Student Food Review - Old Town Kopitiam Mamak, QV Square

I met up with Suboo and we discussed how the Student Food Reviews were going to work. We didn't really nut out any hard and fast rules other than to talk about whether the food was any good and to cap prices at $15 - although under $10 would be preferred. More criteria may become apparent as more food gets eaten.

So to kick it off, we headed to Old Town Kopitiam Mamak at QV Square.
The authentic, bona fide Malaysian Suboo said this place was okay although contrary to others, she said the chicken rice was substandard based on a previous outing here and warned me off it.

That was okay for me because as a noodle fiend,

I had seafood laksa ($10.50)

Firstly, the serving size was pretty good for $10.50, I suppose if at a standard size for this kind of dish. Given that it was *seafood*, it did indeed have mussels (frozen), prawns (three!), calamari, and fish loaf in a curry-ish, not too coconutty broth. It lacked clams *sigh*, but oh well. It also lacked rice vemicelli noodles but my discussion with Suboo (who personally thinks they're not supposed to be there) make me think it's probably due to personal preferences. What was a pleasant surprise was my discovery of the presence of curry leaves actually in my soup! They actually tried to make the curry flavour from something other than paste and/or powder! The chicken and vegetarian options ARE under $10 - I think each were $9.50.

Suboo had roti canai ($4.00)...

And might I say...it looked mighty tempting and I couldn't say no when she offered me some! The bread was warm and fluffy - it also had the right scent to the extent that Suboo made me lean over and inhale the goodness. It came with some sambal sauce (meh) and a light coconutty curry sauce for dipping (very nice!). I believe Suboo was very happy with it and polished it off quick-smart!

followed by the Chinese Malaysian Rojak ($7.50)

I have never had or even heard of this before. It's apparently a *fruit salady* dish covered in a sweet...black...sauce. It consisted of pieces of pineapple, apple, cucumber, and crispy fried chinese donut (you char kwai - a pleasant surprise!). Suboo mentioned it was missing something that was supposed to give it a crispy bite but figured that the donut made up for it. Also, apparently the pineapple tasted funny but on the whole, the place was okay.

This bit might be too much information but I feel that when reviewing cheap foods, it is necessary information. Suboo and I walked out of OTKM feeling on the slightly uncomfortable side of full, but quite happy nonetheless. Within half an hour of our leaving, I started getting what I will delicately refer to as *sensitive stomach issues*, followed by *evacuating* (hi Nance!) although it did not progress to *The Sweats*. Whether this was related to food intake, I can not say for certain. But it did happen so cheap eaters, caveat emptor.

So on the whole, Old Town Kopitiam Mamak serves food on the slightly more excy side of cheap, that is not bad and in the case of the roti, pretty good. But tummy troubles may ensue although I will say that it may have been due to my gourmand tendencies.