The steamed lemon squid features pliant squid atop a deliciously jazzy, citrus-laced sauce that promises to awaken the senses. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
There is a certain pleasure in discovering hole-in-the-wall restaurants – the sort you might drive past or walk past – without exploring its hidden charms – simply because it looks so very ordinary.
And yet, there can often be a treasure trove of culinary gems to be discovered in these unsuspecting places. This is exactly the sort of rewards you will reap if you choose to sample the food at Yad Yead Phod Cha Na, a fuss-free eatery in Kuala Lumpur’s Kuchai Lama area.
Sandwiched along a narrow road in an area packed to the rafters with shop lots, the restaurant is the brainchild of friends Sam Loke and Nampejnamnung Sutarratanamanee (better known as Angie).
Loke is a Malaysian who spent a few years in north-eastern Thailand and fell in love with the food. After returning to Malaysia, she roped in her good friend Angie to help cook the food of the region (known as Isaan food) and together, the two opened Yad Yead Phod Cha Na. This was nearly six years ago.
“I am from Thailand and I grew up in Bangkok. My family ran a small Thai restaurant there so I learnt how to cook and run a food business from the time I was little, so for me, this was a natural thing to do,” says Angie.
The restaurant occupies a fuss-free space where the focus is clearly on the food. — SAM LOKE
Yad Yead Phod Cha Na has been in business for a few years now and although Loke and Angie initially served Isaan food in its original mould – spicy with sour undercurrents – the have since revised the menu to adapt to local tastebuds.
“Originally, our food was very spicy but we took a lot of feedback from customers. And after realising that many people could not eat the food as it was, we modified it. So it is still authentic, but just not as spicy,” admits Loke.
Loke and Angie have now made some additional concessions to local predilections – for example, although Loke says pandan chicken doesn’t exist in Thailand, she has introduced it at the restaurant because she was besieged with requests for it.
In many other ways though, she continues to serve up meals that are less familiar to Malaysians, including some new creations designed to create that elusive wow factor.
Angie (left) and Loke are the passionate individuals behind the restaurant’s authentic north-eastern Thai fare. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
“I want people to be able to eat things here that they cannot get at other Thai restaurants in KL. Because that means they will keep coming back here!” says Loke, laughing.
The restaurant also wears two guises – the full menu is available for lunch and dinner, but after 11pm, the eatery offers Thai barbecue steamboat options (mookata) right up until 5am!
At the eatery, there is plenty to whet the appetite – so much, in fact that you won’t know where to start. You could opt to begin with the Crispy Papaya Salad (RM25) for instance, one of Angie’s concoctions that is designed to evoke both familiarity as well as a sense of newness.
Built off the back of a classic papaya salad, the slightly spicy-sour-sweet sauce is laced with onions and chillies and this is countenanced by latticed discs of deep-fried papaya which are then dipped into the sauce.
The textural contrast is cleverly disarming – because having sampled the traditional iteration of this dish, you will be blown away by its total opposite. Can crisp papaya meld well with a papaya salad dressing? Oh yes, it can! In fact, it will be hard to imagine life without crispy papaya salad after you have tried this.
The Thai-style otak-otak is tender and packed with plenty of flavour.
Moving on, definitely look at sampling the Otak-Otak Thai Style (RM20). Made using chicken as well as Thai chilli paste, coconut milk, eggs and onions, this is a steamed affair that retains all the flavours and juices contained within it. Each packet is light, very tender and bursting with avian notes underscored by the herbs and spices in the Thai chilli paste and the tropical nuances of the coconut milk. It’s a little parcel that delivers so much in just a single mouthful.
The Thai-Style Salted Prawn (RM35) is another new menu addition that relies on sheer simplicity. The prawns are stir-fried with plenty of garlic, salt, spring onions and dried chillies in what sounds like an unvarnished, uncomplicated meal but in reality, packs a punch in terms of taste and flavour. The prawns retain crisp shells that give way to meat that is tender (although some pieces are a tad overcooked). This is accentuated by the garlic and salt in the mixture that add pungency and potency and take the dish to extraordinary new heights in one fell swoop.
The Pandan Chicken (RM19.90), while good, simply doesn’t live up to the very high standards set by its menu mates. Here, the chicken is tender and redolent of the herbaceous quality of the pandan leaves that it is wrapped up in but each piece is perhaps a tad smaller than you might want it to be and while it is flavourful, it doesn’t quite have the soulful quality of the rest of the dishes.
The salted prawn dish is simple yet delivers on every count. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star
This little blip is very quickly rectified once you sample the Thai Style Fried Fish with special Thai Sauce (seasonal price). Here, tilapia is fried to perfection alongside julienned ginger, lemongrass and dried chillies. This is served with a slightly spicy tamarind-infused sauce in what proves to be a dynamic duo. The sauce is basically like the best sort of Instagram filter – it draws out all the fish’s fresh aquatic attributes and enlivens it further with a fun, riotously vivacious liquid offering with a tangy underbelly that honestly turns what could be fairly good into something truly unforgettable.
The sea-faring adventure continues with the Steamed Spicy Squid (RM35). The squid has been steamed to a tenderly yielding consistency that still retains some spring and push-back. This is then accentuated by a spicy, garlic-riddled sauce awash in freshly squeezed limes and lemons, which gives it a zingy pep in its step. It’s the sort of meal that is seemingly simple yet ridiculously good.
The crispy papaya salad is a new take on a classic dish that is immensely satisfying from the very first mouthful.
When she first opened the restaurant, Loke originally intended to take on more lots and expand the size of the space. But over time, she gave up on that notion and decided to open a branch of the eatery in Thailand instead – something she did over a year ago in the Udon Thani region that she loves so much.
“The restaurant in Udon Thani is doing very well, we get a lot of international travellers there and I go every month to check that everything is in order,” she says.
On the local front, Loke is also cooking up a brand-new idea – one that she feels will completely revitalise the local appetite for Thai food.
“I’ve been thinking about it and I always wondered why we don’t have a Thai-style omakase restaurant. There are so many Japanese omakase restaurants, why can’t we have a Thai one?
“So now I plan to rent a larger space, maybe somewhere in Petaling Jaya and Angie and I will look at opening a new Thai omakase restaurant,” she says, smiling.
Yad Yead Phod Cha Na
Spring Avenue
2-3a Jalan 9/11b
Off Jalan Kuchai Lama
58200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 011-6132 3015
Open Tuesday to Sunday: Noon to 5am
