Northside/The Restaurant Scout

"Rasa Sayang's Huge Menu is Territory Worth Exploring"

By Krista Reese For the Journal-Constitution Thursday, Feb 27, 2003

3 out of 3 Forks -- Excellent: A destination, no matter where you live.

When you visit a lot of restaurants, you begin to assume a few things when you're handed a huge menu: The restaurant (1) wants to be a lot of things to a lot of people, (2) doesn't do any one thing very well; or (3) has incredible depth and range. Unfortunately, options 1 and 2 occur much more frequently than 3. However, we've experienced option 3, and it's called Rasa Sayang.

It's even rarer that you find this kind of cooking skill in a small neighborhood restuarant. The sweet, knowledgeable service is just one more bonus.

The menu includes Malaysian, Chinese and Thai dishes. If you've never tried Malaysian curries - a little like Thai, except more complex, and often spicier - you will want to sample them here.

The appetizer combo plate is a good way to get started, with a couple of chicken satays (marinated and grilled on skewers), a lobak roll (mined shrimp and pork in a soft-steamed and wrinkly tofu skin), acat (pronounced "a-cah". It's a sweet and spicy cabbage salad that we couldn't get enough of), spring rolls, fried chicken wings spiked with fresh ginger, and keropok (shrimp chips). You sometimes find small, pastel versions of these delicately flavored, deep fried chips in Thai restaurants; here, they're enormous and perfectly greaseless. Not everything here is hot, but the staff dependably informs you which dishes are. The Rasa Sayang kari is a coconut-milk-rice stew of okra, tomato and onion, with your choice of meat or vegetable guest star. It's very good with purple chunks of soft-cooked eggplant, and the faint taste of nuts and okra in a rich stew recalls African-influenced cooking (including our own gumbo). The tom yum fish is a good counterpoint, with lightly dusted and sauteed sea bass in a prickly sweet sauce with green beans and fresh pineapple chunks, it all goes well with jasmine rice. The desserts are the standard coconut ice cream type, so opt instead for a fresh-chilled, whole coconut. The staff cuts a hole in the top and supplies the straws. You'll be surprised at the clear, light and only slightly sweet nutty flavor of the milk. (And you can peel off bits of the white nutmeat to chew).