Bibik Express, Ikano Foodcourt

Upon recommendation from the AW forums, I went to try the Bibik Express at Ikano. I ordered 3 dishes.

The otak otak was quite good... spices were sufficient and it had a solid piece of fish beneath the rempah. I would have prefered the fish to be spread/broken up within the rempah though (instead of just a solid piece). The fish was fresh and I consider this to be above average but another wish would be that the spices were not so finely ground (by blender).

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

Then I had the paitee (top hats). I liked the combination of colours. They had this aspect right with the fried shallots, spring onion and chilli bits. However, the texture was not quite right. I have yet to find paitee in KL that had the right crunchy textures. This is because the paitee did not have cucumbers or taugeh (not that I could taste any) and the mengkuang was cooked too soft (but lacked caramelization). The shells were freshly fried but the chili was extremely disappointing because their cili cuka (vinegared chilli) had neither umph nor taste. Still, I whacked this platter within minutes.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan

My main course for quite predictably the Malacca nyonya laksa. What I liked about their version - the sambal was good... and necessary to flavour the gravy. It looked a lot like the pictures on the wall. The gravy was thick and had almost the right taste. The crunchy texture was also present thanks to taugeh and the cucumber strips. What I did not like about their laksa? No omellette strips (they gave half a boiled egg instead). The gravy lacked some ingredients or did not have enough of it (causing it to lack a bit of kick). I must repeat that the sambal was necessary to give the gravy the extra bit of taste. If they gave you the sambal belacan with the laksa, please tell them to give you the right one instead.

Copyright (c) Kelvin Tan