Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Malaysian Meal, Moment Magnitude

Giggles and I met three new friends (well, new to me) for lunch at Little Malaysia (3944 N. Peck Road, El Monte) today.
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Little Malaysia resides in an unassuming strip mall and is filled with somewhat rickety chairs and odd green decor.

But the food is good and the prices decent.

If you've never had Malaysian food, it is sort of like a combination of Chinese, Indian, and Thai. The flavors are plentiful and powerful. Like your food bland? Go elsewhere!

I enjoyed my Malaysian iced tea with milk ($2.50). It tasted like the milk tea at boba places.
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Roti canai ($5.95) is an Indian-style pancake that is a crispy and savory and served with a side of tasty vegetarian curry and sugar. Loved this. Great way to start!
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I don't recall the name of this dish, but it was a tasty mix of shrimp, vegetables, and egg noodles.
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I really liked the penang hokkien mee soup ($6.75), which was comprised of egg noodles, shrimp, pork ribs, egg, and bean sprouts. The broth was delish.
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I don't remember which fried rice dish was, but it was beautiful and colorful.
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The spicy lemon grass chicken ($8.25), steeped with chili and herbs, was a crowd-pleaser. Sweet and ever-so-slightly spicy.
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This gorgeous array is nasi lemak ($8.25) -- coconut-pandan rice, vegetables, curried shrimp, fried anchovies and peanuts, and dried shrimp and chili sambal on top of a boiled egg. I thought it was kind of like a Malaysian version of a bento!
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An added bonus during our Malay foray was that I saw the car of my attainable dreams. I'd swooned over it at the auto show late last year, but it was quite something to see one in the wild. Oh, Mini Clubman! Maybe next year!
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During our lunch, one of our dining companions got a phone call asking if she was ok. Apparently, there'd been an earthquake during our short drive to lunch! We hadn't felt a thing! It was only a 5.4, but people were really freaked out. I checked my BlackBerry, and I saw that I had a whole bunch of e-mails. (Thank you, everybody who checked up on me today!)

We returned to the office, and everybody was outside. The CIA had evacuated. When we were finally allowed into the building, we witnessed a bit of damage -- a fallen ceiling panel.
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Ooh. Ahh.

22 comments:

  1. Hilarious! I had a similar experience--I was in an elevator at the LB Aquarium and didn't know there'd been a quake until people started calling like crazy to see if we were okay. I guess I'm conditioned from all my bumpy rides at the CIA because I didn't think twice about all the jiggling in the elevator.

    So who are these mysterious new friends?

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  2. I've never tried Malaysian food. Not that I can find any here to try . . .

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  3. The food looks awesome. I love Malaysian food, especially lemongrass chicken. I wonder if I can make roti now that I have mastered naan...

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  4. yeah I didn't hear about the earthquake until late last night night. How dare mother nature try to rain.. well actually shake.. on my birthday parade! Glad all is well.

    oh and i drove a mini convertable a couple weeks ago and it was the funnest frickin' thing EVER!

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  5. we had a few CWs out of the office driving or on the train and none of them felt it. however, for those of us in a bldg, it was pretty scary. it just wouldn't stop rolling!

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  6. Holy freaking crap, that food looks delicious!

    I love the ooh ahh over the ceiling tile, we only get tornados.

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  7. The earthquake went on forever. I can't believe you missed it.

    Malaysian sounds like a good mix. I'll need to try it, for sure.

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  8. it all looks delicious. i need to find a malaysian place in dallas...

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  9. mmm. the food looks great. Not too far from there myself. I'll have to try it sometime.
    I was at lunch myself during the earthquake and I definitely felt it.

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  10. So funny that you didn't feel the earthquake! It was a 5.8 in Orange County and we were rolling for a while in San Diego!

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  11. yummy!

    so not sad that I missed the earthquake.

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  12. Yeah, the quake was really more of a roller. No real jarring movements. You're lucky you at least got a fallen ceiling panel. We got nuttin' :P

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  13. I can't believe you just had your first wild Clubman sighting! The are way popular 'round my parts.

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  14. Mmmmm, Malaysian food looks yummy!

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  15. lunch sounds delicious!! i was in my (parked) car when the earthquake hit and was trying to figure out why my car was shaking. was my parking brake off or something? i finally realized it was an earthquake when i switched on npr in the car. :-)

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  16. Nice alliteration in your title. :)

    I've never had Malaysian food, but it sounds like I'd like it.

    I test drove a Mini once. Loved it. I really want to own one someday.

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  17. I was in OC for the shake. It sure was fun trying to evacuate 86 preschoolers!

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  18. i thought that thing was called a "root canal" and i was totally cracking up. yes, i'm a dork. but you knew that.

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  19. Would you laugh if I told you I jumped under my desk faster than you could say mama?

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