Unforgetable
Flavours of Jaffna Cuisine
Sharing
similar flavours with South Indian cuisine, Jaffna cuisine is deliciously humble
and tasty. Walking into Yarl Restaurant,
discreetly hidden on a narrow bustling street in Brickfields, the restaurant
has been serving Yarlpanam food from the capital city of Sri Lanka for more
than a decade.
A
recent refurbishment brought new life to the ambiance. The new ambiance is
fairly modern and has lots of photos of Sri Lanka to add as a reminder of its
origin. Standard wood and black steel furniture are spaciously well-spread in
the restaurant. Diners get full view of the standard food station where the
daily spread are on display. Despite the restaurant being non-air-conditioned, it
was cool and airy with plenty of ceiling fans to keep diners like me pretty
comfortable.
Yarl
is no new kid on the block. The restaurant has been operation for more than 10
years and many locals make this their daily food hunts throughout the day.
There’s plenty of staffs so service is fast and brisk.
The menu is also kept
simple and short but there are enough daily specials to keep diners returning
for Jaffna dishes. Open early at 7.00am, Yarl serves various dishes from
breakfast to lunch, tea and dinner till 10.00pm daily.
Drinks
to get us started, a fruity Mango Lassi (RM8) and Yarl Masala Tea (RM4)
Lunch
is often the busiest time of the restaurant and many diners are seen tucking
into their Thali Lunch Set that is available
from 12noon to 3.00pm daily. There’s vegetarian and non-vegetarian options
available and smallest set start with 3 vegetable dishes with rice priced at
RM7 onwards. Manager Murali stated that there are at least 15 vegetarian and 8
non-vegetarian dishes available each day.
We
savored several thali sets and perhaps the hardest part of the meal was
selecting a main dish as there were so many enticing dishes to choose from. The
Chicken Varai Thali Set featured a moreish
spicy chicken fry served with hot and spicy eggplant tomato curry and some
leafy greens cooked in coconut curry along with classic crispy pavakkai or fried bittergourd. The
chicken is moist and tender while the eggplant curry was a heat bomb that
sparkled fireworks in our mouth!
There
is also another signature dish of Mutton
Bone Varuval that one simply must order. Thick and rich with deep spiced
notes from slow and long hours of cooking to render the mutton bone till oozing
with soft gelatinous marrow richness, the varuval
is marvelous with rice.
The
Fish Curry or Fish Poriyal is equally yummy with a large thick piece of mackerel
cooked in red curry. The thali sets are served with pappadums, rasam and chutney
and diners can opt for regular or parboiled rice and red rice (available only
on Friday).
Other
good eats of meat and seafood curries include Chicken Varuval, Chicken Pirattal, Chicken Curry, Mutton Peratal, Fried
Fish, Fish Cutlet, Fish Head Curry, Prawn Sambal and more.
The
vegetable options will leave one speechless as there are Pavakkai, Pumpkin Varai, Beetroot Varai, Brinjal-Tomato-Garlic Curry, Lentil Sothi
and Vegetable Cutlet and more.
If
there is one dish that tops my list of Jaffna cuisine, it would have to be the Sura Varai. Shredded shark flesh is
cooked with lots of aromatic herbs and grated coconut is utterly divine in
flavours and texture. The balance of heat with the herbs and spices is executed
with perfection, so much so that I would gladly tuck into this dish alone with
rice.
Besides
rice and dishes, Yarl serves up other dishes such as dosai, puttu, appam and
kothu from 4.00pm onwards. The Yarl Dosai
(RM3) or Yarl Egg Dosai (RM4) is nicely
tainted with yellow turmeric to give it this golden yellow hue on the fermented
rice batter. Yarl also offers Plain Dosai
(RM2), Ghee Dosai (RM3) and Masala Dosai (RM5) to go with curries
and sambals.
The
Atta Puttu (RM2.50) is freshly
steamed and the cylindrical wheat puttu
with grated coconut is served with lentil curry and sambol. This one makes a
lovely and healthy vegetarian option for tea or even a light meal for dinner.
Kothu is a classic Sri Lankan street food of
stir-fried chopped bread or roti with meat, seafood or vegetables. The chopping
sound of the roti against the flat steel pan can usually be heard at any kothu
stall or restaurant. Yarl serves several options of kothu and we tried the Chicken Kothu (RM10). The dish is best
described as a stir-fried chopped up roti with spices and your choice of
ingredients. There is also Mutton or Prawn Kothu available.
We
saved the best for last and the Apam
(RM2) and Egg Apam (RM3) at Yarl was
simply delicious! The dish is so humble and simple, yet it tasted so yummy that
one can surely enjoy quite a few of this Sri Lankan pancake with crispy edges
and soft fluffy center. One can opt to savor this as a savory version with
sambals and egg or sweet with caramelized sugar. Whichever one you choose, this
apam will leave you with a delicious note that warrants a return to Yarl Restaurant alone for this dish!
Psst… I heard that Yarl serves a mean Jaffna
Crab Curry… hope to be back soon to try this…
YARL
RESTAURANT
50 Jalan Pedang Belia
Brickfields, Kuala
Lumpur
Tel: +6010-360 6624
Opening Hours: Daily 7am to 10pm
