Belacan Malaysian Grill

Saturday, May 10, 2008

CJ's Wine & Dine group met tonight at the Belacan Malaysian Grill in Redondo Beach. This was the second time we have visited this restaurant. The menu is always pre-ordered. I will say that the dinner last year was much better than this year. The food is good but the choices this year left me wondering.

Everyone brought their bottle of wine. Seeing as there were basically two tables for dining it is not the easiest to keep track of the names., otherwise I would be doing nothing but writing information down and not eating, and that is not going to happen. I brought a 1990 Domaine de la Fontainerie, Vouvray. It went perfectly with spicy food. There were some very nice wines on the table including a couple of Melville Pinot Noirs, a nice Petit Syrah from Lodi and an interesting sparkling Gerwuztraminer. A Towmey Merlot was good.

The evening started out with a Roti Canai - crispy flat bread with curry dipping sauce and Malaysian Curry Puffs, which are like an empanada. Pastry filled with spicy potato chicken curry. These are always a big hit with everyone.

Char Kway Teow - Malaysian stir-fried flat rice noodles with chicken, shrimp, eggs, bean sprouts and chives in a spicy dark soy sauce was served next. This dish was the hit of the evening. Very flavorful. I could have eaten the entire serving for the table myself and forgone the rest of the meal

Next plate out of the kitchen was Lamb and Chicken Satay. Everyone raved about the lamb but the skewer that I had is seemed to me to be a bit tough and way overcooked. The chicken was good and the peanut sauce was very good.

Coconut rice was served but they only brought one container for 16 people. By time they brought more out you lost interest. I did not have any of this dish as I am now a big white rice fan, I grew up on potatoes and noodles so rice to me is no big deal. Everyone else seem to like it. The finally brought another container out.

The next dish left everyone wondering - Sambal Okra - Okra stir fried with dried shrimp in house special shrimp sauce. I like okra personally, but this was spicy and somehow wasn't the big hit of the evening. I had about 5 large pieces of the okra and I just couldn't get into it. I had some Vouvray left in my glass and it did pair well along with some of the other white wines but by time this dish came out we were on red wine which did not blend with this dish at all.

The Daging Kicap Manis (soy glazed beef) - tender cuts of beef sauteed with onions and spices in a sweet thick soy glaze. This dish also was very good.

Then a bowl of vegetables was brought out. Why they did not served these earlier I don't know.
Vegetables and tofu simmered in a rich coconut milk curry gravy. This will make the vegetarians in the group happy. I did not taste this dish so I have no comments on it.

Something was passed around for a dessert. I took one small spoonful. It was tasty, whatever is was but I wasn't impressed enough to write it down and it was not on the menu that we had.

No dinner next next month as CJ will be on vacation and the July dinner falls on the same day as a wine & food fundraiser that I attend every year, so I will not be attending a Wine & Dine function until August.