Roti perfection, Malaysian-style

Malaysian food is one of the world's great cuisines, so I was excited to check out Restoran Malaysia, in Richmond Hill (815 Major Mackenzie Drive East at Bayview). The bustling, sprawling restaurant is one of only a handful of places in the GTA that serve Malaysian food. But when the first dish arrived at my table, I was disappointed. 

 

 

The mutton and beef skewers were tough and chewy. They were coated with an overly sweet marinade, and the accompanying satay sauce was sugary, like a dessert.

The nasi goreng was also a let down. Normally this is a wonderful Southeast Asian fried rice dish is packed with all kinds of great meat and veggies, held together with a syrupy version of soy sauce. But Restoran Malaysia's version tasted like your standard take-out Chinese fried rice with flavourless pieces of chicken, shrimp and frozen vegetables. But soon some items appeared at the table that more than made up for the meal's mediocre beginnings.

 

 

It was the roti. Oh, the roti. This exquisite flat bread is called roti canai or roti prata in Malaysia, and it has roots in Indian cuisine. The thin chewy bread is slightly crisp and toasty on the outside. Served with a bowl of intense, rich curry sauce, I could eat endless amounts of the stuff.  

"People come here from Malaysia and say the roti here is better here than at home," boasts chef and owner Howard Chew. "We made 35,000 pieces of roti here in the last six months." 

It's made in the restaurant kitchen on a griddle, and consists of just flour, milk, sugar, salt and ghee (clarified butter). "You have to it eat right away," says Howard. "It's crisp on the outside, but if you take home, it becomes all soft."

While Indian curries are flavoured mainly with ground spices, Malaysian ones get their flavour from fresh ingredients such as ginger, shallots, chili pepper and garlic. "Malaysian food uses fresh ingredients like Thai food, but the cooking style is similar to Indian food," explains Howard.

The Singapore Laksa (below) is also excellent. It's a bowl of chewy noodles, fried tofu, chicken and saucers of fish cake, doused in an intensely flavourful bright orange liquid. "It's made with galangal, dry shrimp, chili, shallots, coconut milk and lemongrass," explains Howard.

While the menu certainly has some misses, the roti and laksa make a meal at Restoran Malaysia well worth the trip. 

Restoran Malaysia is at 815 Major Mackenzie Drive East,  Richmond Hill, Ont. Tel 905 508 1432. Its hours are Monday closed; Tuesday 11:30 am to 10pm;  Wednesday & Thursday 11am to 10pm; Friday & Saturday 11am to 11pm; Sunday noon to 10pm.  The food is halal.

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Sizzling dishes from Central Asia

***UPDATE AS OF SEPT. 2013: THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED***

Former U.S. presidential candidate Herman Cain lampooned his lack of familiarity with the central Asian country of Uzbekistan. "If someone asks me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-stan-stan I'm going to say I don't know," he quipped during his short-lived run for office. 

However, if Cain makes it to Toronto, he'll have a chance to educate himself on the culture and food of Uzbekistan by visiting North York's Tashkent restaurant near Keele and Steeles. Tashkent, named after the Uzbek capital city, is tucked into a strip mall in an industrial area between an adult video store and a licensed massage parlour. 

 

The restaurant is a central meeting place for Toronto's Uzbek community, which is based in Thornhill.  Interesting fact: Uzbekistan is a rare doubly landlocked country, meaning that it doesn't have access to the ocean, and neither do any of its neighbours. 

I started out with an order of manti, the classic Uzbek steamed lamb dumplings (below). They're big and stretchy, and a patron implores me to abandon my clumsy attempt to eat them with a knife and fork in favour of my hands. "This type of food you eat with your fingers," she tells me. 

Next up is samsa (above), a steaming baked pastry filled with lamb meat. The crust is delicate and flakey, but it's the tangy tomato herb sauce makes this memorable. 

Dgiz-biz (below) is a meat-heavy entree of lamb and beef meat, fat and bone, slow cooked until wonderfully tender in its own juices. It's served inside a bowl made of crisp Uzbek bread, which somehow resembles a taco salad bowl. Eating the dill-infused hot chunks of flesh is very satisfying.

It's not uncommon to have many lamb dishes in one sitting. "A typical meal might be eight courses of lamb," explains the server Vlada. "There will even be lamb in the salad. There's a lot of fried food and everything's made from scratch."

Vlada (below) is originally from Kazakhstan (which borders on Uzbekistan) and she was delighted to discover Tashkent when she recently moved to Toronto from Hamilton. "I was so happy to find the taste of home."

Tashkent Restaurant, 800 Petrolia Road, Toronto. Tel: 416 667 0737. Hours are Monday noon to 10pm; Tuesday closed; Wed & Thurs, noon to 10pm; Friday & Saturday, noon to midnight; Sunday noon til 11pm. 

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