Tropika Malaysian/Thai Cuisine

r-r-r-radish cakes, come to momma!

Food:

On this night, I luckily had 3 dining companions, which enabled for a multi-appetizer, multi-entree meal (of course this could not have been accomplished had we not had the 2 entertainment book coupons)! Food was good, as usual, with the appetizers ousting the entrees on a quality scale.  In chronological order, we savoured and feasted on the following:

Stir-Fried Radish Cake (2 orders!) - Best dish of the night, hands down.  Tropika's version of the radish cake is definitely like no other.  It is ridiculously tasty, perfect in texture, more darker in appearance (lots of soy sauce is used), and very flavourful.  I like that is is comprised of little chunks of radish cake, molded into a semi-circle and stir-fried (as opposed to pan-fried or steamed).  Two thumbs waaay up!

Roti Canai (2 orders!) - The roti here is one of the best, imho.  It's not as flaky as one would like, but I like that (very minimal) sweet taste to it, and I love that accompanying sauce!

Chicken Satays - Little morsels of nicely-marinated chicken thighs...already quite good and with the peanut sauce? Ten times more delicious!

Pad Thai - I don't particularly love the Pad Thai here but always end up ordering it.  The portion is actually quite generous, though I'm not quite feeling the ketchup-y sauce.  The noodles are kinda dry, but I do like the tofu, chicken and shrimp that it comes with.

Green Curry Chicken with Coconut Rice (on the side) - The curry here is actually just ok too.  One can tell that it is prepared to cater to the Western palate with a substantially bigger ratio of coconut milk.  I actually prefer my curries to be more spicier, but this one was ok.  The rice was not as coconut-infused as I would've liked but it paired well with the curry!

Sweet & Sour Fish - Perhaps we had ordered the wrong dish, but this dish was the biggest disappointment of the night.  Not sure what kind of fish it was, but it was quite dinky and hardly meaty.  There was, however, a generous amount of veggies - diced peppers, tomatoes, onions...and pineapple.  The server also deboned the fish for us, which was a plus.

Sambal Beans-This was a great choice! Once again, good portion of nicely fried (and then stir-fried) long beans tossed in minced pork, xo sauce, chilies and shrimp paste.  Love, love, love the flavourfulness of it all!

Service:

Ok - not praise-worthy nor something to complain about. Though I wonder where the female servers are? :S

Value:

Reasonably priced (and even better with an entertainment book coupon! :) )

Ambience:

Arrived here on a Monday night and the restaurant was still about 3/4 full!  This decor is quite minimal, no music, but it's fine. A little loud

Overall: 7.6/10

Yay: Tropika has multiple locations, accepts varied coupons (try looking in the Georgia Straight if you don't own a Ent. book), great for family dinners and serves wonderful food all around.  Come for the radish cakes alone...mmmm

Nay:  Their entrees are good, but not spectacular.  Their drinks, though extensive, are not very good....and where are the female servers when you need one? lol





Posted by: J

Bo Laksa King's

hidden laksa gem...

As their name implies, Bo Laksa King's specialty resides in...well, none other than laksa.  For those who are not familiar, laksa is a popular noodle soup with origins in Chinese/Singaporean/Malaysian cuisine (I believe).  Vermicelli is usually the prime type of noodle offered, with the usual ingredients being: fish balls, prawns, tofu puffs, and boiled egg....all in a coconut-based curry soup.

BLK (I'm gonna shorten it just for convenience sake...and the fact that I love reducing names to an aconym-form, lol) also features other Malaysian/Burmese items (roti, satays, "pickled tea leaf salads", etc).

*Pls note:  I apologize for the lack of information as I felt too lazy on this day to glean more info, given time and circumstantial constraints!

Food:

The laksa was divine and definitely lived up the rave reviews that currently exist about this place.  It was a generous portion of vermicelli, along with the essential ingredients of tofu puffs, fish balls, prawns, pieces of chicken satays (a bonus!), topped off and garnished with red onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, japalenos and lime.  It was certainly appealing to the appetite and taste.  The soup was perfect - with the perfect ratio of coconut to curry taste.  My dining companion also pointed out that we were given a whole boiled egg, instead of a half (which you would expect at other places).  I also loved the addition of pieces of chicken satay...grilled to perfection and immaculate in taste. 

It is also important to note that they give you a separate container for the soup.  The feeling of just being able to pour your own soup in, somehow makes it so much more gratifying...and more fresh-tasting. Don't you agree? ;)

Service:

Not sure if the lady and the man behind the counter were a couple but they were very hospitable and kind.  They even offered us (free) tea and gave us a sample of their "pickled tea leaf salad" (which, btw, tastes like how it sounds). 

Value:

$7.50 per bowl of laksa....not too pricey, I don't believe. It's worth it, regardless!

Ambience

It's not a restaurant, or a cafe.  Nor is it situated in a food court...or on the streets. But rather, it's located inside a grocery store.  Yes, you heard me.  The space isn't very large - just a food counter, and 1 (or 2) tables that sits 2 people each.  Regardless, I didn't mind it too much!

Overall: 7.7/10

Yay:  Yumm laksa...good for take-out.  No real parking issues here.

Nay: It's located in a grocery store where take-out may be the only option at times.

** Interesting Fact: The owner (I believe) informed us that they will be now offering delivery (within a 5-km radius), as well as a new menu!

Tamarind Hill Malaysian Cuisine

Location: New Westminster

Food:

First up were tender little morsels of Chicken & Lamb Satays, accompanied with a very lovely (and nutty) peanut sauce. The sauce was excellent, the satays were very good (because if the sauce is good, it just makes everything 10x better). Next up was the Green Papaya Mango Salad. It was pretty solid (almost on par with the one from Sawasdee but with mangos, therefore, you get more of a zing!) The third appy was the Malaysian Calamari. Now at first when i tried it without that Malaysian calamari sauce, i thought it was nothing special, then I later dipped a piece into it (the sauce) and oh my god, was it ever phenomenal! So phenomenal that it was hands down, my favourite dish of the night! (That's how much of an impact great sauce can make!) Our last appy was an order of Roti Canai which was very good too. It was very filling and the doughy texture tasted really good in my mouth. J also loved the Roti very much.

We decided to order one entree to share, as well, (as there were just too many appies we refused to not order, lol) so we ended up picking the Malaysian Style Chicken Curry. It had a Malaysian-style taste to it (not as much coconut milk compared to how the Thai make it) but with a little more spice. It was a solid dish esp. with crunchy beans and potatoes! Although it wasn't that spicey, it was very flavourful.

Drinks included the Dead Frog Beer, which was brewed in Langley. It was very smooth, good & cheap! We had each also ordered the Malaysian Tropical Paradise, a drink which barely had any alcohol in it, well... at least I couldn't taste it :)

*I also wanted Jumbo Scallops in Curry Sauce but they were sold out :(

Service:
Excellent - fast and nice

Value:
$8 - $15 range per dish, ended up paying ~$60 for the above

Ambience:
Crowded, very "happening", dim lights, very nice atmosphere, with Malaysian music playing in the background. Make sure you call ahead to make reservations as the space between tables are quite cramped (my biggest pet peeve) where you're practically touching people you don't know and you can hear their conversations so clearly (you don't want that). We know this is because they originally thought we did not make reservations (and almost gave us those crowded seats)but luckily they found our reservation and placed us in the more spacious corner seats.

Overall: 8/10

The crowdedness/non-spacious environment & not having jumbo scallops lowers the rating for me a bit, but still gets a solid 8/10



Posted by: Scoe