Peranakan cuisine rules at Tau Ke

Good Peranakan food is not easy to come by. Happy to report that I found a perut ikan (fish stomach) dish that checked all the boxes. Sour enough to make you squint, pieces of fish that you can still make out (instead of mushy indistinguishable  bits) and a well-balanced taste. I can finish a whole plate of rice with this alone. 

This was what we had at Tau Ke in Taman SEA, Petaling Jaya, along with a good hearty sour and spicy bowl of Nyonya Asam Pedas with grouper fillet. The belacan kangkung packed enough of a punch as well, together with quite a few prawns.

We opted for pork rendang, which we couldn’t resist, especially since this version was pork. The refreshing blanched octopus/jellyfish in kerabu style was a wonderful starter to get our appetites going. 

The restaurant’s decor was ethnic Chinese, with farming references on the walls. One wouldn’t have guessed that this place excelled in nyonya food. The menu has quite a few Cantonese dishes as well as such low mei (braised pork, egg, tofu, etc), sweet potato porridge and roast duck, and single dish meals such as pork chop rice, nasi lemak, Asam laksa and nyonya nasi ulam. The cendol had its own spin as did the sago gula melaka. I would have preferred an old fashioned sago version – so simple, yet few get it right perfectly. But probably the younger set like new fangled desserts. 

Prices range from RM18 (kangkung) to RM35 (Asam pedas. Tau Ke goes on my list of go-to nyonya restaurants.