First published in Options, The Edge Malaysia, 13 August 2018
Food, made with
passion and heart, in trendy Bangsar
The last time I met husband and wife team Wen Huey and Jon, they
were running a restaurant in Puchong. They’ve since spread their wings to trendy Bangsar with a new venture,
Skive.
Occupying a corner lot with outside corridor seating, it’s
narrow but cheerful and friendly within, with a blue and white paint scheme and
a drinks, cakes and ice cream counter occupying one side. The frontal area is
given over to various house-made breads, jars of house-made curd, nut butters,
cookies, takeaway sandwiches and salads, bottled drinks, with seating occupying
the rest of the restaurant.
The menu sheet doubles as placemat, and is exuberantly
diverse, culling influences from the couples’ travels abroad – thus Mexican,
German, Indonesian, Thai, Japanese, with strong Malaysian and Western representation,
ranging from All-Day Breakfasts to dinners.
The Big Mexican Breakfast (Rm28) tasted as amazing as it
looked, an enormous, gorgeous, messy shakshuka of three poached eggs in a
tomato-bean-mushroom stew with potatoes and a generous chicken chorizo sausage,
with a big, fresh and spectacularly good croissant. Satisfyingly robust and full-bodied, with a
spicy tang, it was easy to overindulge in this tasty, nourishing meal, big
enough for two.
The informal style lends itself well to experiments, thus two
Sourdough Tacos with a choice of fillings of which BBQ Chicken Thai (Rm22)
featured honey grilled crispy chicken pieces in a tangy, nutty slaw with a
garlic aioli, identifiably Thai, yet refreshingly different with thin, substantial
taco shells, while the Balinese Fish (Rm24) filling brought home milder
Indonesian flavours with fried fragrantly-spiced marinated fish pieces, coconut
and lemongrass, with an unlikely match of shredded cabbage and lemon cream, yet
it was comfortingly familiar. 
The huge Kung Fu Salad (Rm25) was healthy and refreshing,
with avocado, pomegranate, quinoa and plenty of greens, cucumber, nuts and
seeds, yet not raw to the taste thanks to crumbled feta cheese, while Gado-Gado
(Rm24) was an original of shredded carrot, beet, beansprouts, tofu, egg and
crackled Vietnamese rice paper brought to vibrant life by a sweet, spicy, nutty
sauce.
From the Mains, Whole Spring Chicken Ayam Berempah (Rm38)
won two thumbs up for the thin, crispy-skinned spring chicken, beautifully
moist and tender, and deeply infused with flavor. Kudos to the meticulous preparation, with
three thick, authentic sauces – anchovy sambal, sos kicap and ikan masin, as
well as fluffy, fragrant subtly-flavoured pandan
rice (thankfully, not bright green!).
The attention to detail also characterized the Lamb Soldiers
(Rm28), fiercely aromatic with spices – cinnamon, cloves, cumin, ginger, in a curry-like
tomato-based sauce with potato and egg. The lamb slices were a little chewy
however, while the accompanying toasted brioche could have passed off as coarse
white bread.
Both the desserts we tried, White Choco Lemon Lava Cake and
the Banana Bread and Butter Pudding (RM18 each) were standouts, the former
oozing thick, lemony curd with a dollop of home-made vanilla ice cream, while
the latter was attractively sweet-salty and not at all dull or doughy, with croissant
filling baked with banana and chocolate, chocolate fudge and ice cream.
The owners have a real passion for cooking, and it shows in
the food. With a versatile spread of
offerings, from baked foods, ice-creams, cookies, cakes and main meals, and
generous servings – all freshly made, with natural ingredients, meticulous
attention to detail, and original ideas, this is food cooked with heart.
Skive
Bangsar,
Shop 1,
Ground Floor, Telawi Square,
41, Jalan
Telawi 3, Bangsar Baru,
59100 Kuala
Lumpur
Tel:
03-22020313
Business
Hours: Monday-Friday, 9am-10pm, Saturday and Sunday, 7am-10pm
FB:
www.facebook.com/skivebangsar/
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