Friday, November 9, 2007

My Elephant (Thai Restaurant), Section 17, Petaling Jaya Selangor

Precious Pea's posting on this restaurant made us curious to go try it out, since we do occasionally frequent that area for the famous "Run Run" chicken rice, but never stumbled upon "My Elephant" before. We went round the apartment block where the chicken rice shop is located and found "My Elephant", aahhh.... this spot was where "6 to 10" restaurant used to be located before they shifted to the adjacent apartment block.

"My Elephant" serves Thai food with an interior deco which was pretty zen in its approach, clean and almost like a fine dining setting. We liked the ambience, the black and white contrasting furniture, the mahjong paper and potted plant on each table. Neat. We wanted to order the set lunch which was just RM7.90 (inclusive of drinks and fruit), but yesterday being a public holiday (Deepavali), no set lunch was available. Ok, so we ordered dishes instead.

Started drinking my KraChiap cooler, which is Thai roselle herbal tea (RM2.50) before realising that I had not yet taken any photos of it....ooops! I like the taste of this drink, slightly like Ribena, but better.


Hubby-to-be ordered the Thai jasmine syrup (RM2.50), which is basically a jasmine tea and rose syrup mix. I had a sip, and it was pretty refreshing. We plan to try concocting this at home.
Rice was served on a piece of banana leaf (on a plate), which was pretty neat presentation-wise. Be forewarned though, that the rice costs RM2.00/plate, which is pretty steep as far as plain rice goes.

With a predilection for spicy and sour dishes, ordering Tom Yam, one of my all-time favourites was a foregone conclusion. We waited quite a while for the Tom Yam to arrive, and when it did, we discovered why....it was made-to-order, everything tasted fresh; from the galangal to the lemongrass, to the seafood, we could tell the ingredients haven't been kept boiling for hours in a pot till everything was wilted. The seafood Tom Yam had 2 large prawns, squid, tomatoes and abalone mushrooms. It was pretty hearty and spicy, and the portion was just perfect for 2. That's my portion in the picture, one of several servings I had. At Rm12.00, it was definitely worth it. I learned from the waiter that the biggest difference between Tom Yam and Tom Som is that the latter had no coconut milk....and since we preferred a thicker soup, Tom Yam it was!

For meat, we had Gai Tod Gratiam Prik Thai or special deep fried chicken nuggets with kaffir lime leaf, garlic and crushed Thai peppercorns (all in the batter coating the chicken)...supposedly legendary. While eating this, dipped in the Thai chilli sauce, hubby-to-be and I knew we could recreate this dish pretty easily at home. It was an ok dish, though we wouldn't go so far as to call it legendary. At RM12.00, the serving was slightly smaller than expected.

The sweet Thai chilli sauce that accompanied the deep fried chicken.


"Jungle vegetables" turned out to be paku pakis (fern leaf) which was springy and crunchy, as only young shoots were used. Stirfried with chilli paste (I think with a dash of belacan), this dish tasted great albeit a tad too oily.

The total bill came to RM43.00, more expensive than what a usual lunch would cost, but it was a very satisfying meal nonetheless. Oh, and the waiter was pretty knowledgeable about the menu and courteous too. We were rushing off for an appointment and hence had to give the dessert a skip. We plan to return again to try its other dishes and of course, the sago pudding with mango dessert which was featured in Precious Pea's posting .........yummmm.

My Elephant Restaurant
Block C-G4 Happy Mansion,
Jalan 17/13 Section 17,
46400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Mobile: 012-3285028 (Patrick)
Mobile: 019-3608911 (James)
Mobile: 016-3795759 (Soong)
Mobile: 016-3459298 (Kom)
When you see the Section 17 Shell petrol station (the one that's in the middle of the residential area, not the one next to LDP) on your left, go straight on till the 2nd left turning after Shell and you will see a few blocks of apartments. Drive to the 3rd apartment block next to a school, the restaurant is at the ground floor of the block facing the school. Parking is plentiful and free!

Our rating system for overall satisfaction with what we eat and where we eat....

1-bam = don't even bother
2-bam = good enough to fill the tummy
3-bam = a very good restaurant in its category
4-bam = excellent cooking, worth a detour
5-bam = exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey
We would give this restaurant a 3-bam rating for good service and authentic-tasting food.

4 comments:

Precious Pea said...

So is the Tom Yum Soup here nicer or your homemade version nicer? I think i will try the tom yum soup next visit.

Anonymous said...

j c kah cheh 2 b.

looks like she is visiting you!

your tum yum must be so much better.

and if you agree we will want to visit you!

Jessica said...

precious pea: of course my tom yum better lah! :P

um: haha come visit lah....i can cook, but make sure you can tahan the chillis from your garden.

Anonymous said...

heard they have special duck curry
true?