Sambal Petai in Sydney!

What do we miss the most away from home? The answer to that question is almost always, the food! Yes, I have never stopped missing Malaysian food the whole time I’m in Sydney, which is why whenever there’s a chance to try Malaysian restaurants, I’d jump at it. So far I have tried at 2 Malaysian restaurants here, namely Mamak and Sambal. Another chance came last weekend when we were nearby Campsie to run some errands, and Albee’s Kitchen immediately popped to mind. I had visited Albee’s before but Saucer had not, so I was excited to bring him there. We were there for lunch and the place was more than half full. Sharing tables is a norm there, so it wasn’t an issue getting a place to sit.

Lor Bak and Acar

The menu at Albee’s is extensive! Everything Malaysian that you can think of, it’s there. Pan mee, prawn mee, Hokkien mee (KL style), wan tan mee, Mee mamak, bak kut teh, curry laksa, fish head noodles, nasi lemak, loh mee, char kuey teow, Hainan chicken rice, just to name a few. They also serve dishes with rice if you desire. Some of the more popular Malaysian dishes such as Sambal kangkung, Four Heavenly Kings and Sambal eggplant are available too. Of course, with such an abundance of choices, making a decision was the hardest thing to do! I wanted to eat everything on the menu! While that might be possible in Malaysia, over here it’s not, partly due to the cost (average of $10/dish) and also the humongous portion. I saw a man next to me ordering mee mamak and it came in a portion enough to feed 2-3 persons! He couldn’t even finish it in the end. So we had to exercise caution while ordering, which made it even harder because there’s too much temptations.

Lor Bak filled with seafood and pork

In the end, we went against our inner glutton and ordered sensibly. We shared a plate of Lor Bak with rice and acar, as well as a dish of Four Heavenly Kings / Four Treasures (in the menu). The Lor Bak was sizable and generously filled with seafood bits, minced pork, vegetables and taro. It was fried to a crispy golden finish that was still hot to touch when served. Saucer found the lor bak to be very tasty and filling, so he polished a good few pieces of that. The picture in the menu showed that white rice was to be served in this set, but I was pleasantly surprised to find ours to be served with flavoured Hainan chicken rice! I loved it! It was also perfect with the acar on the side, which was nicely flavoured, spicy and sour. I could easily have a bowl of rice with just the acar alone!

Lor Bak set meal (AUD$10.50)

It was a good thing that we only ordered a dish with rice, because the portion of rice could fit into more than 2 normal rice bowls, enough for both of us. The Four Treasures or Sei Dai Tin Wong came shortly with a generous portion as well. Saucer was delighted when he saw petai in the dish! Well he could have as much of it as he wanted, since I’m not a big fan of petai. There were plenty of french beans, okra and eggplant in the mix as well, which were all well-coated with the delicious sambal belacan. I absolutely loved the sambal belacan gravy that went extremely well with rice too. The portion of this dish was so huge that we were too stuffed to have dessert afterwards, which was something I had planned to do initially.

Four Treasures (AUD$15.80)

Spot the petai!

Overall, we had a satisfying lunch that cured both our hunger and our cravings for Malaysian food. We also liked the fact that the food portions are huge and reasonably priced, but we certainly hope they would have more branches nearer to our place! One thing to note though, Albee’s only accepts cash so make sure you bring enough of it especially if you’re bringing a large group of people.

Albee’s Kitchen (Campsie)
282 Beamish St, Campsie,
NSW 2194, Australia
Tel No.: +612 9718 8302
Opening Hours: Daily (10am – 10pm)
Website: www.albeeskitchen.com.au

Albee’s Kitchen (Cabramatta)
2/44 Park rd., Cabramatta,
NSW , Australia
Tel No.: +612 9728 6556
Opening Hours: Daily (10am – 9pm)