Overseas Taste

NOTE: Overseas Taste is no more- they folded in the summer of 2012

We tried Overseas Taste again recently. It's a Malaysian restaurant located at 49 Canal St. we have been to in the past, and while our previous experiences haven't been stellar, it's convenient to a friend's apartment and we decided to give it another try. We were joined by our good friend Eugene, who ordered Hainanese Chicken rice, a real favorite of mine. Unfortunately, last time I tried this dish here, I found it slightly overcooked and rubbery, and Eugene's experience was no different..

Eugene sardonically contemplating his overcooked chicken rice

Ian decided to try Nasi Lemak, a kind of smorgasbord of several different dishes, including curry chicken, hot chile sauce, fried peanuts, and usually  fried anchovies, cucumber and tomato slices, and a hardboiled egg- although I'm not sure Ian's had all of these ingredients. This potpourri of small dishes orbits around a mound of coconut rice dolloped out in the center of the plate.  Ian was slightly disappointed by the amount of curry chicken with the dish and wasn't exactly blown away by what he was eating.

Ian and his merry band of Nasi Lemak ingredients

 Finally, this a blog about noodles, allegedly, so someone had to order some noodles. Luckily I was there to step up to the plate (or in this case, bowl). I decided to try the beef stew curry egg noodles. They have one of those spicy pepper emoticons on the menu next to this dish. Once I see those on a menu, I will ONLY choose one of the spicy dishes cause I get a real sense of accomplishment out of sweating out a meal. Here's what I got:

Beef Stew Coconut curry noodle soup

That red stuff on the top is actually oil from the beef. Once that was skimmed off,  I was able to dig into the coconut curry soup. The curry itself had a pretty nice flavor but lacked a nice finish that perhaps some salt or MSG (Gasp!!!!) may have helped. I prefer not to consume  MSG, but eating in the types of restaurants we frequent, sometimes it's just a hazard of our vocation, which, of course, is eating noodles. The meat had a good stewed flavor, yet much of it was chewy and fatty and quite a few pieces ended up in my napkin which is kind of gross but nicer in the end than letting it decompose in your stomach. The egg noodles were much thicker than the common and thinner Chinese soup noodle and much more akin to a Lo Mein noodle- they were cooked correctly but quite unremarkable. Still, that didn't stop me from finishing the whole bowl.

At home in my special place

One of our favorite curry noodle places is going to be reviewed later this week, Cong Ly on Hester street. This restaurant is in heavy rotation and always has been because their five dollar bowl of curry chicken noodle soup is untouchable. Overseas Taste is OK in a crunch, and they do have some other dishes I would be interested in trying.  Perhaps we just haven't found the right dish yet.. Until we do, we'll be heading over to our old standby, Nonya, on Grand street to get our Malaysian food fix.