The Adventures of Tin-Tin: Malabar - Asian Rose Cafe, Santa Cruz, CA

June 2008

March 13, 2007

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Malabar - Asian Rose Cafe, Santa Cruz, CA

I was very impressed with this place. I had never been to the Asian Rose Cafe or Malabar restaurants but after reading some promising Yelp reviews about the food and prices, we couldn't help but give it a try. The restaurant we visited was called "Malabar" but was supposedly a combination of the Asian Rose Cafe and the Malabar dinner menu. Considering J and me are this close to being pure carnivores, finding no meat on the menu was new and exciting. There were many exotic items on the menu from all over Asia (think Indonesia, Sri Lanka, maybe Malaysia) and some euro-influenced dishes. Everything we had was so tasty.

We decided to order three small plates and split an entree. I also had an excellent mango lassi, but I forgot to take a picture because I was so thirsty. It was refreshing, light and tropical. Probably the best one I've had because it seemed to have icy flavor crystals that melted on my tongue. But I might have just imaged that since it was a really hot day and I was dehydrated. But it was good. Trust me. Anyway, here are some pics of the food:

Below is what was left of the samosas. The dough was flaky and so light that I couldn't believe it was fried. The filling was nice and potatoey and it came with two sauces--one was a cilantro flavored sweet sauce and the other was purple. I'm still not sure what it was but it was delicious all the same.

Below is the spring rolls. I think they were Sri Lankan spring rolls, but I can't remember. What I do remember is that the wrapper was very crispy and had some breading/panko on the outside and also that the filling had some sort of meat substitute.

This was brie deep fried in a wonton-type wrapper and topped with fried basil (or maybe it was cilantro?). It was set on some fruit compotes. I can't say enough how much I loved this dish. Fried brie!! What more can I say?

This is the roti with a curry dipping sauce. I wasn't crazy about the roti because it was a little greasy and cold like it had been sitting out. Also, I prefer a stronger flavored dipping sauce especially for roti.

This is entree: butternut squash ravioli with portobello mushrooms in a sherry cream sauce with black truffles. It was divine. So rich I wanted to eat it with a spoon. And that's exactly what I did.