THIS week in Food Trail, we take a look at halal roast duck.
Iskandar Azaman, a buddy of mine remarked: “Hoi Sam! Apa la engkau ni, review tempat yang aku tak boleh makan…” (Hey Sam! Why la you review eateries which I can’t patronise).
I told him that I will work on some halal makan places.
So, with some help from James Lam, my old friend who is also a lifetime member of the ‘Samo Makan Club’, I managed to locate a decent outlet.
It is located in Tun Mohd Fuad in Taman Tun Dr Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. But before I proceed, I would like to take two questions from readers Robert Chan and Winston Liew.
Chan asks: “Hello Mr Samo, how do you eat so much ah? Don’t you get fed-up of stuffing yourself ah?”.
Okay, this one is easy: Take small portions. Order a small bowl and you’ll enjoy more.
Liew wants to know what is a ‘Samo-scale’ and how it works.
Well my friend, the Samo-scale is six-feet tall, it’s pretty heavy to lug around and utilises the sense of taste to yield results.
All right, moving on, my quest for decent halal fare led me to Roast Kitchen at Jalan Wan Kadir off Jalan Tun Mohd Fuad in Taman Tun.
This place serves roast duck and honey roasted beef and is halal-certified. Now, before I get to the crunch, let me say that eating in a proper setting with air-condition and a stylish interior decor can cost you a bomb!
For starters, a plate of roast duck (single serving) is RM15 and the honey roasted beef goes for RM14.
So, how does the roast duck rate?
Good and tasty: The single portion roast duck.To be fair, I am using Loong Foong restaurant in SS2, Petaling Jaya as the benchmark.
And I can safely say that Roast Kitchen’s Halal duck dish rates at 6 out of 10 on the Samoscale.
The roasted dish is pretty moist and juicy while the layer of skin on the choice morsels was crisp.
Now, the letdown was the honey roasted beef. It was salty and dry.
However, I must say that I was pleased with the choy keok (salted vegetable with meat scraps) that comes free with the orders.
So, that said, Roast Kitchen has plenty of potential and if you are seeking Chinese halal dishes, you might want to give it a try.
The GPS coordinates to Roast Kitchen are: N 03 08 380, E 101 37 724.
