Bali high: U.S. restaurants break new ground with Malay flavors

Nation's Restaurant News, Sept 27, 2004 by Erica Duecy

Indonesian and Malaysian ingredients are making a flavorful impact at independent and chain restaurants around the country. Opal basil, lemon grass, ginger, bird chiles, sweet soy sauce, peanut sauce, shallots, sambal, pandan, kaffir lime leaves, turmeric and galangal are just some of the ingredients that are moving beyond the domain of ethnic restaurants and finding their way onto American brasserie, casual-chain and fine-dining menus.

A historic crossroads of trade, the Indonesian and Malaysian islands, as well as the Malay Peninsula, in Southeast Asia, are rich in agricultural products, including herbs, fruits and spices. The region's cuisine reflects its many ethnic influences, including Chinese, Hindu, Arab and Dutch elements, as well as the rich bounty of the region. Many of the people in both Indonesia and Malaysia are part of a large and diverse ethnic group known as Malays.

One chain that has been using Southeast Asian ingredients for years is Corte Madera, Calif.-based Trader Vic's. At the restaurant's Emeryville, Calif., unit, executive chef Shy Leong says the trend toward using more Malay ingredients is spurred by chefs' and diners' quest for new taste experiences. "People are looking for things that are more exotic," Leong says. "A lot of flavors commonly known to American diners have become boring."

In response, the Malaysian-born Leong says he has been adding more and more Southeast Asian-inspired dishes to the menu at Trader Vic's. The restaurant chain offers a core set of dishes at each of its five domestic units, which comprise 60 percent to 70 percent of the menu. The remaining selections are developed by chefs at each unit.

Selections from the menu include a Javanese lamb satay, or lamb skewer, which is rubbed with a lemon grass, turmeric and curry spice blend.

In the United States, satay often is labeled as a Thai dish, but it is, in fact, Malay. The Javanese lamb is named for Java, Indonesia's most populous island.

"In Southeast Asia all of the satays are stained yellow from turmeric," Leong notes. The skewered lamb is then cooked over an open flame and served with a peanut-coconut milk dipping sauce.

Trader Vic's Indonesian-spiced rack of lamb is prepared by marinating the lamb overnight in a mixture of liquefied onions, lemon grass, turmeric and curry, then cooking it over a wood fire. In another application, Dungeness crab cakes are served with Singaporean chile sauce. Singapore, a city-state on an island at the tip of the Malay Peninsula, sits between Malaysia and Indonesia and, like those countries, is a culinary and cultural crossroads. The chile sauce for the crab cakes is made from bird chiles, which are tiny, fiery peppers also called Thai chiles, as well as lime juice, lemon grass extract, reduced red wine and chopped galangal, which is a peppery relative of ginger that also is called "blue ginger."

Blue Ginger also is the name of the Wellesley, Mass., restaurant owned by noted television chef Ming Tsai. He says he has been adding more Indonesian and Malaysian inspired dishes to his menu lately.

One example is the shrimp with Meyer lemon risotto and sun-dried tomato sambal, a Malay chile paste. "It's a warm, light dish, with no cheese, that is brightened with Meyer lemon," he says. "Then it's topped with bright dollops of tomato sambal."

Tsai was exposed to the flavors of the Malay-speaking world while traveling throughout Southeast Asia. He also filmed several episodes of his Food Network show, "Ming's Quest," on the Indonesian island of Bali. Tsai's favorite ingredients from the region include lemon grass; kaffir lime leaves, which have a floral-citrus aroma; galangal; bird chiles; and fish sauce.

One of Blue Ginger's best-selling dishes is Indonesian curry pasta with crispy coconut shrimp. "It's a classic dish that uses fresh galangal, bird chiles, lemon grass, shallots and toasted spices, all put together and mixed with lime, fish sauce and peanut oil," Tsai says. The sauce is tossed with fresh egg noodles, and the dish is topped with pieces of chicken and crispy coconut shrimp.

Tsai's signature sauces include tomato-kaffir lime salsa and Indonesian sambal paste, both of which accompany many savory dishes.

In San Francisco, Straits Restaurant Co., which operates Straits Cafe and Straits Restaurant, recently opened its fourth Singaporean restaurant in the Bay Area. Singaporean cuisine reflects the ethnic heritage of its citizens, blending Malay, Chinese and Indian influences. In addition to culinary influences from a variety of countries, Christopher Yeo, the Malaysian-born chef-owner of Straits Restaurant Co., points out that there are vast regional variations within each of those countries.

According to Yeo, dishes of Indonesian and Malaysian origin on the menu at Straits Cafe and Straits Restaurant include prawns sauteed in chile-shallot sauce, chicken simmered in light curry with garlic, galangal and grated coconut, and skewered meat satays marinated with aromatic spices, then grilled and served with spicy peanut sauce.