Eat, Pray, Love: Papparich Adelaide

Papparich Adelaide

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I was privileged to be invited to the grand opening of PappaRich Adelaide with complimentary food and drinks alongside with other food bloggers and Chef Poh.

Coming from Malaysian background, Malaysian food is always dear to my heart and soul. Transcending cultures and races, Malaysian food is prepared using myriad combination of spices and cooking methods. If you were to ask the thing that a Malaysian overseas student misses the most, 'Malaysian food' would be undeniably the MOST popular answer.

With the addition of popular Malaysian restaurant chain, Papparich in Adelaide, it certainly adds colour (and competition) to the Malaysian dining experience here.

Today's treats were chosen by Poh Ling Yeow who is the ambassador of PappaRich. Besides that, she is also an artist, TV host, ex-Masterchef contestant and proud owner of Jam Face. Having Poh amongst us was a privilege because she has the knowledge of Malaysian food due to her background. Mhmmmm, can't wait to EAT!

So, we started off with some drinks. These ice blended smoothies were really refreshing, giving us the summery feel. The Mango Mania had well balanced sweetness and sourness, as well as with different textures from the blended ice, cubed fruits and longan.

Ribena Melon Coconut paradise Mango Mania

I got both the Matcha Rocks and Teh C Special. It is advisable to stir the Matcha Rocks (especially with the matcha ice cream) before sipping in. It was smooth and perfect for those who love milky smoothies with a subtle tinge of matcha and mashed red bean.

Just as how Australians always have coffee/tea for every meal, we Malaysians will always have a Kopi O or Teh Peng. The Teh C Special did bring back my memories in Malaysia. It is a 3-layer-tea with milk and palm sugar. The taste of tea was strong and it was not too sweet.

Mango Mania Teh C Peng

For entree, we had prawn dumplings and vegetarian fu chook.

Prawn dumplings are part of Malaysian Chinese food culture and are usually ordered when we go yumcha/dimsum in Malaysia. The prawns were wrapped in glossy dumpling skin and they were well seasoned and well cooked. Coupling with the chilli sauce, it made a good breakfast or snack.

Prawn dumplings

For this vegetarian dish, several vegetables such as carrots and cabbage were wrapped with bean curd skin and steamed. The sweet chilli sauce on the side was the must-have with this vegetarian fu chook roll. I would have preferred it to be filled with meat and deep fried (Well, that would have become another Malaysian snack, Lobak.)

Vegetarian Fu Chook Rolls

The next dish was Chicken and Beef Satay with red onions, cucumber and satay (peanut) sauce. This is a popular Malay dish. The skewed meat were well cooked and the satay sauce was divine! Besides bathing the meat with the sauce, I also love to skewer and dip some diced cucumbers and red onions in the satay sauce.

Beef and Chicken Satay

Roti Canai is a Malay-Indian flatbread which is usually served with dahl or sometimes sugar. It is my favourite breakfast! There are more than 10 types of roti in Malaysia, ranging from Roti Tisu to Roti Telur whereby different ingredients such as cheese and eggs can be added into the roti. It is indeed a creative dish.

It is always a pleasure to be able to watch the dough-flinging process prior to cooking. The dough is transformed thinly that you feel that it is going to break soon but yet it stays!

Dough flinging process and happy cooks

PappaRich offers Roti Telur Bawang with Curry Chicken. The flatbread had outer crisp and inner softness. Sooo good! The ingredients used in the roti were onions and eggs. It came with dahl (lentil sauce), curry chicken and sambal. Fortunately for those who cannot stand extreme spiciness, the curry chicken and sambal were mild. Definitely something I will order again next time!

Roti telur bawang with curry chicken

Noodle dishes were up next! We had fried rice noodle, Char Koay Teow, Wat Tan Hor, Prawn Mee and Ipoh Koay Teow Soup.

The Pappa Fried Rice Noodles was my favourite dish. The rice noodles were stir fried with prawns, eggs and bean sprouts, alongside with the seasoning (lots of oyster sauce and soy sauce), producing the perfect 'brown-and-nearly-charred-but-that-is-the-best-part' appearance. The colour was appetising and the flavour was good. Oh YUMM!

Pappa Fried Rice Noodles

The Char Koay Teow was prepared similar way as the fried rice noodles but with different kind of noodles. In comparison with the rice noodles, I prefer the rice noodles MORE!

Char Koay Teow

The Wat Tan Hor was made up of deep fried noodles with gravy, 'poached' eggs, seafood and vegetables. The gravy should be the highlight of the dish because it ties all the components together. PappaRich executed that pretty well.

Wat Tan Hor

The Prawn Mee came with a small plate of chilli paste. The soup itself was not spicy so if you are a spicy lover, do put in the chilli paste generously. Apart from that, the broth did exude prawn flavour. Ohhh, and PappaRich did include that important fried onions!

Prawn Mee

The last noodle dish was the Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with steamed chicken. It used the same noodle as Char Koay Teow but this time off, it was served in a light chicken-prawn broth. The steamed chicken was tender and well seasoned.

Ipoh Koay Teow Soup with Steamed Chicken

Rice is always the essential staple of Asians, Malaysians included. We had Biryani Rice and Nasi Lemak for the feast.

Biryani Rice is Indian-inspired spiced rice which is eaten best with curries or sambal. PappaRich serves it with red chicken and sambal eggplant. I always love the red chicken because it has the stickiness and sweetness. And most importantly, it is fried! The sambal eggplant was soft and mild. The sweetness of raisins in the rice cut through the spice component and gave you a popping texture. It was a nice dish.

Biryani Rice with Red Chicken and Sambal Eggplant

One of the featured Malaysian dish is the Nasi Lemak! It is made up of coconut rice, which normally comes with anchovies and peanuts in sambal, curry chicken or prawn and boiled egg. Talking about flavours, there were different textures in the dish, not to mention the different layers of taste you will get. The anchovies were crunchy and the sambal prawn gave a mild kick in the taste buds. The coconut rice was fragrant with every grain being visible.

Nasi Lemak with Curry Chicken

What's better to end the meal with desserts? We ordered the egg sago pudding, sago pudding, banana fritters and banana split. The banana fritters had crunchy outer layer, but I would have preferred to have smaller banana fritters (which in that case, I can have more crunch!).

I just realised that they do offer Tau Fu Fah (soft silky custard) which I will order next time!!

Egg sago pudding, Sago pudding, Banana fritters with vanilla ice cream, Banana split with ice cream

It was a good meal! Thank you PappaRich for the finger-licking and mouth-watering Malaysian feast. The Malaysian spirit was clearly portrayed with the amount of food we have. It was also a privilege to have Poh as the host!