Proud Janny Restaurant, The Weld KL: Going Fruity in Malaysian Cuisine

Making Malaysia Proud with Malaysian Tropical Fruit Cuisine!

It has certainly been a while since I was back at Proud Janny Restaurant and so I was actually really glad when I found out that there is a new menu featuring Fruit Based Cuisine. I had my first taste of Chef Ryan Khang’s dishes at Proud Janny last year and love his refreshing take on his dishes. Located at The Weld Kuala Lumpur, Proud Janny has been serving up international and local dishes using organic and sustainably-grown food. The restaurant cum café focuses on serving breakfast and lunch to the office crowd with temptations of Nyonya, Malaysian local delights, Western and gorgeous desserts.

Proud Janny’s recent stint in the highly prolific Agrobazaar Singapore had led Chef Ryan to develop a menu comprising of Malaysia’s favorite tropical fruits incorporated into Malaysian cuisine. The menu was proudly served to not one but two Prime Ministers, Dato Seri Dr. Najib Razak, as well as the Honourable Mr. Lee Hsien Loong.

I headed over to Proud Janny one fine Saturday for lunch together with some foodies to meet up with Chef Ryan. Looking as good as ever, Chef Ryan greeted us with his usual charm and served up some wine and nibbles to start the lunch. Housemade Fried Potato Chips and Crispy Corn may be simple snacks but these were quite addictive and delicious with the red wine, Raiz from Chile.

On the Fruit Based Cuisine menu, there are five dishes together with two desserts. Kicking off the list was a very delectable Young Mango Kerabu served with grilled squid. Thinly shredded medium ripe mango offers a yin and yang of sweetness and sourness punched up with shallots, crispy anchovies, herbs and a tangy dressing. Chargrilled squid is nicely cooked and added a yummy texture to the kerabu salad. The kerabu is the perfect started to whet our appetites for more to come.

Tamarind and Mango Fried Noodle is inspired from our local Mee Goreng and looks just like the local dish till we tried it. The noodle has great depth of savory, sweet and sour balance of flavours. The mango salad gave the tamarind flavour noodles a fruity touch and brought lightness to the street food. Served with prawns and crispy anchovies, fried shallots, taukua and beansprout, it is a dish that is easy to enjoy and won’t leave a heavy aftermath after enjoyment.

I do enjoy a good Mee Rebus and when I saw the Johor Style Mee Rebus, I was curious about what fruit was incorporated into the dish. The dish had prawns, beef, egg, fritter, fried shallots and chili with yellow noodle and thick brown gravy. Mix these together and add a squeeze of calamansi lime to the dish. The gravy is not too sweet but lean towards a piquant savory flavour. Chef Ryan exposed his secret ingredient which was white dragon fruit cooked into the gravy. A cleverly idea indeed as the dragon fruit thickened up the gravy naturally and added a light subtle sweetness to the gravy. It also gave the dish a subtle natural texture and flavour.

A pretty looking rice of Dragonfruit Rice arrived after the noodle dish. Served with dragonfruit marinated chicken, fried egg, sambal, keropok, cucumber and tomatoes, there is also scoops of fresh dragonfruit. An interesting dish and combination and the rice was also tinged with the red dragon fruit. Again, the dish was cleverly controlled and balanced with a light sweetness. I was actually enjoying the dragon fruit marinated chargrilled chicken. It has a fruity flavour and made the chicken wonderfully succulent. The sambal and keropok does wonder for the dish as well.

I always save the best for last and the Fruit Curry with Chicken is my favorite dish of the menu for savory. The curry is a confit of kampung chicken cooked with lots of spices and herbs and paired with sweet lychees and pineapples. Kampung chicken can be tough but due to the slow cooked process, the chicken here was tender and moist, absorbing all the curry gravy well.

The curry gravy is not too spicy in heat but has a good note of heat and spices balanced with a lovely fruity sweetness. Truth be told, I enjoyed spoonful after spoonful of curry gravy. Its beautifully moreish and not your typical curry. If you love sweetness in your curry, give this a try and you’ll know what I mean. Super yum!

Chef Ryan is a man of many skills including pastry. For dessert, we had Banana Cake and Cendol Cake. The names did not do the cake justice as both are pretty complex in the makings. The flavours echoed its name and the cake has layers of flavours.

Banana Cake has sponge sandwiched with caramelized banana and cream and is topped with jewels of praline of dried fruits and nuts. Although I am not a banana fan, I had a taste and find it lovely with its caramelized flavour and various textures. The Cendol Cake looked like our local Pandan Cake but this one has a Gula Melaka cream with pandan custard and pandan sponge before being topped with dessicated coconut.

The Fruit Based Cuisine will be made available for a short period of time so make sure to head over to Proud Janny to check it out. For Corporate employees who works along Jalan Raja Chulan, just present your office business card to the staff at Proud Janny to receive some discount. T&C applies.

PROUD JANNY RESTAURANT

The Weld Kuala Lumpur

LG-08, Lower Ground Floor

No. 76, Jalan Raja Chulan

50200 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: +603 2022 1519

Facebook: www.facebook.com/proudjanny

Business Hours:

Mon - Sat: 11am to 4pm