Medan Selera Ah Goh, Brickfields

I'd been deadly curious for a while about the row of solid-looking eating establishments located opposite the Brickfields police station along Jalan Tun Sambanthan. They looked like they didn't need to shout much or invest in any form of interior decorating to get the patrons coming in. So what was it that they kept coming back for, I wondered?

We ambled one night into one of the outlets open one fine weekday evening, Medan Selera Ah Goh. I read on various news clippings posted on the wall and learnt that the restaurant's been in business at that same spot since 1943. It's been serving up a reliable menu of Chinese dishes to repeat patrons spanning a couple of generations.

No frills - save for the tablecloth surprise!

We were all but two empty stomachs, so we kept our orders brief - a plate of baby kai lan in oyster sauce, the house special assam fried fish and the much touted otak otak.

The orders took some time coming but when the fish was set in front of us, we knew we were in for a jolly good time! The fresh siakap or sea bass was fried to golden, crisp perfection, covered with an assam vegetable curry, sour and spicy. Seriously satisfying.

The vegetables were fine, but I didn't think it was worth a picture up here. Baby kailan is baby kailan is baby kailan, know what I mean?

The final dish took some time to materialise in front of us, heightening further our anticipation. And when it did, we were somewhat disappointed. There was nothing wrong with the otak-otak, mind you, it simply wasn't in the same league of the champion assam fish. The texture was a bit blah, and the flavours were just about perfunctory, even with the all-purpose enhancer wedge of lime.

The bill for two came up to RM66.60 - not exactly the cheapest meal to be had in the neighbourhood but that was some fish! I was won over end of the day and look forward to returning. Their oyster omelette looked unmissable!