Undecided

The steamed flower buns are essential to an Esquire meal.

I wrote about the culling of some QSRs from my list of places to eat. It’s easier to bid adieu to places like that since for all the ID and the marketing research that goes into them, they are still soulless places.

However, when it comes to places like Esquire, I have a hard time deciding whether it is time to make the final cut. It is a place intrinsically linked with numerous family meals when I was growing up. It has with it part of my family DNA – from weekends browsing in Sungei Wang Plaza and lunching at the Esquire outlet on the top floor, to weekday dinners when Grandma did not cook. It was also a favourite meeting place between Ying May, one of my best friends and I, when there was still an outlet in Bangsar Shopping Centre.

I think the chain has undergone some changes. I believe it has changed ownership and is now run by the same people who managed the Nam Heong chain of chicken rice shops. Esquire outlets are in two places I like going because of the ease of parking – Subang Parade and Atria.

I’ve brought Erin to dine at Esquire twice. Both with Nana and Pops. She enjoyed the Esquire tofu both visits, but I am not sure if the food is really all that it should be anymore. I continue to order the same dishes, (except for the Japanese eel, which they tend to run out of so many times that they should take it off the menu) but I just am not sure I’m getting the quality I want.

Soggy dumplings and no vinegar!

Szechuan eggplant

Presentation does not exist in Esquire! Note the spring onions marooned on the edge of the bowl!

The wor tip (deep fried dumplings) was soggy and stodgy, and mum commented on the grey-looking paper base on the steamed flower buns, though the buns themselves are still soft and passably large. I think there could be a lot less oil used in the paprika chicken and the Szechuan eggplant, though the flavour is still good. There is a RM2 surcharge when you request for the Esquire tofu in a set menu (what the?!), and overall there is no presentation to speak of. But yet…

Erin likes the Esquire tofu, but I dare say she likes the kind I cook too!

Saying goodbye to Esquire is akin to putting my old leather bomber in the recycle bin. I probably won’t wear it again, but it is an intrinsic part of who I am, because it was the essence of what I used to be, which coloured the choices I made to become who I am now. To me, relationships with food can be like that too. So what do I do?