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| [Soto- shredded chicken pegedil & hot chili on the side] |
On
most days I have my meals in a proper and decent family restaurant. The upmost criteria
are their cleanliness, hospitality and delicious finger licking good food. In that particular order. Once in a while I will
scout the streets for hawkers’ delicacies either at a lonely stall, along rows
of them or simply open air hawkers’ fare. On one of the previous Thursday, when
my BFF was in town we went to have a quick warm tea time snack at one of our
old food joints. It was initially an open air stalls built in a row with one
common eating space. The early days of food court before the concept being hijacked
by marts, giant shopping complex and up market commercial center. I am going
off tangent again. This place is at the far end of the eastern part of Kuala
Lumpur. The area is called Taman AU. (It is really “A” and the alphabet “U”- my
guess is that it stand for Ampang/Ulu Klang- and that’s another story
altogether.)
The
stall that we always frequent is called “Sri Melaka Satay”. Besides selling satay (meat on skewered bamboo stick),
they serve a varieties of soupy dishes. On this day, besides ordering their
famous satay, both my BFF and I ordered a bowl of soto. Soto is a traditional soup made of broth, some pieces of
chicken and blanched bean sprouts.
I ordered vermicelli soto ayam (ayam=chicken).The bowl is reasonably small but the soto is full to the brim. The soto
broth is flavored and colored with turmeric and other spices. It was topped with shredded chicken, blanched
bean sprouts, chopped celery leaves, golden fried shallots and pegedil (fried mashed
potato patties) with hot chili black sauce on the side. It shredded chicken were
tender. However the broth’s flavoring was too overwhelming for me with loads of
spices. There was clear aroma of galangal or garlic. To soften the aroma, I
squeezed some lime and the citrusy flavors really balance the strong spicy taste
of my bowl of soto.
After a hard day at work and I was on the road
driving from one end of the city to another it was really refreshing to sit
among strangers spooning one after another a bowl of warm comfort food which was
easy for the gastronomic desire.
The vermicelli chicken soto only manage to notch a 6 on Acepaizah scale, food presentation
a 7 and for comfort, atmosphere and value for money an 6 base strictly on the
street food compass.
soupy soto smiles
~Acepaizah~
13/9
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