Go with the Grain: Rooted in Malaysian Chinese culinary traditions, reinterpreted through the talents of passionate chef-proprietor Tan Jia Yuan, Grain offers a harvest of gastronomic gratification, sprouting from the seeds of classic comfort-food recipes to take on contemporary forms. A satisfyingly priced restaurant to recommend for familiar flavours prepared with a fresh perspective.
Grain's cooking is imbued with thoughtful twists throughout, with a Hainanese inspiration to the succulent kampung chicken leg, gracefully garnished with ginger, garlic and spring onions, rounded out with house-made chilli sauce and soy sauce (RM19.70), and Teochew inflections for the duck porridge, a soulful, savoury-sweet bowl of roasted meat with sultanas, fried shallots and romaine leaves, mingling harmoniously with firm, creamy jasmine rice congee (RM15.60).
Sharing plates that successfully encapsulate Grain's themes include the sumptuously tasty slow-cooked pork ribs, chunky and lip-smacking with a kitchen-made sauce that echoes nuances of char siew (RM23.50), and fleshy battered prawns, their spicy salt-and-pepper dynamics balanced with blueberries for a fun, pleasurable touch (RM26.30).
All in all, a very pleasant meal from start to finish, from the 'modernised' fruit rojak, featuring juicy pineapples, crunchy guava, turnips, cucumbers, green mangoes and papayas, each distinctly flavoured with elements such as plum sauce or Himalayan salt to bring out a lovely interplay of ingredients (RM14.70), to the glutinous rice warm dessert with coconut milk, gula Melaka and desiccated coconut, the kind of grainy goodness that even Grandma would strongly approve of (RM9.30).
Grain
17-1, Jalan PJU 8/5D, Damansara Perdana, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Open Monday to Saturday (currently open mainly for lunch; will open 10am-10pm by June 2018). Tel: 017-370-8325
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