The hotel’s Cinnamon Coffee House offers a wide spread of Minangkabau dishes.
CINNAMON COFFEE HOUSE
One World Hotel
First Avenue
Bandar Utama
Petaling Jaya
03-7681 1157
Business Hours: 6.30pm-10.30pm daily
AT A glance, Negri Sembilan cuisine, which is derived from its Minangkabau heritage, looks no different from dish to dish but after a bite or ten, one will discover subtle playground for the palate.
Subtle because most of the dishes are lemak-based with a generous use of various kinds of spices that give it a mouth-watering aroma that is rich, creamy, spicy.
Meat-eaters will love the fare, which includes beef, lamb, duck, chicken and seafood, including squid, crab and prawns.
Once you get over the guilt of consuming all that in one sitting, dig in and savour each bite to discover varied tastes and textures, thanks largely to the use of various ingredients or cooking methods.
One World Hotel Malay chef Nasron Kasiman admitted as much about Negri Sembilan cuisine.
“It is hot and spicy but never overpowering. However, some of the dishes had to be toned down from the original spiciness required in order to suit the majority of our diners who comprise a good mix of locals and foreigners,” he said, adding that the promotion had received very good response when introduced last year.
When asked to recommend a dish, Nasron immediately named the Daging Salai Masak Cili Padi (Smoked Meat a la Bird’s Eye Chilli).
Again, it looks pretty much like the rest, the pieces of meat swimming in a gravy that is light, almost yellow in colour but the smoking of the beef gives a better flavour that goes surprisingly well with the spicy sauce.
It quickly becomes addictive but if you decide to try the rest, remember to sample it with the accompanying gravy, whether dry or wet, as it is the key to the dish’s flavour.
One of my favourite inclusions in this promotion are the side dishes like salted egg, salted fish, Lamb Kerabu with Coconut Flake and soups including Ayam Pedas (Spicy Chicken) or Asam Ekor Lembu (Savoury Cow’s Tail).
A meal would not be complete without something sweet at the end and here they have included some Negri Sembilan favourites such as bingka ubi, kuih cek mek, kuih koci and kuih ketayap.
This month’s cake of the month at Cinnamon Coffee House, the baked steam cake, that comes in Milo, coffee or Horlicks flavours — the latter being a memorable one — are recommended.
Dishes under this promotion, priced at RM95++ for adults and RM48++ for children aged four to 12 years, will be available alongside the usual dinner buffet throughout March.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by Star Metro.
