If you've been reading my tweets on twitter, you'll know of my ongoing saga with our house renovations. We were originally told that the bathroom would take 12 days. It had been 6 weeks exactly since that fateful day and we've endured complaints from neighbours about hammering at 2am and yawning stretches of them disappearing for 2 weeks. So my Mother got serious and asked her friend Janice who works in construction to have a word to them. She did and he snapped into action and before we knew it, our bathroom was done. Of course one way to thank her for her help was with lunch and we asked her where she would like to go. Kaki Lima (which means 5 foot way or sidewalk in Malaysian) was the best choice. If anything is going to intrigue me, it's a name. Kaki Lima caught my eye many months ago as I was always interested by the name "Malaysian Breakfast Favourites". I love breakfast food (but at much later in the day).
It's a small space, not quite 5 feet long but perhaps 5 metres long. On the right there's a display of the food and kueh (sweets). A list of drinks sounds good and we pick 4 different kinds - cold drinks are $3.20 and hot drinks are $3. As for breakfast food, I need to confirm this with Janice - is this really what Malaysians eat for breakfast. "Sure!" she replies. Okaaay...
Bandung on left $3.20 and Tea Tarik on right $3
The Bandung is more an Indonesian drink with condensed milk and rosewater tinged a lurid candy pink. Whilst it has ice cubes floating in it, the drink is warm and sweet and reminds me of a Strawberry Quik from my childhood with a rose flavour. Tea Tarik or pulled tea is usually served foamy due to the pulling of the tea (pouring it from one glass to another).
Kopi $3
The copi isn't as sweet as I like it and of course it's Nescafe so a coffee connoisseur would probably give this a miss.
Barley water $3
I love sweet, refreshing barley water as it reminds me of growing up and it was delicious.
Curry puffs and kueh $1.50 each
The curry puff flavours are chicken and vegetable. They're deep fried with that layered pastry they're good even though they're cold with the chicken a clear winner.
The Kueh are delicious, particularly the rice mountain topped with brown sugared coconut-the glutinous rice is soft and the coconut crunchy. The Pandan Kueh is excellent (and my mum has a recipe!).
Curry Mee $9.50
Each day has a special dish and today's is Curry Mee. This is a watery soup with lots of bean sprouts and hokkien noodles. It's supposed to have prawns but I don't come across any and the soup is very plain and watery. I'm not in love with this dish.
Nasi Lemak $9
The Nasi Lemak on the other hand is quite good with two chicken curries, Ikan Bilis (anchovy), peanuts, cucumber and egg. The chicken curries are particularly good in this dish.
Roti Canai $8
The Roti Canai, is two flakey round roti with a dahl. The dahl isn't the most fabulous accompaniment, in fact the chicken curry from the Nasi Lemak is much better as Janice suggests but almost any roti is good roti in my books.
In rather exciting news, I will be on the radio this morning at 11:00-11:30am on ABC 702 with Simon Marnie discussing the recent Sydney International Food Festival. Along with me there will also be two other bloggers Demis Lyall-Wilson who is the ABC702 food blogger and Helen from Grabyourfork.
So tell me Dear Reader, what is your favourite breakfast food?
Kaki Lima Cafe
343 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW
Phone: (02) 9662 0588
Open: Tuesday to Friday 10am-8pm
Saturday and Sunday 10am-3pm
Closed Mondays
