Nasi Maqluba with salad, hot sauce and daqqus. — Photos: ALICE YONG
Enjoy a mix of Palestinian and Malaysian specialities.
These days, Mas Zuhairin Zubir is the mistress of spice and rice at Spiced Pumpkin Café. One of her specialities, the Maqlubah Lamb, uses 14 different herbs and spices.
Derived from the word maqlu which means upside down in Arabic, Mas says that the maqlubah recipe came from her ex-business partner’s Palestinian husband.
“Diners must pre-order our Maqlubah as it takes time to prepare. We have to sautée onion and garlic with spices such as nutmeg, cardamom and cinnamon stick, to flavour the rice. Vegetables and lamb, or chicken, are layered into the rice and then the whole pot is cooked over an open fire. Once ready, the pot is upended onto a plate for serving, accompanied by a mixed salad,” she explains.
Nasi Mandy with a portion of chicken.
For the lamb version, the meat is roasted first while the chicken is marinated with spices before it goes into the rice pot together with some eggplant, potatoes, carrots (the original version uses cauliflower), raisins, peanuts and almonds. The rice can be enjoyed with the house hot sauce and daqqus (a mixture of lemon juice, Chinese celery stalks, mint and pepper) for extra heat and piquancy.
When this arrived at the table, we were awed by the sheer size of the portion for four persons. The mini pot (RM95) is enough for more people if you are small eaters, and the larger sizes can feed eight to 10 people.
Formerly a trainer in the housekeeping department at Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Mas’ initial foray into the food business saw her serving healthy salads, soups and sandwiches out of a rented kitchen in a repurposed bungalow. She also operated a small café at SACC Mall’s indoor kids’ playground before teaming up with another home-based caterer to open Spiced Pumpkin Café in 2016.
Lontong Kering Rendang Daging.
“Due to unforeseen circumstances, my partner had to opt out of the business but her Middle Eastern recipes such as Nasi Maqlubah and Nasi Mandy remains. I’ve also included my own selection of Malay specialities in the menu.
“Our Nasi Arab Mandy Chicken (RM21) is different as we charcoal-smoke the rice first,” says Mas. The fluffy rice – tinged with the aroma and colour of saffron – bore a subtle sweet smokiness to it. We couldn’t help finishing this even though we were so full.
The show-stopping Johor-style Lontong Kering Rendang Daging (RM14.50) consisted of cubes of pressed rice cake, stir-fried with serunding kelapa (fried and spiced coconut floss), sambal tumis, peanut sauce, fried shallots and hard-boiled egg. Some variants incorporate dendeng paru (dry curried beef lungs) and beef, chicken or fish serunding (floss). This was so delicious that we’re convinced this alone would be worth the trip back to Spiced Pumpkin!
Tres Quesos – crispy fried pita bread with condiments.
Crowd-pleasing pasta dishes such as delicious Creamy Pumpkin with Pasta and Beef Bacon (RM17), and flavourful Spaghetti with Butter Salmon in Salted Egg Yolk Sauce (RM28.90) are also available, with sauces all made on-premises.
Derived from pita bread cut into triangular pieces then fried with herbs until crispy, the signature Pita Nachos Cheese (RM16.50) and Tres Quesos PJBB (RM17.90) can be quite addictive. The former comes smothered with the house special sauce, melted cheese, hot sauce and chilli flakes while three types of melted cheese, beef bacon bits and chopped jalapeño cover the latter, which resembles and tastes almost like pizza.
Spaghetti with Butter Garlic Salmon in salted egg sauce.
An unusual dessert option here is the Kunafa with Tres Leches (RM16.50) – a popular Middle Eastern treat made from finely spun phyllo threads with mozzarella and cream, orange blossom syrup, dried rose petals and crushed pistachios. We found this quite delightful as it wasn’t too sweet.
Mas has also given her own spin to Kuih Lopes with Tres Leches and Ice Cream (RM9.50) – a nice wedge of pandan-infused glutinous rice with coconut flakes, gula Melaka, cream and vanilla ice cream; and Sago Pudding with Tres Leche and Gula Melaka (RM7.50).
Traditionally, dry sponge cake is soaked in cream and milk for the South American tres leches cake.
Kunafa with Tres Leches.
Mas improvises her version of Tres Leches Cake (RM15) by immersing the sponge cake in milk and topping it with canned fruit prior to serving. We found this too rich for our liking, but Mas says there’s a firm fan base for this dessert.
An assortment of healthful drinks such as Lemongrass Ginger, Swagger Tea (rose buds, goji berries and chamomile infused with honey) are also available. The younger set will surely like the Butter Beer Frappe.
Spiced Pumpkin may be some distance from Kuala Lumpur city centre, but worth the effort.
Spiced Pumpkin Cafe
Lot 291, Kompleks KPPMS
2, Jalan RU 3/9a
Shah Alam
Selangor
019-272 8317
Opening Hours
Mondays - Thursdays
12pm - 7pm
Fridays & Saturdays
12pm - 9.30pm
Sundays closed
