Dancing Fish Signature, Tangs

Dancing Fish Signature (Level 4 TANGS a@ Tang Plaza, 310 Orchard Road, tel : +65 63391048) a Malay-Indo restaurant from Kuala Lumpur has taken over the space left behind by the zombie of Island Cafe after the real Island Cafe was dead and gone. Much of the previous decor has been left untouched. 

We were curious because sauces and sambals and rempahs and salsas and curries on rice were our kind of thing. The lure of grilled food was taken into consideration as well.

Speaking of grills, the restaurant had a pretty decent cumi cumi bakar - grilled squid in spices and kecap manis. The latter which was basted onto the squid and subsequently caramelized into a sweet veneer. Meat was kinda chewy but we thought it was still good. Came with a scalp prickling kick ass sambal belachan on the side which I reserved for the rice.

Following was their Bandung styled cha kangkong. This was a stir fried kangkong dish we've never had before. Flavoured very nicely with bits of sliced chilli, onions and fermented beans. The vegetable that was used was also more tender, more wilted and less fibrous than what most local stalls normally use. Underdog of the day and a memorable one at that. Great with rice.

That's the ikan seabass bakar - grilled fish with a spice paste marinade. This was the option with sambal hijau dan merah - green and red chilli paste. If anyone was wondering, both chilli paste packed no discernible heat. The green one was tangy and the red one was slightly sweet. Both were great with white rice. This particular marinade for the fish reminded me of satay. The crispy carcinogenic caramelized bits were delicious.

We had their omelette petai sambal matah - an omelette folded with sliced chilli, onions and petai beans that came with a side of finely minced salsa made with onions, chillis, terasi (the equivalent of belachan) and kaffir lime leaves amongst possibly other things. I thought I tasted coconut. The omelette was tender and not over greasy while the sambal matah notched the flavour game upwards. Speaking of which, that sambal was also good with white rice.

With numerous mentions of white rice, how could we not have nasi putih with this meal?