Gurney Delights @ Kota Kemuning

No, you didn’t read it wrong – there IS a place called “Gurney Delights” in Kota Kemuning, Shah Alam. It’s a neat little café, unpretentious and simplistic in its set-up, located in the midsection of a block of shoplots in the Kota Kemuning commercial centre. I first noticed this outlet some months ago, yet had never set foot into it until a couple of weeks ago. There were a good many tables occupied, so I took that as an encouragement and gamely tugged DL along last weekend. We’re always looking out for good Penang food – read about our thoughts here in another Penang-food outlet.

There were a few things that we like there and there were also some that need improvement.

What rated No.1 for me is the Assam Laksa! It’s only available on Fridays and Saturdays. The moment I saw huge chunks of “ikan kembong” (mackerel fish) and generous amount of mint leaves in the bowl, my heart soared and I was pretty positive that it’s going to be good. I was right. That is possibly the best bowl of Assam Laksa I’ve had for a long time! Although the translucent slippery rice noodles were a tad too soft for my liking (maybe that’s the Penang style), the fragrant broth has all the right amounts of sourness, sweetness and spiciness in it. The big spoonful of prawn paste dunked in the bowl gives it the necessary sweet briny taste and the julienne’ed cucumber, Bombay onions, pineapple, lettuce leaves, torch ginger flower give it the crowning bite. And the mint leaves, oh yes, they were not skimpy with those!

We like their Curry Mee too, although initially we were not too excited about the pale coconutty curry. Then I spotted this big plastic container of sambal on our table and realised that has to be added to the Curry Mee. The sambal really packed a punch and 2 spoons of it were more than enough to generate some fiery heat on our tongues. It also has all the right condiments in it: thick pieces of tofu puffs, prawns, cockles, strips of brown soaked sotong, coagulated pig blood and topped with mint leaves.

The kickass Sambal

Mix everything up – this is how Curry Mee should be eaten!

The Char Kwayteow and Fried Mee Jawa were average, in our books. DL commented the Char Kwayteow could have been better, possibly due to the lack of “wok hei”. Taste-wise, I found it adequate, the prawns were fresh and the taugeh used were fat and crunchy. Just a bit more wok-hei and it would have been fantastic. The Fried Mee Jawa came with a thick, gloriously-red gravy, which we suspect was due to the liberal use of tomato ketchup. A tad sweet, it would have been better if they had included some crispies in this dish. On the plus side, the pieces of tofu and potatoes were soft and tender, which I liked. Their Rojak Buah was pretty good – the fruits were all fresh and crunchy, tossed with a thick dark sticky well-balanced sauce and liberal amounts of crushed peanuts and sesame were sprinkled on top.

Fried Mee Jawa

Prawn Mee

Their Duckmeat Kwayteow Th’ng was a bit plain… somehow I felt the soup lacked body. If the soup had been boiled longer with more duck flavour, then this item would be much sought after. The same goes for their Prawn Mee. Although there were a few pieces of pork ribs served in the bowl, again the soup fell short.

Lobak

Duckmeat Kwayteow Th’ng

We tried their Lobak, fishalls and fishcake too and decided they’re not worth any reordering. The fishballs and fishcake were very generic, like those you can buy from the market and the lobak was a bit dry and too tightly-bound, thus rendering it with a very dense texture.

All noodles dishes are priced at RM5.50 each, the Lobak is RM6.00, the Rojak Buah is RM4.00, the Fried Fishcake is RM5.00.

Rojak Buah

Nutmeg & Sour Plum Juice

We definitely will go back for the awesome Assam Laksa (only available on Fridays & Saturdays), the Curry Mee, the Char Kwayteow and to try their Hokkien Char and Chee Cheong Fun. They do serve some typical Penang-style drinks like Patpoh Tea and Nutmeg Juice, priced at RM2.00-2.20.

*All photos in this post were taken with the iPhone 4S

 

Gurney Delights
15G Jalan Anggerik Vanilla U31/U
Kota Kemuning
40460 Shah Alam
Tel:  03-5879-5112

GPS: N 3^o 0’ 19.4” , E 101^o 32’ 13.0”