Rosalind Tan has always run the kitchen at Shiok!, the popular Singaporean cafe in downtown Menlo Park, but now she runs the whole show. The show goes on rather nicely.
For many customers, the public face of the cafe was Tan’s daughter, Maggie Lim, but as of March, Lim is taking a backstage role as business manager.
Shiok! (SHEE-uk, Singaporean for “Yummy!) remains a welcoming, mid-priced respite featuring the Malay, Indian and Chinese dishes of tiny but influential Singapore. Our young waiter, who turned out to be Tan’s nephew, answered questions, made good suggestions, and anticipated needs. We brought in wine. He took it to a cooler and came by at just the right moment to ask if we wanted it opened. The restaurant also has a reasonable wine list of its own.
Lim grew up in Serangoon Gardens, an area of Singapore known especially for its open-air markets and food vendors. Tan cooked large family dinners every Sunday, often using the family chickens, and developed her own style.
The flexible menu here includes a lot of small plates that could be assembled to make a full meal. In Malaysian beef rendang ($7), chunks of braised beef have crunchy spots on the outside and no fat. They are stewed in aromatic lemongrass and hot chili, tamed by coconut milk. Chinese pepper prawns ($8), stir-fried with chili and dried shrimp, are so appealing you will be sad to leave the shells. On the takeout menu, the beef is $10.75 and the prawns are $12.75 because the portions are bigger.
Sambal string beans ($8.75), sauteed in chili and dried shrimp, retain their crispness.
The most expensive dish is a whole crab, sauteed in spicy-sweet chili sauce or in dried shrimp and cracked black pepper. The divine Singapore chili crab, which was $24 in 2000, now is $26. You can sop up the sauce with a side order of buttery sweet buns ($3), or choose a less assertive rice. (Jasmine, brown and coconut rice are on offer.)
At lunch, the menu features rice and noodle plates for $6.95.
We were having a varied configuration of flavors in seafood, beef and vegetable dishes, but we didn’t want plain rice. The server wisely suggested Nasi Goreng ($8.50), the Malaysian-style fried rice. It has calamari, prawns, peas, carrots, egg, onion and a mild personality that mixes well with others.
Each dish is labeled by its heritage. Many are vegetarian, or can be made vegetarian.
The irresistible unleavened Indian bread roti ($4) is a starter that can easily become an ender. Try not to fill up on buttery griddled bread, charred in spots, that you tear apart. The only flaw is the thin dipping sauce, which needed more depth of flavor and some girth.
The only real loser was a new dish, Chinese five-spice duck ($12.75). The tasty braising sauce pepped up slices of tofu but couldn’t rescue dry pieces of duck breast.
Sea bass is perfectly steamed in banana leaves ($17.75), in a stunning broth with shiitake mushrooms, ginger, tomato and red pepper. But a little more fish would be nice.
Desserts are cooling, summertime treats, as you would want in a climate that has been likened to “one giant sauna.” Champagne-infused lychee, Malaysian crepes and fried banana each are $5.50. Bite into a hot, crisp egg roll on your way to steaming banana, near pudding in consistency. Fried banana comes with the tropical ice cream of your choice.
Another good way to end the meal is with sweet and pungent ginger tea ($1.50). Everyone gets gum, once completely banned in Singapore because of the mess it made on the streets. Now you can chew medicinal gum, with a prescription.
Information
Shiok! is at 1137 Chestnut St. in Menlo Park. Hours: Lunch, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri; dinner, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Mon.-Sat. Closed Sunday. 838-9448; www.shiokkitchen.com
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