived up to expectations. It was popular too - with plenty of people at their counter ordering just this dish alone. We also tried their tasty curry puffs and chicken wings as well as a couple of their sweets too.












Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

HAWKER LANE - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Hawker Lane
Westfield Chatswood
Chatswood, Sydney

Hawker Lane is an amazing oasis of restaurants underneath the massive Westfield in Chatswood. You feel like your really in another world here as you pause from your shopping and enter this den of tastes and sounds and delicious smells from the great range of restaurants that are spread across this sprawling area.

The biggest challenge here is what to choose. Our suggestion is to grab a table first - there are plenty of them but they go fast., If you miss out don't fret, they turn over quickly so it won't be long. Then do a lap of honour - to check out whats there. Even if you know what you want, it may well change once you see the great variety here. Of course you can get food from multiple places which works exceptionally well. Maybe a starter or three from some places, a few mains elsewhere and then of course desserts! We were there to try their goodies as part of a media event. Being greeted at the door with beautiful coconuts from Kayter and Co was a delicious start - they certainly knew how to keep foodies happy! With our coconuts piled high with cake, marshmallow, chocolate and biscuits it looked amazing - and so many people kept coming up to us wanting to know where to get them. Hands off - their ours!

Then where to start. We looked around and sampled food from so many places. It was a dance from fried chicken, to skewers, dumplings, Malaysian, ramen burgers, sushi, drinks, sweets, roti wraps etc etc etc. Here's just a few of the names you'll find here - but wait - there's more!

We'll be posting a number of write ups over the next fortnight of different places we visited there and the food we had - so stay tuned.

Of course you can visit and try for yourself - and we highly recommend this.

This is one place worth a long slow visit - or several in fact - to get across the massive range here!

Sir and Mlady visited Hawker Lane as guests of Westfield Chatswood. Special thanks to Julia Murray of Sibling Agency for this invitation.

TASTE OF MALAYA - CASTLE HILL, SYDNEY

Taste of Malaya
Castle Towers Shopping Centre - The Piazza
6-14 Castle Pl
Castle Hill, Sydney

The Piazza at Castle Towers has always been a popular food destination over the years - and this is still just as much the case today.

It's bustling and busy with some dining there before hitting the movies next door while others just settle in there for the night.

Taste of Malaya, like many of the other places in this precinct, is a longish restaurant. It has a lovely outdoor area for al fresco dining under cover as well as a larger indoor area stretching back from the Piazza.

We started with the roti - as we often do when eating Malaysian.

It was a thinner roti than we've normally had, but still with the complexity of many layers and it tasted lovely.

A few glasses of the house red - a very affordable Merlot - capped of a great start to the meal.

Red and roti is such a great combination at any time.

We've had plenty of mee goreng in our time - and it's still a favourite - but when we saw Duck Meat Malaysian Style Mee Goreng on the menu it was an instant choice. There was plenty of duck in this dish. It was a rich and quite tangy meal with a thickish tomato paste around thick noodles and interspersed with plenty of fresh chilli. We both agreed that this was one of our favourite dishes of the night.


Then it was on to another old favourite - beef rendang.

The beef in this dish was slow cooked and so tender it practically melted in our mouths.

The gravy, or curry, was nicely fragrant and rich, as it should be, and we even ladled it on our rice after the meat was gone.

Our final main course was a much lighter dish. It was Kapitan King Prawns.

These lightly battered King Prawns were big and juicy.

The sauce they were resting in was a mix of coconut, curry and lemon juice.

It was a mild sauce with fragrant flavour that didn't overpower the prawn meat. We loved this dish and would eagerly have it again - and again!

Taste of Malaya offers an interesting range of both Malaysian and Chinese dishes in a pleasant setting. The food tastes great and arrives quickly in good sized servings. Service is fast and friendly. It's an affordable place to go for a good meal.

Sir and Mlady's visit to Taste of Malaya was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.

IPOH CLUB - CHATSWOOD, SYDNEY

Ipoh Club
Chatswood RSL Level 1
446 Victoria Ave
Chatswood, Sydney

We were here with a group and this worked so well so that we could try more delicious dishes and even have dishes we had not eaten before.

Ipoh Club is situated in Chatswood within the RSL and is quite spacious and ideal for families, groups and couples. The ambiance is relaxed and comfortable.

The food is Malaysian Hawker style and it is very good. There is a huge variety and we certainly took advantage of this.

The servings too are generous.

Mini curry puffs are a popular Malaysian snack and also with us. We often order these and having them tonight was no exception. They are a simple yet tasty snack made up of deep fried pastry with curried pea and potato filling and these ones were certainly very tasty.

Another all time favourite and popular dish with us are the Chicken Satay's. They were described on the menu as -Tender marinated chicken skewers grilled to perfection and served with peanut sauce, cucumber and red onions. This really was a good dish and we both loved the peanut sauce.





















Next was the Cereal butter prawns. We had not tried this dish before so decided to give it a go as it sounded and looked interesting. The cereal butter prawns were aromatic deep fried king prawns cooked in a butter and cereal mixture. It was an unusual dish due to the cereal and was quite pleasant tasting.

For a stir fried noodle dish we choose the popular Ipoh Char Kway Teow.  Mlady is quite taken with this very flavoursome dish having recently enjoyed it immensely in Malaysia. It is definitely a favourite for her. She did have to share it tonight though!



















Probably our regular winner was next - Roti Canai. This crispy and flaky Malaysian flat bread was freshly made. This is always a favourite and not just with us so naturally we indulged - as we always do. We had the Roti Canai with the spicy and tender Beef Rendang - another all time favourite. The Beef Rendang here was good and lived up to its description. Mlady is a great fan of this dish.

The Salt and Pepper eggplant was lightly battered salt and pepper deep fried eggplant. This was a winning dish with everyone. We all loved this light and very flavoursome treat. We had never tried this before and were so happy that we did. When it arrived it looked like hot chips! This was also a crowd pleaser. It was such a "Moreish" dish that we all kept grazing.

We included Nasi Goreng in our array of tasty, spicy meals. This is generally popular - and we all really did enjoy this side/dish.





















The Hainanese Crispy Roasted Chicken consisted of chilli and ginger-shallot sauces. You could order either a whole or half chicken and considering all the other food we already had we ordered the half chicken. This dish had nice fresh flavours and was very nice.

We generally order steamed rice and tonight was again one of those occasions. As always, we used the rice to soak up our many tasty sauces.





















For Sir, his dish of the night was the Kam Heog squid. It was stir-fried squid served with an aromatic mix of dried shrimp, curry leaves and chilli paste. This dish was popular especially with both Sir and Mlady as we a huge fans of a good seafood dish.





















Ipoh Club is not your average club grub. The Malaysian theme inside a club is unusual, but it works well. The food is ideal for sharing and the place is already very popular, and for good reasons. We really enjoyed it all.

Sir and Mlady's visit to Ipoh Club was supported by the Malaysian Kitchen Programme.