Monday, January 9, 2012

A New Discovery

Last week, enroute to visiting our Haj buddies Abang Mat and his wife Kak Nor in Kampung Sri Kundang, Kuala Selangor, we spied this nondescript kedai makan simply named "Restoran Nasi Padang".

It is located on the main road in Paya Jaras, just a few metres after the town mosque and medan rakyat, a cluster of shophouses fronting a small square.

It goes without saying that we both love nasi padang, but finding a decent Minang eatery in KL has never been easy.

Besides one that serves truly glorious Minang fare in Kampung Pandan, and another in TTDI (with a pricey tag too), I don't know of others.

Of course, there's the famous "Restoran Sambal Hijau" in Sg Penchala, but the fare's not bona fide Minang; rather, it's a mishmash of Indonesian, Kelantanese and Thai.

We told ourselves we would try this Paya Jaras one out, and today we did. It was worth the drive (fortunately not very far, only 20 minutes from TTDI, taking the Sg Buloh route). 


The lauk was genuine Padang; ayam berempah, gulai tunjang, tempe goreng, masak lemak, begedel, ikan goreng cili, not to mention a very delicious rendang daging/limpa/hati (or as Pak Abu calls it, kerisik daging). The beef was cooked so tender that it 'melted' at the touch. 


Choices for the vegetable dishes were meagre and non-fussy. Of sambal, there was only one type (sambal hijau wasn't on the menu today). We had masak lemak pucuk with pisang and anchovies.

The bill came to a decent RM25, for the both of us and a tapau pack for Ann at home, for seven different types of lauk (we had four types for lunch and packed three for takeaway).

This restaurant opened two years ago and is family-owned; its owner-operator a pleasant young man in his thirties and I think it was his wife who manned the drink station.

Pak Abu primed his ears to catch snippets of conversation to determine if these folks hailed from his Kampar roots in Sumatera, but they were assimilated enough to speak standard Malay all the way.

We later asked the young man, and he told us his family originated from Sumatera (in fact he named the place but I can't recall it now).

Good food, decent price, courteous service. Rest assured, we'd be back for more...

17 comments:

Cat-from-Sydney said...

Aunty Puteri,
We've been taking the LATAR exclusively whenever we "balik kampung" nowadays that PJ somehow escapes our scrutiny. Hmmm....jaraknya hanyalah setanak nasi aje dari rumah ni... We actually ate heaps of Nasi Padang masa duduk Down Under coz there's one restaurant at the corner near the office. Masih ku teringat rendang limpa, terong balado and sambal hijaunya...yummm.... purrr...meow!

Iskandar aka DR Bubbles said...

I know a Nasi Padang place along Jalan Ipoh. Will let you know the location when I visit the place again. Suka jus Alpukat di situ.

zaitgha said...

Kak Puteri, my FIL pun org Kampar, silap2 kito besedagho ....

rohaizahabas said...

Kak..
Paya jaras dan Kuang ada very familiar to me..Paya Jaras kampong mak tiri saya dan Kuang asal mak saya..tapi tak pernah terpandang pun warung Nasi ni...Kena bukak mata beso beso lepaih ni dan try all the dishes..hehehe
Dialect orang paya jaras dan kuang ni lebih mirip ke orang yang berada di Padang Sumatera...bukan macam orang Nogori...Saya suka Rendang dia kak..sedap sangat macam mak saya buat...

Mis hot said...

There's two in Kelana Jaya. One near SS5 and one near SS6.

_deli said...

Salam Kak Puteri,

Ezza; saya pernah ke Sumatera suatu ketika dahulu dan diberitahu bahawa loghat NS lebih mirip dialek rumpun di Paya Kumbuh sungguhpun waris pemerintahan NS bergalur dari Pagar Ruyung.

Saya amati(dengarkan)juga, ada kebenarannya. Saya lebih senang mengatakan "bahasa Minang" bukan "bahasa NS" kerana ia memang berbeza. Malah saya dikhabarkan juga "bahasa Minang" = "bahasa Padang" pada mana saya pula tidak bersetuju 100% kerana mengecilkan ruang lingkupnya.

TQ Kak Puteri... :-)

Tarmizi said...

Kampar and Minang in terms of dialect, almost the same, just that minang use a lot of truncated words while kampar don't. But they do understand each other, after all it is the Malay language pronounced differently like Trengganu and Kelantan. The kampong of orang kampar that I know of are in Parit and Bagan Datok, Perak. Peket 60 and Paya Jaras in Selangor. Batu Tiga Mentakab and Kuala Krau in Pahang. So maybe we are related Zaitgha, test your FIL whether the name Pak Abu Nipah from Sungai Besar, Selangor familiar to him.

Wan Sharif said...

Thank you for the entry .. I have not been very adventurous as far as food is concerned so suggestion on a decent eating place in areas I used to frequent is always welcomed

remgold said...

meow,
nak! Nak! NAK!
lain kali bawa saya maam.

Kama At-Tarawis said...

Cat - only 10 mins from yr abode.. perhaps the next time we go, we'll stop by yr place on the way home, for dessert.. hehehe

Is - plse do. would like very much to give it a try. btw, jus alpukat tu apa?

Zai & Tarmizi (aka Pak Abu) - bagus tu kalau bersedagho.. mana tau, entah2 dapat sedagho punya hargo bilo menompah kueh..LOL

Ezza - bagi saya yg tak arif ni zah, loghat orang kampar & orang minang NS bunyi sama aja.. :-)

Deli - kak puteri asal usul pagar ruyung, tapi langsung tak reti 'bahasa ibunda' yg asal sebab dah fully assimilated. kadang2 terasa juga kekurangannya bila dengar orang bercakap minang..

Mh - whereabouts kat Kelana Jaya plse? would appreciate kalau boleh bagi some landmarks.. teringin nak pi cari..

YohWang - sejak berumur & tak lagi gi opis hari2, kami rajin juga merayap cari dan test tempat makan baru..

Rem - sebut saja, rem.. anytime you're in town just let us know. we'd be only too happy to take you ...

pugly said...

Kak Kama, this makan place is so near to my home - masuk simpang kat traffic light depan tu dah nak sampai my house! But I've never tried this place - must do now that you've recommended it - as well as the popular Ayeem Burger just next door.

Kama At-Tarawis said...

pugly - aha! kami buat u-turn kat traffic light tu lah masa nak balik kl.. hehehe... i think we'd be going that way more often from now on kot.. makanan nampak cam murah jer compared to kl/pj.

Chenon Ishak said...

Salam Put3..first time commenting on your blog..my hubby n i love nasi padang...will definitely checkout this place...btw have you tried out the small gerai at Jalan raja muda musa in kg baru...been going there since the 80s however slightly pricy but the apokat drink is cheap rm3...

nice to finally meet you in person at the book launch...

zaitgha said...

Hubby kata kalau suku Piliang, mmg bersedagho lah kito ni....His ppl ramai di Peket 60

Tarmizi said...

Bolah mak den ramai di kuala krau, bolah abah ramai di peket 60. Nampaknyo bersedagho la kito. Den dah lamo tak cakap kampar, bejugak ajo la.

Norin said...

Hi Kak Puteri,


ooh how i love Nasi Padang. There's a few good ones. The best i think is located at Gombak near the where used to be Pak Ali's house? They would have the Gulai Jering or Jengkol as they call it and Sambal Petai on daily basis.

2nd is at Sentul right at the traffic light before the turning to head to Gombak.

love!!
norin.f

Kama At-Tarawis said...

cheNon - the pleasure's mine. insyaallah kita berjumpa lagi in the not-too-distant future.

norin - pak abu and i akan pi cari kedai2 yg norin katakan ni soon, and i'll write abt it, insyaallah..