We were at Vivocity and decided to have dinner at Madam Kwan's, a newish restaurant serving "authentic Malaysian cuisine". Okay, the quotation marks are unfair; the Madam Kwan's does serve the kind of food that is ubiquitous in Malaysia, especially the western states of Peninsula Malaysia. I would say the menu here is more authentically Malaysian than Papparich or Grandma's, or even Old Town, which is a Malaysian chain.
The menu provides a first inkling that we would not be paying hawker centre prices. This is a somewhat pricy joint when you consider that it essentially serves the kind of food found in a Malaysian open-air food square. Expect to pay a premium for simple things. Por ehemplo (pardon the Spanish):
Filtered water is charged at $1.00 per person. Filtered water presumably means tap water that has been passed through some sort of filtration device. Perhaps it is nothing more than a piece of gauze covering the tap's nozzle. Who knows? But at least it is refillable.
The food section of the menu is quite well-done, with a short description provided below each item. A good primer for those unfamiliar with Malaysian cuisine, although it reinforces the impression that this is local food targeted at tourists; like what you'd find in a hotel and complete with the inflated price tag. $7.90 for one single fried drumstick. Whoa, and people complain about KFC being expensive!!
We ordered the chicken curry because I had read that Madam Kwan's does a pretty good version of this perennial favourite. For $14.90 (before the obligatory taxes), we got 4 good-sized pieces of chicken in a thick curry gravy. No potatoes, disappointingly, but it's not that style of curry. There's a part of me that baulks at the idea of paying $15 for chicken curry but I am glad we gave this a try. The chicken flesh was fall-of-the-bone tender and the gravy was spoon-licking delicious. Using fresh coconut milk in curry makes a world of difference for both texture and fragrance. The spice level was also just right and did not overwhelm the "lemak" base of the curry. My only complain is that there wasn't more gravy in the bowl!
I forgot to photograph the actual curry dish because we were too busy digging in the moment it was served. But the picture in the menu is a pretty good representation. Usually, the "beauty shots" of dishes look nothing at all like the stuff that ends up on our tables. Happily, this was not the case here. The chicken pieces were indeed as large and as chunky as depicted in the menu.
To fulfill our greens RDI, we also ordered stir-fried asparagus (in combination with a bunch of other ingredients like sliced chestnuts and cashews). This was rather excellent as well. And as with everything else at Madam Kwan's, slightly on the pricy side, setting us back $12.90 before taxes.
All in, a worthwhile dining experience. Sure, the same dishes in a Zi Char stall would be a heck of a lot cheaper. But perhaps not quite as satisfyingly delicious.
