Enfin by James Won is one of the KL’s current most talked-about fine dining spots, and whose cuisine in based on French techniques, but using local Malaysian ingredients where possible.
Amuse bouche - Japanese caviar, sea grapes, potato espuma and grilled leek.
The Malaysian brie - not really up to par yet, IMHO. But kudos to the fact that they even attempted. Kinarut Beach cheese is by an Aussie lady, Shelley Blew, made from the milk of local Friesian cows.
Naf - no, not as much as Thai or Cambodian cuisines, or even Korean ones. The main flavouring components come from chillis, and pungent herbs like galangal, lemongrass, kaffir limes leaves, etc.
Belacan - fermented shrimp paste is one exception - it’s used in most spicy “rempah” mixes, sautéed in hot oil and used as a basis for curries.
Salsailsa - the dessert was really prettier to look at than bowl-me-over tasty. I have a personal preference for desserts with some alcohol content - but that doesn’t seem to figure much in Malaysia where the local palate goes for very sweet and very rich (as in coconut-crème-rich) flavours.
Yeah, I’m not a huge dessert person. I’m intrigued by the Parmesan mousse/ beet combination which had potential, toe quite nice. Not sure about the additional aspects (raspberry, chocolate, coconut). I really don’t like the sickeningly sweet desserts as you describe.
naf - I’m pretty fond of chicken liver, but did not quite enjoy this particular chicken liver dish which they’d playfully tried to present as a “crème caramel”-like dish. I’d expected the chocolate leaves to be unsweetened, but the chef was probably catering to the local Malaysians’ sweet tooth.
