Flavourful Thai cuisine
In addition to its many sauces, Saeb Thai restaurant also delights Ewe Paik Leong with its grilled and fresh produce
SAEB Thai, the latest entrant to KL’s Thai food scene, is not a newbie. It was operating successfully as Bentong BBQ on the Karak Highway before the lure of a bigger market brought it to the capital. Presently, it occupies a lot in Kuchai Entrepreneur Park. While its decor lacks decorative Thai elements, its menu with pictures springs several surprises. Grilled food (chicken, beef, lamb, seafood and veggies) are on the front pages. What follows is a list of sauces for it: barbecue, enchiladas, red chillie-garlic-ginger, mixed chilli-lime, green chilli-lime, chili flakes-lime-coriander, salsa and almond. The beverages section also intrigues. Sold by the pots are rose, thuja, snake jasmine, motherwort, lemon grass-and-mint, smartweed, joyweed and pea flower.
To cool down, there’re blends such as apple-bitter gourd, cucumber-lime, applethuja and lemongrass-peppermint-lemon. In the menu’s centre pages are single-dish meals such rice, noodles and other Thai staples. leaves taste good but not great. The tiger prawns are fortified with skewers of pineapple and the tang of the fruit gives a pleasant contrast to marine sweetness.
Up next come the mains. Pandan chicken is perfectly cooked, the skin infused with a nutty sweet-quasi-vanilla aroma (from the screwpine leaves), the flesh succulent and coming off the bone easily. The tangy chillie sauce s gives lift to the chicken.
Pineapple fried rice comes on a plastic plate, which disappoints me as the photo in the menu shows one-half of a hollowed-out pineapple. Several cashew nuts lie atop the rice and plump prawns are buried inside.
A spoonful of the ensemble runs riot with motley tastes: earthy crunch from the nuts, chewiness and sweetness from the prawns and grainy rice spiked up with the sweet-bitter of clove and pungent-bitter turmeric. Everything comes together as a single note at the finish.
Grilled pork neck is served with a dip and cucumber slices and is presented atop a forest of sliced cabbage. These pieces of marbled meat are each covered with a layer of fat. Though the meat is terrific, the fat leaves a greasy feel on my tongue. I almost hear my heart asking for an appointment with a cardiologist! Luckily, the cucumber slices and tangy-sharpness of the dip cut through the oily cloy.
Fried tilapia Thai-style testifies that the kitchen is not afraid of strong flavours. The fish obviously swimming in a tank minutes ago hides under cashew nuts, chillies, parsley, fresh onions, itsy bitsy pieces of pineapple and tomato slices.
A nudge from my fork breaks off a piece of pearly white meat easily. The meat and toppings deliver the spicy and savoury, vibrant sour-sweet and earthy pungency.
Next, steamed tilapia Thai-style is a prince among fish dishes. The fabulous fish is in a saffron-coloured broth with a bed of finely sliced ginger and turmeric. The flesh is dense and moist and the broth is punchy with the zing of ginger.
Verdict: Saeb Thai is one of great Thai restaurants in the city.