Mamak (Chatswood, Sydney)

Back when I was in uni (a long time ago!) in Sydney, I used to despair ever finding decent Malaysian food outside of home cooking. These days it has become a rather popular cuisine and you can find Malaysian food in food courts and restaurants all over Sydney. And in Melbourne, there are heaps more!

Mamak opened up a few years ago and its first outlet was in Chinatown. It started life as a stall at the Friday night markets in Chinatown and became so popular the owners felt compelled to open up a permanent restaurant. Let's just say it was a decision they will never regret!

The Chatswood branch opened up about 2 years ago and it is located at the Chatswood Railway Exchange food zone. By the way this whole area is becoming such a food hub.

My post covers 2 separate visits. The first was a dinner I had with a friend and the second was a recent lunch.

Roti canai - served on the traditional metal tray with portions of dahl, curry sauce and a side of chilli sambal. I found the roti to be light and fluffy. It was of a better standard than my first try of the roti at the original Chinatown outlet many years prior. My friend was also very pleasantly surprised at how good the roti was!

Kari ayam - a rather nice chicken curry with servings of chunky potatoes. It surely would go well with some boiled rice but we had ours with the roti. Yum!

Nasi Lemak with sambal cuttlefish - one of my favourite dishes when I get takeaways from Mamak. For those of you who are not aware of this dish, it is coconut rice served with sliced cucumber, sambal, lightly fried peanuts, fried and crispy anchovies, with a boiled egg. In this case I requested for a serving of sambal cuttlefish too. So good!

Rojak - a Malaysian style salad consisting of prawn and coconut fritters, fried tofu, freshly shredded yam bean and cucumber , hard boiled egg, and topped with thick peanut sauce. It had been so long since I last had this dish it brought back memories of my childhood back in Malaysia. I used to visit a little Mamak store which specialised in this rojak. Loved it to bits!

Over my two visits, we had the following desserts.

Ais kacang - shaved ice, rose syrup, evaporated milk, sweet corn, and red beans. This is a very popular Malaysian dessert and I enjoyed digging into the mountain of ice to to fish out the corn and red beans! Fun!

Cendol - starch noodles made from fresh pandan leaves, with gula Melaka syrup, coconut milk and heaps of shaved ice. Another very popular Mamak dessert which brought back memories of being in Malaysia visiting my local road side proprietor who shaves the ice on a man-made wheel sitting on top of a huge block of ice. Though the texture and flavour of the Cendol itself is not as authentic as in Malaysia, it was a good attempt at replicating the dessert.

Wishlist: Malaysian style fried chicken. This is one I have yet to try and is on my list for my next visit.

Definition of Mamak: The Tamil Indian population which migrated to Malaysia many, many years ago whose food and culture perforated the country. Typically Mamak restaurants in Malaysia are run by Muslims. The cuisine is Tamil Indian based with strong Malay influences. It is a unique cuisine with robust flavours and one I truly appreciate. :)


Mamak Chatswood
1-5 Railway Street
Chatswood
NSW 2067
Website: www.mamak.com.au/

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