He used to have his own restaurant with a cult following. Go there for pad thai and coconut curries, my friend told me. He would come out, ask what you felt like eating, and make you something appropriate. There’d be toasted and ground coriander and cumin, fried shrimp paste and blasted chili peppers. Heat, spice, crunch.
And then it was over. Nantha Kumar, the Malaysian chef of Cash ‘n’ Curry in Montreal, flew the coop. Back to Malaysia he went, where he cooked pilgrimage-worthy noodles, according to one reporter at the Montreal Gazette. Time passed, and there was nowhere in the city serving MSG-free rice noodle stir-fries with just enough kick. No beef rendang worth writing home about. And, heaven knows, no nasi lemak.
I’d cross an ocean for nasi lemak. That’s Malaysia’s national dish—well, one of them. Malays like to eat. But I don’t have to. Because Kumar is back. He’s serving one-page print-out menu of South Asian specialties every Sunday night at Nouveau Palais in Montreal’s Mile End. Get it? Nouveau Malay?
Nasi Lemak:
Spicy sambal paste with coconut rice steamed in pandan leaf, accompanied by toasted peanuts, sliced cucumber, hardboiled eggs, shrimp crackers, sometimes a lentil dal and often a chicken curry. The reason Kumar can make pad thai and call himself Malaysia is because the country is a mix of Thai, Indian, Chinese and traditional Malay with a little Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian thrown in. And don’t forget Singapore and Hong Kong. But anyone who slow-cooks their sambal over a gentle flame overnight gets kudos.It’s traditionally made with belancan shrimp paste, says Kumar. His isn’t, though he says you can get it at Marché G & D, the downstairs supermarket in Chinatown. Instead, his is all slippery shallots and a slow burn. And shrimp crackers are replaced by vegetarian pappadum. It’s Indian, so it still counts as Malay. And the beef rendang curry (more like Indian rogan josh than anything Thai) that can come with the non-vegetarian version of the dish is the ultimate winter comfort food.
But don’t forget that pad thai. Squeeze a little lime over and eat it all within the first 10 minutes that it comes out of the wok, before it cools down and loses its shine. Dig in for the pieces of chicken that soak up the oil, salt and sauce. It’s not greasy—it’s just right.
The menu changes monthly. “Usually people tell me what they want and I make it,” says Kumar. I guess some things haven’t changed. You just have to order a month in advance now.
Nouveau Malay happens every Sunday night for the foreseeable future at Mile End Restaurant, Nouveau Palais.
281 Bernard St. W.
Hours: 5:30pm-close
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