18 October 2009

Kuali: Malaysian, Lane Cove (27 Sept 2009)

1st Floor, 115 Longueville Road, Lane Cove NSW 2066


Messy finger-licking crab time

I have a love/hate relationship with crab. I love the sweet tasty meat but hate how it's such hard and messy work to separate the meat from the shell. Kuali promotes their curry crab as it's signature dish [why are the signature dishes usually the most expensive item :-)] so I had to try it because I'm always looking for the best crab in Sydney although when it comes to paying over $70/kg for seafood I'd prefer to be able to actually first see and pick my own live crab out of a tank like at Golden Century and know how much it weighs — all this is done behind-the-scenes in the Kuali kitchen so I'm actually not even sure if it's even a live crab (there's no mention of 'live' on the menu) — I know, I'm such a skeptic. The curry sauce is very tasty which goes well with some roti chanai and the meat is quite nice although I found a lot of the meat wanting to stick to the shell like in the claw which made it extra hard to get to.

The reason for checking out Kuali was due to reading about the satay from One More Bite and using a complimentary voucher which runs til 30 Nov 2009. The chicken satay was tasty and a decent size — came with cucumber and onion although still no sign of authentic compressed rice cubes. The vegetable spring rolls looked promising but were a non eventful for me and I found them rather bland and a touch dry. The Honey Pepper Beef Fillet was quite tasty and tender and the Lamb Hot Pot I think was just another name for Mongolian Lamb. The Durian Ice Cream Pancake had shavings of frozen fresh durian and the chef wanted us to try his Durian Panna Cotta which would definitely appease the durian lovers out there. Now what's the story with handles on tea cups instead of Asian tea cups like Bambusia also uses — I'm thinking is this to cater to the Western/Anglo market? — not authentic in my books and the handle was too small to put your fingers in it anyway. Also needed to ask for chopsticks, at first we thought they just didn't use them.

Kajang satay chicken $11 for 5


Popiah Goreng Deep-fried vegetable spring rolls $4.60 for 2 (before and after being cut)

Queensland Mud Crab (signature dish) with Poh's curry sauce $74 (I think) per kg

Sweet meat

Messy hands factor


Shell left overs

Roti chanai $3.50 each (half pictured)

Lamb Hot Pot Stir fried lamb with aromatic herbs served in a hot pot $20

Honey Pepper Beef Fillet $20

Penang Char Kuey Teow $15

Nasi Goreng Kuali fried rice with chicken, prawns and vegetables $13.50

Wok fried mixed greens $14

Sago Gula Melaka: Sago pearls served with palm sugar $7.80


Durian ice cream pancake $10

Durian panna cotta (complimentary)

Jasmine tea $2.20 per person - tea cup handles?

Cutlery — where's my chopsticks?

Little hand bowl — before and after crab.

The bill



Dining


Lane Cover Arcade

2 comments:

Jen (jenius.com.au) said...

Interesting point about having to ask for chopsticks. I think by default, even Mamak set the table with fork & knives. The durian pannacotta sounds really good but I've never liked the idea of eating durian anywhere but at home... As yummy as it is, the after-smell is never a pleasant one.

Simon Leong said...

hi jen, i remember the days when chopsticks were standard in Chinese restaurants and you had to ask for a knife and fork if you needed one :-) i'm actually not a fan of durian but the pannacotta wasn't too strong for me to not enjoy. there wasn't too much after smell hehe :-)

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