Jimmy and Alex Toh like to talk about food. Sit with this father-and-son pair in Aneka Rasa, the Malaysian restaurant they opened in Allston this February, and the talk of aromatic snacks from the night markets in their home city of Kuala Lumpur grows rapturous.
They talk of how lemongrass-infused satay marinades need to "match" their peanut dipping sauce, how a good bah kut teh (herbal pork soup) must have a "clean, strong broth," how it's a relief to have a restaurant of their own.
"I'm finally able to eat the food I've never been able to eat the 11 years I've been here," says Alex, who made sure his favorites made the Aneka menu. It doesn't hurt to start with his most-loved dish, otak-otak ($4.50).
Just as you would find them at the night market food stalls, the otak-otak here are grilled in neatly folded packets of banana leaf, pinned shut with little sticks. Simply pulling the sticks from the blackened packet, opening it, and inhaling the sweet char scent of the leaf delivers sensory pleasure.
Biting into the turmeric-orange fish cake snaps open a fan of Southeast Asian flavors -- gingery galangal, sweet coconut, bright lemongrass, rich shrimp paste, warming curry powder, hot chili pepper -- all woven together with the taste of fire.
You could stop right there and be happy, but the way to go here is to order a range of dishes to share. Malaysian cooking is a masterful merging of the elegance of Chinese cuisine with the bounce of Thai food and the complex hum of Indian spicing. With such fertile stomping ground, few dishes on Aneka's lengthy menu repeat flavors, so just experiment or ask the attentive servers for advice.
For starters, roti canai ($3.25), chicken curry sauce that we eagerly sopped up with a crepe-thin bread, was something you might get if a batch of biscuits and gravy collided with a South Indian spice cabinet -- comfort and pizzazz all in one.
Chinese rice wine and garlic chives gently dressed up a superbly delicate baby oyster omelet ($6.50). Taro udang ($6.95) was simple but grand with fluffy fried puffs of taro dough wrapped around tender shrimp. And, yes, the skewers of grilled, lemongrassy beef satay ($6.50) matched their heady, galangal-spiked peanut sauce. The only appetizer flop was the bland poh piah spring rolls ($5.25).
For those who know the Penang restaurant chain, Aneka Rasa may feel like deja vu. Jimmy managed Penang Boston and then Penang Harvard Square until he went solo. Much of the menu overlaps, and the spacious dining room's dark wood tables, warm-toned walls, and bamboo accents also recall Penang. But this is an independent restaurant with different recipes and additional choices.
READER COMMENTS »
View reader comments » Comment on this story »