Anyhow! The food at Old Siam is so good that it deserves another plug!
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| A lovely person, with a master's touch at Thai! Old Siam owner Sita Jayadeva. |
Old Siam
Kopitiam founder Sita Jayadeva’s ethnicity is a truly Asian mix of Indian, Thai
and Burmese. Her cuisine sense however, is true blue, dyed-in-the-silk Thai.
Walking past Old Siam in 1 Utama, one would be forgiven for thinking this would
be just another of those Thai-in-name-only places where a pathetic excuse for
pad Thai is wolfed down unthinkingly by diners needing to fuel up in order to
get through the rest of a work day.
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| It's simple and fuss-free, but the food speaks better and louder than any interior designer. |
Old Siam is
not posh, but the food is really something to go back for. For so unassuming an
eating place - and in a mall’s busy food section, no less – the quality and
authenticity of the food offering far surpasses taste and value-for-money for
the category it competes in. Old Siam is able to deliver authentic flavours
because of Jayadeva’s long association with Thai food. Her Thai mother owned
and operated Café d’Chiang Mai, the first Thai restaurant in Penang, and
Jayadeva was brought up in its kitchen, observing and then learning to cook
there. The otak otak served at Old Siam is from the same recipe as the ones served
at Café d’Chiang Mai.
Although she
is no food snob, Jayadeva is particular about the origins of her ingredients. Just
as knowledge of ‘terroir’ in wine-making defines the style of wine, Jayadeva
knows the difference Thailand-sourced ingredients make to the purity of the
food she serves. As such, many of her ingredients are imported from Thailand,
including the shrimp paste (belacan), chilies and sauces. Another thing that
sets Old Siam apart from its contemporaries is that everything is made fresh at
the restaurant. Nothing comes prepackaged or out of a box. Surprisingly also,
for a mall-based restaurant, Old Siam offers non-halal food at the request of
the 1 Utama management.
As Jayadeva
tells it, “Old Siam started business in April 2013. We wanted it to offer more
street food as opposed to traditional Thai food, since we had all the
traditional recipes from my mother. Our concept was to have reasonably priced,
one-dish items for quick serving and eating, catering to the office crowds. We
wanted to offer halal food, but the mall management requested us to go
non-halal and even guided us on the price structure for the dishes.”
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| This was not styled for a photo shoot. Food is actually served the way this laksa is! |
If the
crowds are anything to go by, Old Siam has certainly filled a niche with the
work crowd as well as mall-goers. While there is some level of Malaysianization
of the cuisine, the food is more quintessentially Thai than many others of its
ilk. “In Thailand the laksa (khanom jeen nam ya pla) is served at room
temperature. We tried to serve it like that, but diners kept sending the food
back complaining it was cold, so we now serve it piping hot. Also, in Thailand,
this laksa is not served with so much liquid. It is a gravy, as opposed to a
soup, but our patrons always asked for more gravy, so now we serve it with
more, to cater to local dining preferences,” shares Jayadeva, who is also a
partner in Surisit, another Thai eatery in Taman Tun Doctor Ismail.
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| Ohhh, what delicious otak-otak! |
Serving
temperature and gravy preferences aside, Old Siam’s food keeps to all that
makes Thai street food so mouthwatering. The hormok (fish otak otak, RM8.90 for
two parcels) is served with bread, and is pure fish and coconut milk. No flour
is used, and the tenggiri fish chunks are both visible and succulent.
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| Parcels of delight - tauhu yat sai. |
The tauhu
yat sai, RM8.90, is bean curd stuffed with pork and fried, served with a tangy
dipping sauce. Light, fluffy and crisp, it is surprisingly non-greasy, with the
tofu being crunchy and the pork remaining moist.
Food
presentation is another surprising thing about Old Siam. All the items are
plated with care, and the laksa, RM12.90, comes out in individual noodle nests,
surrounded by the accompanying diced long beans, bean sprouts, basil leaves and
cucumber, all tidily arranged. The dish also comes with half a soft-centred
hard boiled duck egg, the yolk brilliantly orange against the white.
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| Eating more raw food is a pleasure with the nasi ulam. |
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| If you like sweet dishes, this one's for you! The tamarind pork goes so well with the shrimp paste rice. |
Even the
simple nasi ulam and khao kruk kapi (belacan rice with sweet tamarind pork) are
pretty to look at, surprising with the depth of flavour and the near perfect
taste and texture of all the ingredients. Admittedly some may find some of the
sweet elements in the food a little much, but this is really the way the Thais
eat it, balancing sweet with the heat of chilies or strong herbs and fresh
vegetables.
Like all
natural cooks, Jayadeva and her brother Glen, the quiet force in the kitchen,
used to rely on instinct to prepare food, but since going commercial, she has
set stringent measures for the weighing and measuring of ingredients to ensure
that taste is consistent. She also drops in for spot checks to ensure that the high
standards are kept up.
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| Thai mango and glutinous rice. Love the fried mung bean on top! |
Old Siam
also offers a small selection of desserts, with the two most usual items, thab
thim krob (water chestnut and jackfruit in coconut milk, RM7.90) and khao niau
ma mueng (Thai mango with glutinous rice, RM10.90). Another more rare dessert,
kluay buad chee (steamed banana in coconut milk, RM6.90) is only available when
the right kind of plantain bananas is available.
Old Siam
Kopitiam
Lot LG 325
Lower Ground Floor
1 Utama
Shopping Centre
Lebuh Bandar
Utama
Bandar Utama
47800 Petaling
Jaya, Selangor.
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