Salero Negori Restaurant

Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya

WHEN a lot next to their furniture shop in Amcorp Mall fell vacant, Khalkanie Aliaman and her husband, Azman Anas, decided to open a restaurant there. Drawing from their love for Negeri and Minang food, and the experience of Azman’s parents (father from Padang and mother from Negeri Sembilan), they put together a menu that would combine genuine recipes from the two places and hired chefs from Sumatera who can prepare the dishes. That’s how Salero Negori (“tastes of Negeri”) started.

Today, they have three outlets and the food is prepared at a central kitchen to ensure uniformity and set the foundations for further expansion. Each of the restaurants is ornately decorated with pieces from their furniture shop, KAZ Timeless Décor, which specialises in selling restored local furniture from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Specialties

“Padangcentric”

· Ayam kampung goreng bumbu (kampung chicken marinated with bumbu and deep-fried)

· Gulai otak (curried beef brains; a hot favourite which you must go early for)

· Gulai tunjang (red beef tendon curry)

· Ayam kalio (red chicken curry)

· Daging dendeng (crispy beef served with coconut-water-based sauce)

“Negericentric”

· Masak lemak cili api (green coconut-based curry with hot chili) with daging salai (grilled beef), ikan sembilang salai (grilled catfish) and telur itik (duck egg)

· Pucuk tempoyak. This uncommon and must-try dish comprises seven types of ulam (among them pucuk ubi [potato leaf shoots], pucuk kaduk [kaduk leaf shoots], pucuk labu, petai, serai [lemon grass] and daun kunyit or turmeric leaf) cooked with tempoyak (fermented durian)

· Sambal petai goreng

Amcorp Mall: 247, 249, 251 & 253, Level 2, Amcorp Mall, 18 Persiaran Barat, off Jalan Timur, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel/fax: 03 7956 6968

Kelana Jaya: 4 Jalan SS5B/2, Kelana Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Tel: 03 7877 4437

Sri Hartamas: 33 Jalan Sri Hartamas 7, Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur (on the same row as Saffron)

Business hours: 11.30am to 10.30pm

Close: Open every day

Type of food: Malay Padang and Negeri Sembilan

Category: Halal

Payment: Cash (MasterCard & Visa only at Amcorp Mall as at September 2006)

Budget: $ (Less than RM10 per person)

Air-conditioned: Yes

Business friendly: Yes

Parking: Ample

Noise level: 3 (bearable)