Thai Style with Passion

First published in Options, The Edge, Sept 28, 2014

Ensconed within the residential enclave of Damansara Kim in Petaling Jaya, a row of shophouses is becoming gradually gentrified with the conversion of traditional businesses into trendy cafes and eateries. One of the more established of these is the Thai Fusion Restaurant, KomPassion.  A favourite with residents of the surrounding housing areas, the restaurant has relieved the weekend crowd by doubling its floor space, extending the restaurant with upstairs dining a little over a year ago.

The décor is the by-now tried and trusted industrial chic, with bare cement floor and walls, black ceiling and unfinished surfaces. Warm lighting from naked patterned filament bulbs with dangling wires is supplemented by floor-level concealed lighting, while a corrugated metal panel on one wall reflects a metallic sheen.  Furniture is simple, industrial style plastic and metal chairs, and wood-topped tables.  Whimsical wall posters of a bygone era provide a retro touch. Nothing fancy, yet the décor establishes the restaurant’s cred as modern and stylish. 

Upstairs, the décor is more rustic, with one wall in unfinished brick, deliberately hacked to an uneven texture and further enhanced with dabs of cement. A plywood-backed bench runs along one wall, and lighting is from overhead lamps, making for a more relaxed, cosy and quieter atmosphere with less of an edgy frisson than downstairs.

The menu, presented in a school-type exercise book format, introduces the diner to an extensive selection of rather interesting items, of Thai provenance but given an original twist.  There are single person meals in the form of rice and pastas, as well as burgers but we ordered to share, traditional Asian style, from various sections of the menu.

Of the Starters, the Unagi Mango Canape (Rm20 for 5 pieces) was a reload of the classic Thai Mango salad, presented as slivers of green mango cupped in young lettuce leaves, topped with unagi and sprinkled with kerisik (fried coconut shavings).  Spicy, sour, tart and immediately appetising, they served notice that a culinary adventure was about to begin, with no quarter given to subtlety.

The Pucuk Paku (fern leaf) Salad with Young Coconut, Prawn and Minced Pork (Rm20) was a twist on another traditional favourite. KomPassion’s version had blanched young tender fern leaves, prawn strips, slivers of coconut meat, and small pieces of pork with rind topped by bright orange tobiko and kerisik on the side. If the Unagi Mango Canapaes were brassy and brash, this was smooth and vintage, mellow on the tongue, without a hint of sappiness or fibrousness from the fern leaves – an attention to detail that characteristed all the dishes we had.

We ordered a single person dish, the Stir Fry Angel Hair with Green Curry and Seafood (Rm20.90) for trying. It was thoroughly modern Thai, the green curry being thickly creamy and sweet, with fresh seafood tempura, a happy marriage of several cuisine styles, birthing an unlikely, but very appealing dish.

The much-touted KomPassion Special of Double Cooked Pork Belly with Soft Shell Crab (Rm65) was a huge portion of deep-fried softshell crab in batter, separated from chunks of deep-fried pork belly by a generous salad.  The softshell crab pieces on salad were crunchy tidbits, coldly delicious, but the pork belly pieces could have been a little crispier, a little juicier, although they went well with the thick green curry sauce and salad leaves. 

We had to try a Tom Yum, and the KomPassion Tom Yum Mushroom (RM38 for a large portion) didn’t disappoint.  A clear soup fragrant with galangal, lemongrass and other herbs, it managed the formidable combination of being both appetising and smooth at the same time. Thick pieces of dark chili and coriander enhanced the flavour. There was a selection of different fresh mushroom pieces within.

We ordered the KomPassion Hang Laey Curry (Rm36 for pork) on the waiter’s recommendation. It was served in a rustic enamel bowl, a lustrous, molten orange curry with cashew nuts, string beans, brinjal pieces and thick chunks of pork.  Taken with rice, this emerged as the favourite of the evening in a selection of strong contenders. This Northen Thai curry was quite outstanding for its artful blending of of sour, salty, spicy and sweet flavours, reminescent of masaman curry.  It was superb taken on its own with rice, but was also beautiful as a background flavour to other milder dishes, such as the Omelette with Octopus and Spring Onion (Rm26), which was a packet of contrasting textures wrapped in egg, or the simple but elegantly executed stir-fried Paku (garlic sambal belacan) (Rm15).

Dessert arrived, a pretty selection for sharing.  An interpretation of the favourite Tab Tim Grob dessert, the Coconut Gelato with Red Ruby and Jackfruit (Rm10) was a cold and smooth coconut ice-cream, notable for its rich creaminess to which the embedded red water chestnut and jackfruit added sweetness and texture.  Similarly, the Coconut Pandan Gelato with Cendol Corn (Rm10) was clever and original, the smooth-textured ice-cream enhanced by pebbles of atapchi, shaved almonds and cendol.  The Tako (Rm10 for a set of 3) rather paled against such competition, but taken on its own merits, it was a pleasing salty-sweet dessert of contrasting textures between the coconut cream and the pale green pandan jelly.

All the dishes we sampled were well-presented with contrasting colours and finishing flourishes.  They were conceived with originality, using fresh ingredients, respecting the Thai tradition of blending complex flavours and tastes.  Contemporary in execution, the dishes borrowed freely from other cuisine styles, much as Thai cuisine itself has adapted to foreign influences over time, absorbing Indian and Chinese cooking and ingredients to traditional Thai cooking to make modern Thai cuisine its present rich amalgalm.

For its originality and clever interpretations, the care and thought lavished on the food preparation and the results, KomPassion makes dining a pleasurable adventure and richly deserves to be visited again and again.  The restaurant name, combining the chef’s name (“Kom”) with Passion, is cleverly appropriate.

KomPassion Restaurant

No 5, Jalan SS201/11

Damansara Kim,

Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-77319256, 017-3912265

https://www.facebook.com/Kompassion.DamansaraKim/info

Open: Mon - Sun: 11:30 am - 3:00 pm, 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm