Authentic Kelantan Delights? I'm Coming!

Update : Village House Kopitiam has closed down.

There are many new eateries coming up in Damansara Uptown. Some have been there for many months waiting to be discovered. While running errands one day, I passed by Village House Kopitiam. Authentic Kelantan Delights. Ah!

They have a staff standing at the entrance, at the ready to welcome passersby into the cafe. The guy caught my attention. He passed me the menu and I started interrogating him.

Is the tukang masak orang Kelantan? (is the cook from Kelantan?) Is the food here betul-betul Kelantan asli? (is the food authentically Kelantan?) That in spite of what it says on the signboard. You see, some places claim they are authentic but when you taste the food, you know you've been had. 

Well, I let him off and told him that I would drop by one of these days. And so I did. I wanted to try the Nasi Kerabu.

I went in around 12:00pm and it was all quite then. It's a neat little place. It has an outdoor seating too.

As you can see, they have wooden stools and metal chairs. And....

......banquette seating! That thing there is made of concrete and welded to the wall. So fatties, datanglah beramai-ramai, don't worry. That's where Madam sat :)

There are air-conditioners and fans blowing away to keep you cool.

I took a look at the menu.

Image source : www.zomato.com.

All the selections look pretty good to me. I settled for the Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik. This is one of the set meals that comes with a drink. Only one choice though i.e. Teh O (hot or cold).

As I sat there, more people started coming in.

Their turnaround time could be improved. My Teh O took about 10 minutes and the Nasi Kerabu about 20 minutes or so. Nasi Kerabu is something you just assemble from the ready prepared ingredients. Unless of course if they were not quite prepared for an early comer like me.

There you go. The Nasi Kerabu Ayam Percik.

I know what you are thinking. Should't the rice be blue or tinged in blue? That's the color nasi kerabu should be but I don't mind at all. It's better for the rice to be white rather than stained with artificial coloring (unless they take the trouble to use Bunga Telang). What is important is the taste.

The rice is topped with the sambal tumis and sambal ikan.

The Ayam Percik. Upon closer inspection, I had an extra piece of meat from the breast.

To eat, you mix everything all up - the rice, sambal and raw vegetables.

They could have been more generous with the sambal belacan.

So how was it? The Ayam Percik was good. Or rather the percik gravy was good. The chicken was sort of dryish and stringy. I wished that it was moist and succulent. Could it be that it was placed too long on the grill?

As for the Nasi Kerabu itself, I was left wanting. There is something missing. I remember the one from Madam Bee's.

Madam Bee's. My benchmark for good Nasi Kerabu. This one is without the sambal tumis but has loads of aromatics.

What was missing was the kerisik (toasted grated coconut) and aromatics like daun kesum (laksa leaves) and daun kemangi (Thai basil).  There were some aromatics among the raw cabbage and long beans but it was so scant that the taste/fragrance did not shine through.

But never mind. I will not draw conclusions just from this one visit. A second visit is in order.

No GST, no service charge. Nice.