open your stomach and your heart will follow

as most of my friends know, i’m a glutton for food… I love trying new foods, going to new restaurants, and sampling new cuisines .. and i don’t mean to sample by foraying into the ‘hip and trendy, IT spot for this month’ type restaurants, but restaurants that really focus on good food. It’s part of the reason that I’m such a fan of TFLC – some of the best restaurants in Toronto are small mom and pop restaurants – so to that end, i like to pretend to be an uber-food-snob, thinking that I know the difference between good food and just good marketing…
so when my friend asked me what I thought of Indonesian food, i was embarrased to say, i really don’t know much about it – besides for trying Nasi Goreng at Earl’s once (yes, i know this contradicts my position above…) – but to my defense – there isn’t a single authentic Indonesian Restaurant in Toronto – I found this shocking… In a city that likes to boast of it’s multicultural character, how can there not be a single restaurant representing one of the most populated countries in Asia??
Well, my friend suggested we go to a Malay restaurant Matahari – apparently, Malay food is the closest you’ll get to Indonesian in Toronto.

Well to come to the crunch of it – I’ve found a new favourite cuisine – to tell you the truth, I’ve been getting a little bored of Thai food… Malay food on the other hand, is amazing! We had Rendang Beef – a rich thick curried stew like dish – the meat was unbelievably tender and tasted incredible – although, this dish is made with Matahari’s ‘secret’ blend of spices, it reminded me of a dish that I had while I was in Lucknow – in fact a lot of the foods on the menu like sambal and achar reminded me of items that I tried in India – mind you, other items like wontons and … were evidence of chinese influence. That being said, don’t let the borrowed names mislead you in it’s uniqueness – these dishes were all different enough to stand on their own – almost like its anti-neuveau fusion…
the other dish that we had was the Nasi Lemak – again, amazing! It’s basically a platter of grilled seafood, coconut rice, and other ‘street fare’ foods. Man, my mouth is watering just thinking about it!

if you’ve never tried Malay food, you gotta go to Matahari!

and if you know of an authentic Indonesian restaurant, let me know about it! if it is even remotely close to Malay, i’m sure i’ll be a fan.