Selamat Datang Wau Cafe

The prospect of a new Asian cafe in Glasgow always stirs up a huge appetite for my flatmates and I. I was stunned when AS told me that there's a new Malaysia cafe in Yorkhill. Unexpectedly, it turns out to be a full fledged Malay Malaysian cafe. WoOTs~~! *btw AS claims to have been visiting this place on a daily basis. O _ O ~!!!!

The flat turned up in full force one weekday evening, with hunger and anticipation building up over the course of our less than great days at work. Surprisingly, no one was in the cafe but I wonder if that's because the place is newly open.

The opening conversation immediately brought a sense of familiarity that set the expectation of this place. Authenticity.

We started off with a trio of appetisers that included curry puffs, satay and soup kambing. The satay was well seasoned with galangal and tumeric spices and complimented really well with the peanut sauce. Satay was abit dry (deep fried or grilled?) but was salvaged by the ketuput that helped moisten things up. Kambing soup was great for a cold evening. The Curry puff however was mediocre. I would definitely go for the potatos over the sardine.

Moving on to the main course, Aa and I decided to whack 2 mains. i know we were being greedy but we were also uber hungry. I had the nasi goreng with chicken curry. haha I totally didn't expect my nasi goreng to be what it looked like and what was more bizarre was that it tasted like char kway teow haha.. I was very amused and nevertheless wolfed down the whole plate. Next up was my mee goreng haha. Certainly quite different from the version at rumours and the verson at the malay food store in LPS.

C and Aa went for the wau cafe nasi lemak set. There was a choice of beef rendang or ayam goreng with nasi lemak, egg, 2 satays and really solid sambal. I ll give good marks for the rice and sambal. I just wished the sambal had alittle more fire in it.

Aa had mee bandung as his seconds. I din't learn about mee bandung until really recently. I had a taste of it and was rather intrigue.

THe meal wouldn't have been completed without desserts. I don't think these were bought from a factory or anything. They look good enough to be home made and I would say was the best course of the meal. THe irony is that I wouldnt normally buy Malay dessert in SIngapore but because I m here in Glasgow where every Asian food is more difficult to find, I couldn't resist sampling them . Taste Good!!

Overall, we had a great time there at the cafe. The food was nice but unfortunately was not mind blowing. The portions could be bigger and its chilli have a higher level of spiciness. Having said that, the culinary skills showcased remains a niche market that is bound to attract lots of SEA students. I believe with time, we can expect more great tasting malaysian cuisines from them.

Wau Cafe, Glasgow
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27 Old Dumbarton Road
Glasgow G3 8RD

Opening hours
Tue - Thurs 1130- 2130
Fri 1400 - 2100
Sat 1130 - 2130
Sun 1130 - 1730
Mon Closed

http://en-gb.facebook.com/pages/Wau-Cafe/141718059215932

Eastern Europe Western Delights Tour 7: Budapest, Hungary

Budapest Hungary is an amazingly beautiful city like Prague but designed in consideration of its contrasting flat and hilly landscape transected by a river with monetary funding from long standing Monarchy.

Scenic Budapest seen from Gellért Hill

St Stephen's Basilica

The Parliament building

Lucky Balls. Rub them for luck before the exams.

Széchenyi Chain Bridge

OH this is a very interesting risotto like dish. Its layered cabbage with rice in between with a baked cheese topping and served with a tomato-based paprika sauce. I wish I know what its called. It taste like.... Hainanese Curry vegetable rice??

Casa Mia, Dumfries

WY and I made the long trip down to Dumfries to bring K back up to Glasgow last weekend. Dumfries for your info, is a 1.5hrs drive from Glasgow. This wee town is probably the furthest you will ever get sent for a placement but the good thing is that it provides the best undergraduate teaching I have experience in my other placements. On top of that...... CASA MIA...........

I was impressed even before I saw the restaurant upfront because the restaurant has its own SIGNPOSTING on the road!!!... Don't think I've seen anything like that before in Glasgow.

Do not be deceived by its location, located in the middle of a housing estate. This is one of the finest restaurants in Dumfries, serving up modern cuisine with a European twist.

Warm Salad of Bacon, Black puddding, chorizo sausage, mushroom and onion with soft poached egg. WY's quite into his poached eggs recently.

Sear Duck salad with raspberries, orange segments, Cherry tomato and pine nuts with a hazelnut oil dressing. Duck looks wee bit raw but K said it was lovely.

Dessert after appetiser? Nope..... Lemon sorbet with Balsalmic vinegar as a palate cleanser

Wild Mushroom Risotto with parmesan cheese and truffle oil

Linguini pasta with spinach, spring onions, garlic cherry tomato, pine nuts, radicchio and basil topped with parmesan shavings.

I had dessert.. a nice sticky toffee pudding with ice cream... Aye!!


If K says its good... it must be good... If you are ever down for a placement do give it a try.

Casa Mia
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53 Nunholm Road
Dumfries
DG1 1JW

BFE at Rumours

Back at rumours again cos YR wanted to eat rice. lol. Thought it would be a good idea since I'll be catching star trek later on at cineworld. Its a good movie, worth watching. Anyway.. YR ordered Nasi Lemak over chicken rice. If you know her or seen her, you will realise rice is not of those things which she eats often. So I was pretty suprised when she wanted to eat it. I had a taste of it. It was excellent and looks more appealing than the one you get at Asia style. Its one those dishes that can't go wrong. I love the sambal chilli that came along with it.

I got a bit too adventurous today and ordered the fried udon in home made sauce. Home made sauce.... indeed it was homemade sauce because I cannot pinpoint what the makeup was. Totally unique to its own. Unfortunately, I din find the dish to be super appetising. It was alrite. It does not look as spicy as it appears to be and I felt the choice of udon might have been wrong as it made the dish too starchy. The sauce itself was overwhelmingly salty too. I am feeling abit biased in this case considering I had half a tub of Haagen daaz before I leave the house. Maybe I'll give the dish another chance sometime in the future.

OH and thank you to all my readers. Finally reached 1000 views lol!!!

Dumplings!! Bah Chang!

LZ passed me some pork dumplings also known affectionately (aKaa*) as bah chang. Her mum made these and I being a good friend of hers (I choose to think so lOL) got some as a treat.. Well.. the truth is I traded it with some cheesecake haha just kidding. Thanks Lz Mama.

Lz came to Glasgow from Shanghai at the age of 3. Her dad's a lecturer at Edin uni and her mum's like a chee cheong fun specialist at one of the chinese restaurants. The chang is not your typical pyrimidal shape looking ones you get in Singapore. Rather, its like a packet drink packet twisted 90 degrees at the centre. haha.

This is what it looks like after removing the leaves. Nice soft glutinous rice and chunks of spiced meat. It tasted different from the ones back home but its mild resemblance was enough to strike memories of the wonderful changs that Ah ma used to make. I was so excited about it that I called home to tell my mum about it and how I "celebrated" the dumpling festival with some home made chang, only to find out that the dumpling festival was like some time back in May lol..

Thanks Lz. Looking forward to more shanghainese goodies in the future.

IMG_0306, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Thai Pineapple Rice

C's specialty, thanks to the numerous packets of spice mix that she's accumulated over the years. Its not too difficult to make. Boil some rice, leave it to rest. Fry some garlic and onions, pop in some prawns, chicken or what ever left overs you can find, add in some sliced can pineapple and finally the rice. give it a good mix. Pour the sauce over and you got some fragrant Thai !


*Pair it up with some garlic kangkong. Taste Goooooood!!.......