SENTOSA MALAYSIAN CUISINE

I went into downtown Flushing, Queen's answer to a much better Chinatown. Perhaps it should be called Flushing's Asiantown. Cuisine reigns supreme when it comes to a choices of not only various styles of Chinese food, but Korean, Thai, Vietnamese and Malaysian as well. Malaysian is a combo of Chinese, Malay and Indian food. I dined at a place called Sentosa, located at 39-07 Prince Street, a block away from the Main Street subway.

Oolong tea is served. Not sure exactly what kind as I also stopped at a place that specializes in tea...later for that one. I ordered two iced drinks: Malaysian Iced Tea and Longan Ice Drink. Both were quite refreshing, especially after bites of anything that was spicy.

Malaysian food tends to be spicy so I requested "mild" and not sure if garlic being commonly used, I requested "nix" on the garlic.

Appetizers: Roti Canai, Indian pancake with a Malaysian influence. Absolutely thinnest crispy pancake. You take a piece of the pancake in your hand and dip it in a sauce that has curry chicken and potato. Soak up the sauce and then eat the rest. Loved it because the curry was milder than Indian curry tends to be.

Satay Tofu was the second appetizer. Two crispy fried tofu cakes stuffed with cucumber and bean sprouts. Served with a peanut sauce. Great for those who may frown on tofu.

Tom Yum Soup. Seafood Lemon Grass Soup. I can tolerate the spiciness of the chili paste as the "hot" hits the back of my throat and I get used to it enough to enjoy the rest of the soup. Lemon grass, lime, mushrooms, with shrimp, squid and scallop. Having had this in a Thai restaurant, I felt that the use of squid and scallops added to the flavor.

Hainanese Chicken. What a great idea. Steam parts of the chicken and serve with the chef's special soy sauce with cucumbers beneath. Will try this at home! Esther was shocked to see this being served. She was worried that it might have been one of her relatives.

Volcano Spare Ribs. No, I didn't spew lava from my mouth upon eating it. The ribs are deep fried but not so obvious. Very tender and then cooked in a BBQ sauce that the chef concocted. They need to bottle the stuff and sell it!

Beef Rendang. Extremely tender beef with coconut milk, chiles and spices (mine wasn't spicy)in a Malasian dry curry sauce that cooked over a low heat.

Seafood! Asam Fish Skate. Just look at the photo! Stew of sorts. Skate is a great fish for people who "don't like fish".

Time for desserts! Coconut Pudding. Coconut juice, coconut milk and coconut served in a coconut. They use a young coconut which makes for scraping some tender coconut meat after you eat the pudding. This one is definitely NOT for those who do not like coconut.

Finally, Pulut Hitam. It's a black sticky rice with coconut milk. Kind of like a loose rice pudding. Basically rice, coconut milk and sugar.

There was absolutely nothing that I disliked and would have eaten it all if I had a bottomless stomach. I did take leftovers home for Eunice, Esther's twin sister.

Group sitting near me was: Stephen Lin (Brooklyn), Michelle Cui, Lucie Medrano and Xiao from Flushing.