Gourmet of Malaysia

Years from now, when we're old and no longer broke students, we'll reminisce about food we once ate. We'll say to each other, "Remember that time we went to Gourmet of Malaysia that one Sunday?"

And someone will say, "Yes! But I can't remember what we ate. I just remember having a good time."

Food is about enjoying it with people you love, and the more people the merrier. It's when you eat with people you love that the food becomes memories.

Last Sunday, we went to Gourmet of Malaysia in Scarborough (near Scarborough Town Centre) which has a mix of Malaysian and Asian Cuisines. There isn't a lot of Malaysian restaurants around Toronto, and this one was recommended because it was an old time favourite of our hosts.

It's a large restaurant, and there are two small party rooms you can book in the back. It was pretty empty that afternoon though. They also had different sized and different textured hearts floating around throughout the restaurant, so many that they fell on the ground when we brushed up against it (well, it is valentines day weekend after all).

I don't know why I have a thing for menu's. Maybe it's because they're all so cheesy looking, with random back splashes and pictures of food - or maybe I just like them because they're portals to indulgence.

I think the prices are more than reasonable. We didn't order from the menu though, since our host pre-ordered for us. Good thinking since there was a lot of us that went.

Our appetizer:

Satay Chicken, naan/roti, cucumbers, sweet peanut sauce, and chicken kabobs.

Warning:

I probably got the names of some of what is on the plate wrong. I'm not good with food. I was actually confused as to whether the bread was naan or roti for a long time, until a friend said that it's most probably naan, but Johnny swears it's roti. I don't know who to trust: my Indian friend who probably knows her stuff, or Johnny, who googled it. I'm going to do the Canadian thing and compromise. In any case, my limited food expertise only means I have to eat more.

The main course:

What looks like egg on top of the rice is a pineapple, part of the seafood pineapple fried rice. The rest of the contents of this plate will be dissected with the following pictures.

Vegetable Heart or Choy Sum in Canto. I asked a handful of people what this was called in English and no one could remember the name (probably due to the food coma we were all in after the meal) so I'm just going to call it vegetable heart. That's the thing with dining in Toronto: you're bound to eat and encounter a variety of different types of food you won't know the name of. The description for this dish was 'Vegetable with Garlic' though. Seems simple enough! (When in doubt, call anything green vegetable.)

They hand wrote the name for this dish and I couldn't make it out, but this should be Char Kway Teow (the restaurant spelt it a bit differently). I felt like this complimented the spicy chicken dish.

This one made some people sweat since it had a lot of chili and chicken, but it wouldn't have been a complete Malaysian meal without a touch of something spicy. Just try and avoid biting into the chili unless you're absolutely sure you can handle spice!

And last but not least, dessert!

Buboh Cha Cha is served hot and is sweet. It has taro, sweet potato, tapioca, black eyed beans, and coconut milk. I personally really liked this, but some people didn't like how sweet it was. I think this combination is typical in Asia though, I remember my grandma making a similar type dessert (the filipino version of it).