Lao Mai Zi may seem like your typically Chinese “dai chow” restaurant yet they have a few dishes with a twist that lure patrons for a little something different, such as the smoked duck breast with lychee (RM 25).
The duck is the fattest duck I have had in Malaysia – fat enough to be sent to Beijing’s Quanjude to make a good roast out of it. Immersed in lychee broth, the hint of lychee sweetness goes oh-so-well with the superbly smoky duck.
The rice wine egg is another amusing creation (RM 14). I am sure everyone have had rice wine chicken at some point but rice wine egg is almost unheard of. Well I suppose if you can add wine to chicken, you should very well be able to do the same to eggs. It’s really a simple dish cooked with thinly sliced ginger, scrambled eggs and simmered quickly in yellow wine with a bit of sugar, but the outcome is a blissful satisfaction that caught me off guard.
This dish is known as salted egg “tofu” but it is really tofu mixed with fish paste with fish paste being the domineering ingredient. Anyhow, as long as it has salted egg yolk, I am happy (RM 13).
Stir fried egg plant is resplendent of colors with purple egg plants in a light batter with basic aromatics of green scallions, red chili, and a dash of salt and pepper (RM 16). The egg plant is all mushy though the spices didn’t coat on too well.
Stir fried lotus (RM 13).
There’s one more dish which I didn’t take a picture of is the “Chin Cai Steamed Fish”, with “chin cai” meaning “anything goes” (RM 22). The fish used is tilapia and steamed to tender. Indeed I couldn’t really quite categorize it as Teow Chew steam, or plain steam because it has a bit of everything – ginger, scallion, rice wine, soy sauce, bean paste – I guess that’s where it got its name from!
You will be able to see the signboard of Lao Ma Zi Restaurant on Jalan Ipoh, but you’ll have turn into the backlane to look for the entrance which is peculiarly located at the back of the building.
More Info
Address : 726 Wisma Yoon Cheng (Basement), 4 1/2 Miles Jalan Ipoh, KL.
The rice wine omelet seem like very comfortable to be eaten on a rainy evening ~ Comfort food
It’s quite light and indeed makes a comfortable meal 🙂