Restaurant Mama’s Kitchen

This popular shop steps from Devi’s Corner in TTDI is absolutely packed on weekends and does a pretty brisk business at lunch and dinner during the week as well. The friend who sent me here for the claypot loh she fun did so with a warning: ‘Don’t go really hungry, because your wait will probably be way looooong.’ One way around the long wait is to go at an off hour; at 2:30pm on a Thursday the resto had few patrons.

I’m going to be frank and admit that I have an immediate dislike for any place where the waiter takes one look at my white face and then presumes to suggest what I would or wouldn’t like to eat. Potato leaf with fermented bean curd, please. ‘Really? Do you know what that is? Do you really think you can take that?’ I do, and I do.

Quibbles aside, the service here is fairly prompt, if a bit befuddled. Potato leaf appeared on the table in the form of kangkong, which I sent back. The server returned with the kangkong to ask if I really wanted to send it back. Well yes, since I ordered potato leaf, I would. Happily, an order of Mama’s famous loh she fun turned up just that, and it didn’t disappoint. When it arrived the dish was burping heat bubbles through the layer of semi-crisped chopped pork that capped the dish of noodles. On top, a sunny-yolked raw egg sat waiting to be stirred in. Chopped meat is augmented with slices threaded through the noodles, which are predictably chewy in that semi-gluten-ish rice flour sort of way. For me the whole dish was a bit underseasoned, but that’s easily remedied with a bit of soy from the bottle on the table.

As for those potato leaves, they did finally arrive, bathed in a creamy, slightly tartish fermented bean curd sauce and crowned with a mound of browned sliced shallots. Baby gailan was cooked to that clichéd but much appreciated crisp-tender stage, its vegetal greenness balanced by the sharp saltiness of super cruncy ikan bilis.

Mama’s menu is extensive, covering a range of standard stir-fries, soups, and rice and noodle dishes. While not exactly upscale, the décor is a cut above your average open-air restaurant. Judging from the claypot loh she fun, further exploration might be warranted.



Contact:
Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, TTDI
Tel: 03 7729 3030

Website:
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Operating Hours:
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Cuisine:
Chinese