Kelantan Delights, Wisma Consplant, Subang Jaya

*Disclaimer: This is an invited review, extended to me by PureGlutton.

I have not been to the east coast of the Peninsular of Malaysia but I heard a lot of good things about their food from J2kfm and WMW. My chance to try out some Kelantanese-Malay cuisine was knocking at my door when PureGlutton extended the invitation to dine at Kelantan Delights to a few of us last month.

As Kelantan and the southern part of Thailand are just next to each other, there are some minor Siamese influence on their cuisine, such as the Sireh Daun Kadok (RM 21.50, picture above) which resembles Thai appetizer Mieng Kam. Their keropok lekor (RM 8.50) – a type of eastern coast of snack made of fish – was rather good with black pepper added for extra flavour.

Typical rice dishes one could find in Kelantan are the famous Nasi Dagang, Nasi Tumpang and Nasi Kerabu – of course we couldn’t leave without trying their Nasi Tumpang (RM 18.00 with fried chicken). Wrapped with banana leaf in a long cone shape, the package also includes sambal, meat floss and curry. The rice were rather moist to our liking but the condiments were great.

Nasi Kerabu Daging Bakar (RM 20.00, top picture) and Nasi Dagang Kerutuk Daging (RM 20.00) were another two rice dishes we sampled. The blue colour is added to the rice with the use of bunga telang (blue pea flower) to give it an interesting blue hue. It is then mixed with a plethora of finely shredded aromatic herbs and served with daging bakar (roasted beef), salted egg and crackers. Nasi Dagang on the other hand, is one of Kelantan’s iconic dish – usually served with gulai ikan tongkol (tuna curry) but here you can opt to have it with beef or chicken.

If you’re a big eater, try Nasi Budu (RM 19.00) which comes with ulam (raw vegetables), fish, gulai kawah and sambal.

Ok, enough about rice for the moment, here are some a la carte dishes. Belut (eel) Cili Kering (RM 24.00) and Tom Yam Udang Kelapa Muda (RM 21.50) are the spicy ones we had, with the latter served in a hollowed coconut “bowl”. We had two types of fish actually – the one showed here is Ikan Siakap Daun Kadok (RM 49.00) and Ikan Siakap Serai (lemongrass, not shown here). The lemongrass version definitely fares better in terms of flavour and aroma in my opinion. Then comes the Puyoh Goreng (RM 23.00) which are essentially fried quails. My first time trying quails, there aren’t much difference to spring chicken except maybe spring chicken has meatier drumsticks?

The only noodle dish (if one could call this a noodle…) we had that night was Laksam (RM 14.00). Yes, Laksam, and no, that wasn’t a typo. It is very much like chee cheong fun except it is served in rolls with thick and milky coconut milk-based gravy with a hint of fish, lots of shredded herbs, dry sambal and hard-boiled egg. Not a dish for everyone as some might find it too heavy to the palate (especially with the thick coconut milk gravy).

For dessert, we had 4 types, with Lopes (RM 7.00), Pulut Durian (RM 9.50), Royal Plate (RM 14.50) and er… Ketupat Sotong (RM 9.50). Yes, even sotong (squid) can be made into dessert as well! Lopes – glutinuous rice cake with shredded coconut and gula melaka (palm sugar) tastes very similar to our onde-onde, while for the Pulut Durian, it has a strong durian aroma but I wish they would serve it without the seeds. Royal Plate essentially has everything that Kelantan has to offer on dessert, which includes akok (slightly burnt pan cakes), jala emas (noodle-look alike), bunga tanjong (yellow beads made of duck egg’s yolks that were very rich and dense) and finally, tahi itik (literally translated as duck’s droppings). Oh yeah, the Ketupat Sotong definitely stole the limelight that night as none of us ever imagine, let alone try it. The roasted squid is stuffed with glutinuous rice and served with a savoury brown gravy. I can’t really describe how it tastes like, perhaps PureGlutton could shed some light on its mystery, hehe.

Kelantan Delights
Ground Floor, East Wing,
Wisma Consplant 1,
No 2, Jalan SS16/4,
47500 Subang Jaya.

Tel : 03-5611 7845
Web: http://www.kelantandelights.com/ver1/main-subang.html
Business hours : 11am – 11pm
For map, click HERE.