Gourmet Malaysia (Toronto)


Gourmet Malaysia

When I’m in the mood for bold flavours, Malaysian cuisine is one of my top choices. With Chinese, Indonesian, Indian, Thai and various other influences, Malaysian food offers dippable curries, rich soups and plenty of stir-fried options – making choosing what to eat the hardest choice.

Their curries have the optimal spiciness level for my taste – not tongue numbingly hot, just enough to taste and appreciate the spices. The chicken roti canai ($7.99) was a great starter; large cubes of tender chicken and potatoes cooked in the fragrant curry. But, it’s the three pieces of roti canai that make the dish special, their fluffy texture very different from the relatively flat Jamaican and Indian roti I’ve had in the past. You’ll also find it heavier as the dough is grilled in oil rather than being baked like its unleavened counterparts. But, its flaky crevices are such great vessels for soaking up the light curry.  

Gourmet Malaysia chicken curry

After reading Xiao Eats review, I knew the crispy butter prawns ($12.99) were a must. A heaping dish of fried bites soon arrived, sure to excite any Carnival lover’s heart. The shrimp were lightly dusted, deep fried, then stir fried with a nest of crispy salty bits, which our waitress explained was fried cream (traditional recipes use an egg mixture). If you’ve ever had pork floss, the dry brittle texture is similar to this, except lighter in consistency and flavour.

Gourmet Malaysia butter prawns

Despite its name, there really isn’t much of a buttery taste. In the end, the dish was a decent rendition of fried shrimp but lacked any spices to make it exciting. While researching more about this relatively new dish, many call for ample amounts of curry leaves to be mixed into the airy topping; there were a few at Gourmet Malaysia, just not nearly enough to make it as fragrant as others describe.

To finish, two noodles completed the meal: one stir-fried while the other sitting in broth. The Penang char kwei teow ($7.80) is certainly worth ordering. Thinner flat rice noodles are stir-fried quickly over very high heat to give it a wonderful wok essence while retaining its springy texture. Indonesian and Chinese flavours comingle from the shrimp paste and soy sauce seasonings, with squid, shrimp, bean sprouts and green onion rounding out the noodles.

Gourmet Malaysia char kwei teow

The tom yam seafood noodles in soup ($8.50) provided the spicy kick I was craving that evening - the hot and sour broth hits you in the back of the throat. Slices of fish cake, mushroom and smaller shrimp added to the vermicelli makes the bowl a meal but still relatively light. It was smart of Gourmet Malaysia to use vermicelli with the dish as its thinner and has a texture that allowed small bits of lemon grass to stick to it, while dense enough to resist getting too soft.

Gourmet Malaysia tom yum

With the summer months finally descending upon us, I urge you to look past BBQ and picnics. Consider the cuisine of climates much hotter than us and allow their bold flavours to entice your appetite.

Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 4466 Sheppard Avenue East

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog

____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


Is That It? I Want More!

Other Gastro World posts similar to this: