SEVERAL nasi padang outlets have sprung up in Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur recently, affirming the rising popularity of this Minangkabau-style rice meal served with an assortment of dishes.

Padang is a city in West Sumatra and the flavours of its food are replicated usually in a mini feast of many dishes.

And so it was with our nasi padang lunch at Warung Padang by Majapahit at The Curve, Petaling Jaya. The four of us sat down as 14 dishes came in quick succession.

Soon the table became too small for all the food but then in true Padang style, they could be stacked up!

I went for the gulai urat or beef tendon curry first and liked the subtly fragrant curry with a hint of sweetness. It’s curry to ladle on your rice and we had an extra dish of this.

The tendons were crunchy and chewy. We also had the ayam gulai cooked in the same curry.

The dark and rich rendang daging was next and it was so good. The meat tore easily and was deeply flavoured with herbs and spices.

You would often find balado (spice mixture) dishes in a padang meal. We had ayam goreng balado, dendeng daging balado and telur balado, which were made complete with the balado sauce of red chillies with tomatoes and spices.

The bright red sauce went well with the chicken and dendeng (beef), and it was so yummy with the fried hard-boiled egg.

I have encountered jering as ulam. It’s a dark brown pod whose seed tastes astringent when raw.

When cooked, it goes soft and a little powdery, and is excellent in a curry or sambal. We had jering sambal hijau, green chilli paste covering the fried pieces of jering, and they tasted amazing.

The same green sambal was in the ayam goreng lado hijau and it brought fried chicken to another spicy level.

For a vegetable dish, the sayur daun singkong (cassava leaves) in a light coconut curry was perfect. We picked at the well-fried and crispy ikan tilapia goreng.

We enjoyed the side dishes too. We snacked on crunchy and spicy tempeh kacang. The perkedel kentang or potato fritters were crispy at the bite, descending into creamy, flavourful potato inside.

The telur dadar goreng was fluffy, with some herbs and chilli in it. It was so good. I even liked the paru goreng (deep-fried lung), which I usually shy away from.

We shared a nasi padang plate, though we could just have white rice with all these dishes. It’s a plate of white rice with cassava or tapioca leaves, cabbage curry, two sambal and an egg.

Curry is poured over the rice. For a single diner, you can just add a meat dish and it’s a complete meal.

We ate more rice than we intended to with all these delicious padang dishes, accompanied by drinks like teh tarik, Thai milk tea and chilled dark tea in a bottle (Teh Botol).

For that huge meal we had, the bill came to RM149 only. The restaurant is having a launch promotion, which offers a free dish with every two you order.

Warung Padang has a West Sumatran chef – Chef Pak Isan Santibi – at the helm, which accounts for the authentic Padang flavours.

Warung Padang is at Lot 74, The Street at The Curve. Call 03-7625 2570 for enquiries. It caters to celebrations and events too. – August 19, 2023.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.