Sedap Malaysian & Chinese Cuisine

Following on from the declaration of love for Char Kuay Teow in my previous post, let me tell you about this.

Earlier this year, Arivind was on his way to work along Old Street when he made a truly fortunate discovery: a small little restaurant he hadn't noticed before, with a signboard that said Sedap ("delicious" in Malay).

Ultra excited, we had dinner there as fast as we could and loved it SO much that the first thing I did when I came home was write this rave review on Trusted Places. I wanted everyone to know about it, especially fellow Malaysian foodies like bellaphon who as I hoped then shared his own rave review, nicely making the effort to namecheck me in the process (thank you!).

A couple of months later, Arivind was there by himself for lunch when he casually asked the lady serving him how business was. To our surprise and delight, she replied that they had been getting many new customers who had apparently come after reading an online review by "this girl called Samantha Tan"! Upon discovering who he was ("oh you are Arivind ah!?"), she very excitedly ran to the kitchen to pull her Mum out (old Mrs Yeoh who does all the cooking), introduced them, gave him a discount on his bill, boxed several slices of free homemade kuih ubi kayu (traditional sticky tapioca cake) to take home and told him to please bring me the next time so they can meet and thank me.

Haha WOW, thank you Yeohs so glad to know I've been of help :) I actually haven't yet had the opportunity to go back, but will definitely do so soon. In the meantime, here's the original review reposted- might as well make full use of my new food blog! :)

Sedap Malaysian & Chinese Cuisine

102 Old Street, London EC1V 9AY
0207 4900 200 3rd February 2009

From the people behind "Nonya" in Notting Hill (now closed) comes this great new gem on Old Street, serving amazingly authentic Penang Chinese hawker-style cuisine executed to perfection!

Char Kuay Teow (£6.95) was absolutely divine, complete with yummy slices of lap cheong (Chinese pork sausage)- "the BEST Char Kuay Teow in London" according to my partner, and we have eaten a LOT of this dish in many many places!

Hainanese Chicken Rice (£7), one of my favourite foods since I was a child was also gorgeous, a big generous portion of succulent poached chicken alongside fragrant flavoursome rice. Pity it didn't come with any broth, but that's a minor quibble seeing as the dish was delicious.

We loved the Nasi Lemak (£7.40) too, which was typical Penang Chinese style (sweeter, less spicy sambal) served with a tasty chicken curry and, more unusually, a piece of deep fried mackerel in place of traditional "ikan bilis". We didn't mind the missing crispy anchovies though, as the mackerel complemented the rice very well!

And last but not least, the yummy beef rendang (£6.90) was so tender it practically melted in your mouth, and again spot-on Penang style.

Portions are the average size you would find in Malaysia, i.e. not a humongous American serving but satisfying enough. Price wise it is slightly more expensive than Malaysia Kopitiam and C&R in Chinatown, but we found it worth every penny for the great meal we had.

For those working in the area, they do a good lunch deal for £5.65 where you get a starter, any meat dish (including the rendang!) and rice or noodles. We were told by the owners that we could have Char Kuay Teow as the noodle option, however later visits with different staff serving us have shown this is not true so I would recommend sticking to hawker-style mains, as that is where they truly shine.

All in all, this is a perfect example of the Penang Chinese hawker section of Malaysian cuisine. From peeking into the kitchen I saw that most of the chefs were Malaysian Chinese old ladies chatting away in Hokkien, which to me is always a good sign! :)

We left with a takeaway of Malaysian Fried Rice for tomorrow, from the smell and the little nibble we sneaked (couldn't resist!) we'd recommend it too!