Shobana's Kerala Kitchen, PJ: Banana Leaf Rice

Earlier last month, the BLR gang gathered at Shobana's Kerala Kitchen in PJ for our monthly banana leaf rice outing. Shobana's used to house May and Mike's and one of our founding members had dined there once before and approved of their food.

Shobana's still serve authentic Malayalee cuisine and the signature dishes from the previous establishment and apparently the cook never left, so the taste of the food should still be the same.

As soon as you're seated, the servers will place banana leaves in front of you. You can choose between white rice, Indian rice or chapati and the rest of the dishes are on display at the side of the restaurant as well as written on the blackboard. We had three banana leaf rice sets (RM8 each), which comes with three types of vegetables, mango chutney, rice and a choice from two curries (chicken or fish) or dhal. If you want the pickled fried chilli, you will need to request for it. Papadam is chargeable at RM1 per basket, which I found rather unusual as other BLR places give it for free as part of the BLR meal. In comparison to other BLR places, the variety for the set meal seem a little meagre for the price.

The vegetable of the day were spinach, brinjal and cucumber raita, which were thankfully delicious and refillable. The curry sauces were well-spiced and spicier than a lot of other BLR places we've tried.

The kids had the chapati only (RM2.50), which wasn't very enjoyable as it is not made to order, so it was slightly cold and hard.

For sides, we ordered the fish puttu (one of their signatures and must-try dishes - a traditional Keralan dish) (RM7.50), fried chicken (RM7.50) and mutton varuval (RM10.50). I haven't tried fish puttu before.. and I really liked it! At Shobana's, they use mackarel in lieu of shark's meat, which is shredded and mixed with spices, chilli and freshly grated coconut. The kids enjoyed the boneless fried chicken and the mutton varuval were very tasty too, with generous chunks of tender meat.

We were asked to post our experience on FB or Instagram, and our friend did, and we got complimentary masala tea. :)

The restaurant is air-conditioned and the crowd wasn't too overwhelming during our visit, so it's a  pretty nice place to enjoy a leisurely lunch.



Opening times: 11am to 3.30pm. Closed on Mondays.

Price: Total bill RM66.

Location: Shobana's Kerala Kitchen, 357C Jalan 5/57, Petaling Garden, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. (Street parking available)

Tel: 03-7773 0409


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MyBanana, Taman Megah, PJ: Banana Leaf Rice with a Porky Twist

The hunt for the best banana leaf rice continues! Last weekend, the BLR gang gathered at MyBanana in Taman Megah, PJ to try out their unique banana leaf rice offerings. The restaurant which takes up a corner unit is semi air-conditioned and is pretty well-ventilated, and service is good too.

What's unique about them, you ask? Well, MyBanana is one of few banana leaf restaurants that serve pork dishes to go with your rice, such as Chinese-style roast pork (siew yuk), wild boar curry and pork curry on top of the more common side dishes such as fried chicken, mutton dishes, crab curry, fried sotong and fried fish.

The basic banana leaf rice set (RM7.50) comes with rice, 3 types of vegetables, curry, rasam, pickled chilli, acar and papadum and is refillable. I was delighted to see two of my favorite vegetables here - the cabbage as well as deep fried crispy snake gourd. Two types of curry sauce was available during our visit - fish and chicken, which were thick and well-spiced. The rasam was appetizing too. Overall, this ticked all the right boxes for us.

As we walked through the door, we couldn't help but notice the glorious siew yuk hanging in the glass compartment. They do only two slabs everyday, and they sell out pretty quickly, we've been told. I have to say they did a very good job, tender, flavorful meat with melting layers of fat and  crispy crackling.

Chef Prakash chopping up some siew yuk for the customers

We also loved the wild boar peratal (RM10) and mutton peratal (RM8) which came with tender chunks of meat. The pork peratal (RM10) is made using both pork ribs and shoulder. We also sampled three types of chicken dishes - chicken varuval, chicken peratal and chicken kurma (all RM5.50 each).

For those who prefer briyani rice, they also do chicken and lamb briyani, and during our visit, they had a special CNY lap cheong briyani.

BabySumoKids joined us on our BLR expedition this time, though they stuck with what they were familiar with (ie roti canai). MyBanana also does roti with a porky twist, ie their new Roti bacon cheese. Highly recommended - the roti was crisp with melting, oozy cheese and bacon bits in the centre. Simply awesome, I think I've found my new favorite roti!

They also do a fantastic pork murtabak (RM10), generously stuffed with egg, onions, and minced pork.

And why not enjoy your seriously tak halal meal with a cold beer?

Food & Drinks Menu

Verdict: Everything was well-prepared and delicious, from their banana leaf rice to their wonderful side dishes and rotis. Definitely one of the best banana leaf rice we've tried in PJ/KL! 



Banana leaf rice is available 11.30am onwards. Roti/thosai is available from 8am -12pm, and 3pm onwards.


Serves pork/Non-halal.



Opening times: 7.30am - 11pm daily.

Price: approx. RM20 per pax.

