There has been a new trend these days to capitalize on your branding whenever the opportunity arises and MyKuali is one such entity. They came out with a highly successful instant noodle pack called the MyKuali Penang White Curry Noodle which is exported to several countries. The brand also has premade cooking paste for a range of their dishes so when I got the chance to try out their new Kopitiam Style cafes, I was enthusiastic.
This new Kopitiam is located on same level as MBO Cineplexes in KSL City Resort Shopping Complex in Johor Bahru city. The owners have taken a leaf from Ernst Zacharevic's iconic murals found on Penang island and and these can be seen adorned on the walls of this eatery as wallpaper. I am not sure if they are paying Zacharevic for use of the copied murals instead so I won't go into these details.
My choice was for the Chicken, since I am curios about the Kapitan Curry Chicken paste. To begin with, this dish was created by the Baba Nyonya communities in Penang, Melaka and Singapore and a version of it can still be eaten in Melaka where judicious use of Tamarind is used to sour up the concoction. That too is called Kapitan Curry (a homage of sort to Yap Ah Loy, the founding figure of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia).
To be fair, this version found in MyKuali is not even close to the traditional Melaka variety. It is a version of the Malaysian Sambal Chicken, flavored with Kaffir Lime leaves and Lemon grass. One taste and the first thing that hits you is the sambal flavor as opposed to the curry flavor that is often distinguished by the liberal use of coconut milk. The chicken is prefried and cooked once more in the sauce. It was tasty and I enjoyed it.
I like sambal chicken, and this bodes well for my taste buds but the dish itself as a whole was a let down. On the plate, you are given a fried boiled egg and three slices of cucumber. The rice was in particular not well cooked (I suspect it was overnight rice as the consistency reminded me of why people use kept rice for frying as it was firmer and has less moisture).
For US$3 a pop, this has to be quite expensive. You are given only one piece of chicken doused liberally with the Kapitan Curry sauce. You don't get a side of potatoes with the 'curry' of any other garnishing. In terms of value for money, I don't think I will coming to eat this dish again.
Kapitan Curry Chicken @ KSL City, Johor Bahru, Malaysia.
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