PocketsofPerth
Friday, August 28, 2009
Jalan2 Cari Makan: Love & Care Cafe(Walk2 (to) Find Food)
Singapore is widely known for its food culture where cheap and good food are easily attainable throughout the city.
As a Singaporean myself, I'd have to say that food plays a big part in my life. I LOVE FOOD. Or more like, I LIKE TO EAT. A LOT. Being away from home though, especially in a land full of ang mohs (Caucasians) it can be tough finding a good eatery that serves a good spread of Malay food (or even Chinese food, Indian food etc.)
With culinary skills like mine (or lack thereof, really), I'm really blessed to have a housemate who cooks and actually enjoys doing so! (Her shepherd pies are yumm!!) Nevertheless, I can't torture her into cooking for me all the time (just most of the time! Haha!) and moreover, it's nice to go out and get some fresh Perth air sometimes! It's a beautiful country after all.
We would occasionally dine in at a Malaysian restaurant, serving authentic Malay food, located on Pier Street, just across Miss Maud's. A plus point is that it's approximately 5 minutes walk from Hay Street/Murray Street Malls so it's good to drop by for lunch or dinner after a exhaustive shopping trip!
Love&Care Cafe, 38 Pier Street
When I say it serves authentic Malay food, I do mean it. This is not a hoax, people!! Why I say this is because often, in a Western country, you'll find that almost (if not) all Asian restaurants advertise themselves as caterers of 'authentic' -insert country- food. Now now, we all know that surely that's just a good marketing strategy. But since I'm not a marketeer, I'm telling you, the food at Love & Care Cafe makes you feel like you never left home!
The restaurant is rather hidden from the public. It's competitors on the other hand, Cafe Karache and Ihsan's Cafe, which are strategically situated, have less than authentic array of dishes. It's just my opinion, but I'm sharing this with you out of personal experience.
Trying to capture the kampong essence of the cafe
With a kampong-style interior, the restaurant has a compact but friendly group of waiters/servers. They serve buffet at lunch, and ala carte for dinner. You could get bandung cincau and teh tarik from here as well. The buffet consists of popular Malay dishes such as Beef Rendang, Ayam Masak Merah and Sayur Lodeh, while for dinner one can choose to have anything from Mee Soto (with rice cubes), Nasi Goreng Pattaya to Prata and Curry.
Since it's Ramadhan (the fasting month for Muslims worldwide) now, Kristal and I visited this quaint Malaysian restaurant earlier this evening for my break fast.
Our plate of appetizers. 2 goreng pisang, 2 jemput-jemput and 2 dates! but my date is missing.
It was thoughtful of them to serve complimentary dates as I broke my fast. That's not all though, Kristal and I also had our first bite (in a long while) of jemput-jemput (correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's mashed banana and flour) and goreng pisang (banana fritters)! I liked the jemput-jemput best! It was crispy and tender all at once. Nomnomnom!!
$9.50 Nasi Goreng Love&Care (with fried chicken and egg)
We both had the Nasi Goreng Love & Care, which was tantalizing. I'm no food critic, but I can assure you it was worth the $9.50 (don't be alarmed, these are the 'normal' prices for food here, but it has to be said that the portion justifies the price!). The rice was moist enough with a tinge of spiciness (just a little spice to enhance the flavour), and the fried chicken was ... what can I say, fried chickens are simply yumm!
Love & Care Cafe is by far my dad's personal favourite eatery (although he can never get the name right. He always calls it things like, 'Care & Love', 'Love & Hope', or something way off) whenever my family is here to pay me a visit. He'll insist that we have our meals here whenever possible. If he had his way, that would mean all the time! Haha.
Since my dad is a big foodie himself (he was a satay boy and helped run a family food business years and years ago), I reckon this would be a good recommendation to all of you.
Love & Care Cafe opens on Mondays-Fridays at lunch time, from around noon to 2.30pm, and from 5.30 till late, and till 2.30pm on Saturdays. So be sure to organise your time properly if you don't want to miss this authentic Malay food dining experience in Perth City!