I was in Davao the other week and I was passing the Jetti gas station in Lanang. I saw this place called A taste of Malaysia which seemed to have a sizeable number of cars parked in front. Since my buddies were to take me out for dinner I had insisted that they take me to this place which really tickled my curiosity.

The place had all the marks of a well equipped restaurant with a sizeable espresso machine, a full bar, and a huge kitchen one can peep out through their large al fresco area apart from an air conditioned dining room.

Since Malaysian cuisine is a melting pot of cultures, a look at the menu reveals that the food leans towards the Chinese side and has some rather unique items.

We started with Yee Sang, which is a shredded raw fish dish with a sweet sour vinaigrette normally eaten for good luck on such auspicious occasions  as Chinese New Year. The very thin pink slivers of fish beside the sweet sour taste infused with fresh thin julienne cut vegetables like carrots and leeks hinted of sesame oil and ginger and would have a good appeal to Davaoeños who are kinilaw lovers.

Next was a pork rib soup made with 18 herbs called Bah Kuh Teh. The ribs were very tender and fell off the bone as we finished off the tasty, fragrant broth redolent of Chinese medium herbs, soy sauce, and caramelized onion.

Our mixed sate of chicken and beef were delightfully flavor-packed with wood smoke from the charcoal grill. The peanut sauce was not as oily as the Malay version and had a good balance of garlic and wood spice. Our Kangkong with shrimp paste had a mild garlicky and quick stir-fried style. I had asked for a sambal belachan or a chili paste with dried shrimp on the side which they make themselves and was delicious all throughout even with the other dishes.

On one part of the dinner, the Malaysian partner, Walter Lo strutted out of the kitchen to inform us that they couldn’t serve the traditional stir fried noodles or Char Kwei Teoy and instead recommended the gravy noodles with an egg drop  and seafood called Watanho which I believe was a good alternative as recommended by the friendly owner.

At this point, our fish head curry served with crisp pappadums came out with a red sauce and served with leeks, okra, eggplants, and peppers. Though authentic and leaning toward the Chinese curry style, I still prefer the Assam Indian style they serve in Malaysia and Singapore that offers more complexity in flavor. Nevertheless, our spice loving friends did like this version.

What I felt was a great discovery for the night was the specialty steamed fish that is soy sauce broth based and topped with lots of garlic and chives. The red lapu-lapu flesh had its precious oils intact as we spooned the tasty sauce over the shiny white morsels of flesh with rice. This was truly delectable and we enjoyed this with a last vegetable dish that arrived which had these large bean sprouts that were stir fried quickly with dried fish. The Malay style of cooking with dried fish gives this dish a different tasty character as we enjoyed the crunchy texture of the sprouts and the strong aroma and flavor of the dried fish.

Though the place offers some authentic Malaysian desserts, we really didn’t have room anymore and decided to cap the night with some serious digestifs of green and melt…

You can email me at chefgenegonzalez@yahoo.com. Or login to www.winesandspiritsclub-philippines.com for more info.