sanur - straight wizzack

so this place used to be good; or rather, it used to be called New Indonesia Malaysia Restaurant; located in that real twisty part of Chinatown (pell and doyers). probably my first introduction to malaysian food maybe 12 or 15 years ago and we would go during high school and get some great noodles and things. but now, with places like skyway available and even curry leaf, you'd think the place would step up their game. nope. we had:

+ roti canai
+ beef with salt cabbage over rice
+ gado gado
+ hokkien noodle in brown sauce

the roti canai was the worst kind, sort of in between the two extremes (dense and thick, like a scallion pancake, or large and crispy). this one was brittle, not enough oil or crispiness, felt like we were eating pappadam but greasier. not good. the curry didn't even have a chunk of chicken, just a lump of potato.

the gado gado was aight, but the most rudimentary; potatoes, bean sprouts, tofu, a couple shrimp chips, and a gang of peanut sauce. no crispy stuffed veg, no spice, just leaden sweetness.

the hokkien noodles were basically chinese stir-fried udon with a lot of soy sauce, but no soy sauce flavor. in fact, no flavor at all, except from the celery, the chunka tomato, some sliced fishcake and maybe water.

the beef over rice was probably the best dish but not even malaysian, more like 69-style, which is oh so good. sweet and sour, it was a real rice-killer.

so basically, sanur sucks. nowhere else to go for indonesian (borobudur cafe sucks, bali nusa indah is for gwailo, and you have trek to elmhurst for mie jakarta (decent) or minangasli (decent-er) if you want anything soulful or homestyle). as for malaysian, maybe new malaysia is the only decent place (in the alley just south of canal street, between bowery and elizabeth) aside from skyway (east east canal street).