UK trip (Part 1)

The title to this blog post implies that there will be more than one entry featuring my recent trip to the UK. To be honest with you, I´m not entirely sure how many entries there will be regarding this trip. At the moment, all I know is that there will be at least 1, maybe 2 and if I decide to indulge myself, 3 or more. So bear with me on this one.

For future reference, a particular trip to any foreign location will have at least one entry depending on the amount of good food we eat. Based on this logic, during our trip to the UK, we had a lot of good food. Like my wife said, the trip to the UK was basically an “indulgence” trip. We indulged in a good football game, good food and lots of shopping.

Let’s start at Birmingham International Airport, which is where we landed. We had decided while planning this trip that we wouldn't fly into any of the London airports because a) they were nowhere near where we wanted to go; and b) just too much hassle. So upon our arrival, we picked up our rental car, a Nissan Micra (which disappointed me a bit because I had booked the new Ford Fiesta which I was so looking forward to trying but wasn't available) and headed straight to Stalybridge which is on the outskirts of Manchester (nowhere near Liverpool but we had to go there anyway).

The cafe from the outside

The reason for this detour was to go and meet up with a friend of my wife who recently opened a café/bistro in Stalybridge (I would never have expected that someone would open a café serving Malaysian food in Stalybridge, it’s like a small town or more like a large village, not exactly remote but way out of the way for your average Malaysian). But E.N Rumly (Teddy), the proprietor, has somehow made it work. Most of the food on the menu is your typical western fare such as sandwiches, pannini and such, but you also have nasi lemak, fried mee hoon, satay and some other Malaysian dishes.

Before making this trip, we had already told Teddy that we were going stop by to sample some of his food. While driving along the way, we got a message from him outlining the menu, White rice served with “Asam pedas ikan semilang (hot and sour catfish)”, “Sambal tumis petai udang (prawn in sambal)”, “Rendang daging (beef rendang)” and “Daging masak hitam (beef cooked in black gravy)” (hearing this, I ran out of saliva from drooling too much just as we reached Manchester).

From the outside, Teddy’s café looks just like any other café. With the exception of a sandwich board leaning against a tree just outside the café, there was nothing to indicate that it is a Malaysian café. In fact, because he only just recently opened, he didn't even have time to take down the sign from the previous owner.Walking in, I noticed the décor was quite simple. None of your usual “Visit Malaysia Year”and “Malaysia Truly Asia” posters, no “Wau bulan”hanging on the walls or bamboo pieces and dim lighting to create a “fake” Malaysian food stall environment. Just a bright, neat and clean dining area for the comfort of patrons.

As I was taking my seat, I noticed a few boards on the wall displaying some of the dishes served. Then I noticed the one on the wall opposite my chosen seat, “Nasi Lemak” my favorite meal. I started to get excited but I realized that Teddy had probably spent the last couple of hours cooking the menu he sent to us, so I wasn't going to make a big fuss out of it. So I sat there quietly while waiting for Teddy’s other guests, Rosnah Mu, her husband Simon Alexander and their 2 children.

The nasi lemak menu board

For starters, Teddy brought out 2 pieces each of homemade “Roti canai” with curry. For those of you in the know, making the dough for the roti canai is the easy part, spreading the dough to make the roti thin, light and crunchy is not the easiest thing to do. There is a special technique called “Tebar”or spreading which makes the dough very thin before it is folded over to form the roti before the roti is pan fried. Here is a video of this technique.

Teddy’s roti canai, was filling. The roti was light and crunchy, and the curry was hot and spicy. In fact, it was very hot and spicy, I had to mask some of the spiciness by dipping pieces of my roti in some sugar after dipping it in the curry (I like doing that anyway as it adds a bit of sweetness to every piece of roti that goes into my mouth). But it was excellent. I tend to sweat whenever I have some good spicy food, and after the third bite, I could feel the sweat exiting my pores on my forehead.

The "Asam Pedas" and "Rendang

Then, came the main meal (more sweating). The asam pedas, sambal tumis, rendang and daging masak hitam arrived at our table and my drooling, which had stopped the moment we walked into the café, started again. I am not a big fan of catfish, unless is fried till it’s crunchy, but I had 2 pieces of the fish in the asam pedas. And the rendang was superb, but my favorite was the sambal tumis petai udang. At one point I was a bit worried there wasn't going to be enough for all of us (the food came out in small bowls and we all had a huge plate of rice to accompany it all). But I was wrong. And surprisingly, after the 2 pieces of roti canai, I finished all my rice.

Devouring the main meal

The meal at Teddy’s place was absolutely delicious. I ate so much that I couldn't even have a bite of the dessert; in fact none of us could eat the dessert, which was a shame really because Teddy had already cooked it. I highly recommend to anyone in the vicinity of Manchester to drop by and have some of the sumptuous fare on offer at Teddy’s café. His café, the “Malay Cuisine and Bistro” is located at 57, Grosvenor Street, Stalybridge.

Teddy

P.s.      Looks like the entry on the Nasi Lemak will have to wait till Part 2

P.p.s.   Sorry there are no pictures of the roti canai, sambal tumis petai udang and daging masak hitam. I completely forgot to take pictures.