Teak 5

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Gendang gendut tali kecapi
Kenyang perut senang hati

That is always the feeling I get after dinner at our favorite cafe, Teak 5. Birds of a feather flock together as the saying goes. If back home I like to eat Nasi Rawon, Nasi Jenganan, Nasi Ambeng, Mee Siam, Nasi Sambal Goreng etc, it is not that easy to find those here. In fact, hardly. Mee Rebus as we know it is called Mee Jawa here and more often than not, taste a tad different. Mee Soto here is eaten with kacang tanah and telur rebus, which I find strange. And I looked all over for epok-epok, only to find out early last year that they call it karipap here. I have gotten over the Roti Prata being called Roti Canai and that there is no ‘air jarang’ but it is all ‘air suam’ here. And Mee Siam is just fried bee hoon whereas ours is Mee Siam+the gravy= Mee Siam kuah.

Rawon? No one seem to know what that is until a franchise of Ayam Penyet restaurant opened near our place and they sell good rawon. The week it opened, I went there everyday, no kidding. I even got a special discount whenever I go to Waroeng Penyet, because I was there so often then, that waiters had to ask me the question…‘mbak.. kamu ngga’ masak dirumah ya?’ I told them I was addicted to their rawon.

Since 2 months ago, the community got whiff that someone from our hometown opened up a furniture shop cum cafe selling nothing else but our home cuisine, just the way we know it. Words spread around fast within the community from my hometown who are based here or have moved here and are living close by, and since then, Teak 5 has become our favorite joint. It helps that the owner cum chef, Kak Yani is a fantastic cook.

So that is where my orang kampung go for our fix of good food which we previously had to cook ourselves if we miss it. The nasi ambeng is yummy, the nasi rawon is to die for, there is also nasi sambal goreng and the mee siam kuah. Or better still, she keeps our phone numbers and will sms us all what’s she cooking for the day. It is like going back to mum’s home cooked meal away from home. If by 3 to 4 pm you feel like eating something from back home, we usually just ring her up and say the magic word ‘ Kak Yani… teringin lah nak makan…( whatever ) .’ If she has the ingredients, she would sms back with ‘ No hal lah.. lepas maghrib datang…gerenti ready, insya Allah’.

She has spoilt many wives from our community with her cookings and we always find one reason or the other to cajole our husbands to take us there for dinner with a sorry face of being tired or unwell or just don’t feel like cooking and also it has become a ‘port’ of sorts to meet my kampung folks and gripe about things back home, as we speak our lingo peppered with ‘gerek sey’ and ‘aper sey’ and ‘korang/dorang.’ And where roti prata and epok-epok are understood and we know the white and green kuih as putri salat and not serimuka. And where ‘we ask who is going back when so who wants to kirim what’.

Cosy furnishing. You can actually buy the furnitures you eat on.

A bit blur because I was famished and this Nasi Ambeng was calling..

I am not getting paid nor given any discounts to blog about this, but Teak 5 is at No 15, Jalan PJU 7/7A Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, 47800 Selangor Darul Ehsan.

Very gerek sey…

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