At Rasa
One of the most underrated Asian cuisines in New York could arguably be Malaysian. Malaysian food is incredibly vibrant, sometimes spicy and tantalizes the palate with so many different tastes and flavors.
On a random craving, we headed to Rasa for a quick but flavorful dinner down in West Village.
We started off with their skewers of chicken satay. Tender slightly smoky chicken meat with the thick peanut sauce was delicious.
We have not encountered this kind of soup/stew type of a dish called Penang assam laksa, a Nyonya hot and sour noodles in fish soup. It’s a very complex flavored soup. Mildly spicy, slightly sour tang from the tamarind and some fish oiliness from the mackerels stewed in it, and the pineapples add a refreshing sweetness. The thick, springy rice noodles that sit beneath the surface of the soup added sustenance and it could potentially be a one bowl meal like ramen.
Our last savory course was the beef rendang with a side of coconut rice. The rendang was incredibly tender and flavorful with the earthy spices like cardamom and ginger, and incredibly coconutty. The coconut rice enhances the nutty flavors of the rendang.
We ended the meal with steamed coconut rice with coconut palm sugar. Not too sweet, vibrant coconut sweetness and the rice was pleasantly sticky and chewy. It was a good ending to a very good dinner.
Information:
Rasa
Website
25 West 8th Street
New York, NY 10011
Phone:(212) 253-9888