Location: MyBanana, 28 & 30, Jalan SS24/13, Taman Megah, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia (Street parking available).



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Masala Wheels @ PJ Old Town: Briyani Sundays

A friend told me about Masala Wheels in PJ Old Town, suggesting that we visit them for their banana leaf rice and briyani. I set a date with my BLR partner-in-crime and come Sunday, I checked their Facebook page to look for their address and opening times and realised that they don't serve banana leaf rice on Sundays!

Despite the boo-boo, we went ahead and visited the restaurant for their Briyani Sundays. We arrived just after 12, so it was easy to secure a table. The setup here is pretty basic, with a blackboard listing "Today's Menu" as well as some of their dishes on display.

Menu at Masala Wheels

On Sundays, chatti briyani is available along with a variety of chicken, mutton and fish dishes. There are three types of briyani on offer, namely mutton (RM16), chicken (RM13) and vegetarian. We went for the mutton and chicken. The briyanis are served in earthen pots which you can scoop out onto your banana leaf "plate". The portions were pretty generous, we shared two pots between 3 adults 2 kids... it was just nice and we didn't leave feeling stuffed.

The briyani was well-spiced, though a little sloppy in parts. The mutton one came with two big chunks of mutton on the bone while the chicken came with a drumstick as well as a boiled egg each. On each table, there are raw onions, chicken and fish curry which you can help yourself to and eat together with your briyani. I liked adding some of the curry onto my briyani, which I feel enhances the taste.

We also ordered a mutton varuval (RM8) and chicken 65 (RM6). The mutton was tender and flavorful and the kids thoroughly enjoyed the chicken too.

*Note: Banana leaf rice is only available on Mon-Sat during lunch. In the evenings, they serve nasi lemak.


Opening times: Mon-Sat 12pm - 3pm; 6.30pm - 9.30pm. Sunday 12pm-3pm.

Price: Total bill RM57, including 7 drinks.

Location: Masala Wheels, 2, Jalan 1/3, Seksyen 1, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. (Street parking available)



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Restaurant Aunty Manju's: Banana Leaf Rice in TTDI

We have been wanting to try the bone marrow at Aunty Manju's for the longest time but never found the time to visit. Finally, last weekend we made our way there for both the bone marrow as well as the banana leaf rice which they are famed for.

Come before 12.30 if you want to avoid the lunch crowd. We ordered three sets of banana leaf rice (RM8.50 each), as well as a chapati (RM2) for Baby D. The banana leaf rice comes with three types of vegetables, cucumber raita, crispy papadoms, rasam as well as a slice of Indian dessert (kesari if I'm not mistaken). For the curries, we could choose fish, chicken or dhal, which were reasonable thick and well-spiced.

We also had the famous mutton bone marrow curry (RM25), which comes with four pieces. We were expecting the meat to be falling off the bone, but it wasn't, so it was quite hard to actually eat this. If you're lucky, you will get one which still has the prized marrow which is rich and gelatinous. Out of the four pieces that we got, only one of us hit the jackpot. You need a straw to suck out all the marrow. We can finally say that we've tried this, but we'll stick to our mutton varuval or masala for next time.

Other than that, we also ordered the fried chicken (RM9) and fried bittergourd (RM4.50) to go with our meal. The fried chicken was nice enough, as it is fried to order while the bittergourd is crispy and adds crunch to your meal overall.

Chapati

Verdict: Overall, service is friendly and the banana leaf rice was decent.


Tip: Parking is a nightmare here, so just head over to the paid parking adjacent to the restaurant to save yourself a headache.



Total bill RM81.20 for 3 adults 1 kid, including 8 drinks (RM1.90).

Location: Restaurant Aunty Manju's, No. 18 Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad 1, Taman Tun Dr Ismail, 60000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Parking RM3 per hour)

Tel: 03-7733 5954



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3S Curry House, Taman Desa, KL - Banana Leaf Rice

A couple of months ago, we visited 3S Curry House located in Desa Business Park for some banana leaf rice with our friends.

We ordered five sets of banana leaf rice which came served in a metal tray and rice piled on a banana leaf rather than everything on the banana leaf as we are accustomed to. We also ordered one plate of mutton, chicken varuval and fried bittergourd, however they served us individual portions instead so each of our banana leaf rice came up to RM15 each. A basic banana leaf rice usually costs RM7 here.

We did not quite like the mutton as the meat was quite fatty, however chicken was good. Three types of vegetables were served, I liked the cabbage best. The BLR meal also comes with pappadums and rasam.

Overall, a decent BLR meal though I wouldn't be rushing back here anytime soon as there are many much better ones around KL. However, it's a good place to catch up with friends as it is not too busy and they serve a pretty nice masala tea (RM4.50).

Opening times: Mon-Sat 8am - 10pm; Sun 9am - 5pm.

Price: Total bill RM107 for 5 pax.

Location: 3S Curry House, 30G Jln 2/109E Desa Business Park, Taman Desa, 58100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 016-328 2710



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