Zhen Liew Siang

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from eating regularly at Zhen Liew Siang, it’s that curry leaves can make any dish taste great. This family-run Malaysian-Chinese restaurant, which has been around for more than a decade, seems to have a fascination with this aromatic herb – not that we’re complaining. While the cooking here is characteristically Chinese – with lots of steaming, braising and wok stir-frying – the liberal use of chilli and curry leaves gives it a uniquely Malaysian spin.

The menu here is extensive; it covers all manners of meat (chicken, pork, fish, crustacean, etc), common vegetables, a small selection of soups and the one-dish rice meals. They’re all dependable, the kind of filling, satisfying food you’d want to come back to after a busy day at work. However, it’s the spicy dishes that the restaurant excels at, where the flavours are exciting, robust, and leaves your tongue tingling even after you’re done.

You’d find the hot plate with banana leaf squid (or prawns) on most tables. The sweet, salty, creamy, spice-tinged sauce is brightened with curry leaves, making it comparable to kam heong in taste, while the banana leaf releases a beautiful fragrance as it sizzles in the heat. The crispy deep-fried mantis prawns with salted egg is also a crowd favourite; again, curry leaves and chilli are added to uplift the entire dish with acidity, making it truly addictive.

There’s curry too. Served in a claypot with a choice of fish chunks, fish head or just mixed vegetables, the curry here is of the thicker kind, much like Penang Nyonya style, where it’s heavy on the rempah. Don’t get us wrong; it’s really good, especially when lavished over white rice. If you’re a fan of stingray, have it in ‘sichuan steam’ (sic); the fish’s clean tasting flesh is the perfect foil to mop up the rich, dark, spicy sauce.

Service here is brisk, prices are reasonable, and unless it’s packed to the brim (which it usually is come dinnertime on weekends, when a table is hard to come by), you’d usually get your food within 15 minutes. Oh, always order the cincalok fried chicken wings to start. The pungent prawn sauce marinade turns fragrant in the hot oil just as the taste mellows dramatically, and coupled with the crispy skin and soft, tender flesh, you’d want to just keep eating this. Yes, finger licking good – just how we like our chicken wings.