Baba Low's 486, Bangsar: Lunch with da 'Family'

Woohoo it's mid-week already! And after a "depressing" post at the start of the week, I'm glad to announce that the munkey has had a good spank and is now acting like his usual chi-sin self again. Did I say the monkey got spanked? *giggles* By the way in case you're wondering, my friend Kelvin's doing fine. Thanks for the kind words.

Usually around this time of the week, a few of us would meet up for a quick lunch. Yes, it's gotta be quick. Do you think we just monkey around all day? All of us do have day jobs to keep, mind you. Most of the time we'll meet around Mid Valley or Bangsar area since it's the mid-point for all of us, especially since I'm already in the mall. And through my lunch mates, I've come to discover this secret enclave in the heart of classy Bangsar for some cheap grub.

Show me a person who says Bangsar has lost its charm and I'll show you a person who's not been to Lorong Kurau for a meal or two. This fishy lane isn't anything else but charming. Coming in here is like taking a trip 20-years back in time. The architecture here is dated and nothing to shout about. A far cry from the hustle and bustle of its Telawi cousins. The only speck of colour comes from the playground across the street that is sandwiched between the row of houses and these shops. In fact, this quiet row of shophouses just feels rather out of place. Very secara tiba-tiba (accidental). Call me odd, but I like it in here. Air seems cooler and grass seems greener.

Having eaten at the Baan An-Haan Thai a few times, I was dying to give Baba Low a try after reading so much about them. Fatboybakes agreed and the rest followed suit.



I love lunch here. They whipped up anything in less than 10-minutes from the time we ordered. Before we know it, the whole table was filled with food. Thank God for the concept of sharing! Just because the pool party is over and done, doesn't mean we can go overboard with our food intake. Plus, this is after all a lunch which Ah Pa called for. That means he's brought some of his famous scrap cakes! More about that later.

Food here is generally good. Comfort food at its best. Nyonya Laksa (RM5.00) was the best of them lot. Its light coconut curry gravy contains prawn, cockles (not a fan but what's Laksa without them), spongy tofu-pok, and shredded cucumber. It's a wonder how a bowl so small could hold so much in it. The wet egg-skin spring rolls, or Popiah (RM3.00) as we locals would call it, was really good despite Ah Pa's warning of the skin being inconsistently thick at times. Guess we got lucky this time.

Between jokes and updates, we stuffed our faces with Honey BBQ Wings (RM6.50 for 1/2 dozen), which was probably the most un-peranakan dish served here. But who cares, they were delicious. Much better than the buffalo wings served in some American Diners. The wings here also comes in 3 other flavours: Teriyaki, Honey Mustard and Sze Chuan. I would love to come back and try them all. We also ordered the Taohu Sumbat (RM2.00), don't look at me funny - that's how the spelled it, which was a new item on the menu. This to me was just an OK dish. What do you expect from beancurd stuffed with julienne cucumber and beansprouts? But Ciki and I soon found out that everything tastes better when eaten with the Nyonya Laksa's gravy! Oh yea, we also ordered the Pai Tee/Top Hats (RM4.50 for 4 pieces) which was also quite forgettable.



Then, the moment we have all been waiting for arrived. Fatboybakes brought out his scrap cake for all of us to dig in. You see, a scrap cake is no ordinary cake. In fact, it's so much better than an ordinary cake. This highly sought after cake is very much a game of chance, we'll never know what we're gonna get. Think of it as the chop suey of FBB's cakes. Bits of extra cakes piled up and hold together with leftover frosting. Now, this is where it gets interesting. As the cake pieces are uneven, our friendly baker has to fill up the empty voids with more frosting. So, there's less cake and more frosting ratio than usual. What's not to like about it! Order a cup of local black coffee, Kopi-O, and you're set to face the rest of the week.

Now, you know why we look forward to mid-week lunches.

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Baba Low's 486
Lorong Kurau
Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur


Opens from 7am-7pm, Mon-Sat.