To Live and Eat in L.A. – A Vegan Food Photo Blog

Kinta Restaurant serves what they call “New Malaysian Cuisine”. My Portland friends suggested it to me as soon as they learned I was on a mission to try as much of the awesome vegan & vegetarian places in their lovely city as I could. Kinta is not all vegetarian, they will add in chicken or shrimp by request. Most of the menu is totally vegan however, with exception of the egg noodles, though vegan rice noodles are available for any of those dishes instead.

If you’ve never tried Malaysian food before, imagine a well-crafted blending of Thai food, Chinese food and Indian food… well, that’s what it always makes me think of when I eat it. There used to be a great little Malaysian restaurant here in Hollywood years ago (on Wilcox if I’m remembering correctly) where I had developed a major obsession with their cashew curry. Damn that was good! Then one day they were just gone… that was well over a decade ago at this point and I hadn’t had Malaysian food since then, so I was very excited to have it again here and now in Portland.

For starters we had the sweet potato fritters and curry puffs shown above, both delicious. The batter (made of chickpeas) on the sweet potatoes was thick and crunchy and lightly spiced with something unidentifiably great. I don’t know if these are made with an egg wash or not, so be sure to ask if you need to. The curry puffs (pastry shells filled with curried potatoes, shitake mushrooms and crunchy woodear mushrooms) were of an equally high yum factor, tasting a lot like an Indian style samosa. The dipping sauce was just ketchup, which actually worked quite well.

These refreshing drinks are a tart and perky tamarind & lime concoction, two of my all time favorite flavors. Reliable as always, here they did not let me down. I wanted many refills.

Here we have the Tropical Malaysian Curry Soup: Curry in house-mixed Malaysian spices. The way it works here at Kinta is you choose your entree item, be it a noodle soup like what I chose, a noodle stir-fry or a rice dish, and then you choose from an impressive list of fresh and mostly organic vegetables. They’ve got a standard list of items like bean sprouts, broccoli, carrots, eggplant, etc… but they’ve also got stuff that gets added to the menu as it comes into season, including some of the more interesting Asian greens and veggies. The silly thing is that I don’t remember what all items I picked to go in mine, though for sure I got the broccoli, tofu, and beet greens. There was more in there as well that I’m forgetting.

This soup was so delicious. Along with the cuisines of other countries mentioned above, Malaysian food also reminds me of Indonesian food, as it’s got a similar sort of pungency to the flavors that’s always quite striking. I’m gonna say that it’s a sort of flavor that’s got a bit of funky going on… it’s not exactly foul, but there’s a certain dark musky or mustiness to it that while being super delicious also always makes me think of dirty socks or B.O. Now don’t go letting me ruin your appetite or turning you off of Malaysian food… I mean, just look at that incredible soup… of course it was good! I’ve got nothing against funk when it’s done right. And I tell you with funk this good, I think Malaysia should change it’s official name to Funky Town.

OrganicGirl ordered the Macadamia Curry: – Malaysian curry spices infused with Macadamia nuts. Wow, this was out of this world! I think she got it with the onion infused tofu, eggplant, amaranth greens and I’m thinking perhaps those little brown guys in there are shitake mushroom. This dish was particularly rich in the funkified goodness of secret Malaysian curry magick that I described above, and the macadamia nuts gave the entire thing a most wonderful, full-bodied silkiness. Outstanding.

Overall I loved Kinta…. loved the food, the concept, the friendly service and plenitude of vegan options. The simply prepared food was simultaneously beautiful to look at and a pleasure to eat. If you enjoy Asian and especially Southeast Asian food, or even if you’ve never tried it and are open to full and exotic new flavors, move Kinta to the top of your Portland food list for a rewarding foodie experience.
www.kintarestaurant.com

Stayed tuned for ‘Foodeater Does Vegan Portland’, Pt. 8!

1. My Top 9 Vegan Meals in Portland, Oregon.
2. Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.5: Tin Shed
3. Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.9: Vita Cafe
4. Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.1: Nutshell
5. Foodeater Does Vegan Portland, V.4: The Farm Cafe

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