Anjappar All Over Again

There's this restaurant I used to go to in Malaysia every once in a while, Anjappar. They have Chettinad cuisine, some sort of South Indian fare, but I would go there for their Chinese food. It was like a getaway from Malaysian food in Malaysia, with vibrant flavours and my favourite reason, deveined and deshelled prawns. Damn all of Malaysia for not deveining and deshelling their prawns! I had gone there thinking seafood would be awesome, and what did I find? Lobster for CAD $60? Prawns that seemed have crawled right out of the ocean and into the wok? I also found prawns there to be very, very inferior to Maritime and US East Coast shrimp, as well as Chinese prawns. They were kinda devoid of flavour, and what bothered me the most was that the delicate texture we all have come to know and love was just not there. More often than not, I found prawns to have a solid butter-like texture; you could just sorta cut right through them. Anyways, Anjappar's prawns for some reason didn't have that consistency, so even though it was expensive by local standards (RM 13 for 4-6 prawns) I really enjoyed their Chili Prawns dish. I usually can't take spicy stuff at all, but I'd put my burning tongue aside cuz in this dish, the prawns was covered in an absolutely delicious .. umm ... paste sorta stuff. That awesome flavour would find its way into the green peppers as well. Since that was one of like three dishes I really liked over there, I decided to give the same resto in Canada a try.

Now, lately, I've been hating our lax immigration policy. There are too many FOBs coming in, and they're starting to mess with society a bit. We have always had good customer service, but since the arrival of the FOBs, it has severely declined. I called Anjappar up and asked them if they have the Chili Prawn dish, and the guy on the other end, obviously an immigrant, said yes. I then proceeded to ask him if it would similar in style and taste to the dish I had in Malaysia, and he said in an Indian accent the size of Yukon, "Of COURRSSSE it is exactly the same style. Heh." His tone also said "For FUCK's sake. How stupid can you be? DUHHHHHH its gonna be exactly the same dish as you had 25,000 kilometers away! What, did you think it would be different???? How stupid are you?

So I almost didn't go, but since my fiancee was really looking forward to the Chili Prawns, I gave it a shot. As I drove up, I noticed that there was no one inside, and chalked that up to being a slow Monday. We went in, and the resto looked decent enough, and we grabbed a nice table on an elevated platform near the window. I placed my order for Masala Dosa (for my mom), and ordered us two Prawn Fried Noodles, Chinese Style, Manchurian Chicken in Gravy, and of course, Chili Prawns. The waiter represented his country to the T, and added to the ambience with his own unshowered and ungroomed presence. He brought out the Masala Dosa first, a good 15-20 minutes before the rest of the food, because he thought that we here in Canada also like to let one person at the table eat first, then let the others eat while the first one watches. Well, we don't. The Dosa was good, for sure, but 6 bucks? We have places specializing in this stuff (like the Dosa Hut) and charging 2-5 bucks, what makes these genuises think that its okay for them to charge 6 bucks? The size was so small we ate it up like an appetizer. These guys really didn't do their homework when they came to Canada. They didn't understand that it takes more than what they had to compete against Toronto's restaurants. Toronto, according to the UN, is the MOST multicultural city IN THE WORLD, and is North America's SECOND BEST city for food after NYC.

Yeah buddy, you serve your little portions and you TEAM that up with your high prices!!! There's a recipe for success!

The Chinese stuff arrived, and the noodles were very overboiled and soggy. They had too much of the overboiled taste, and not much of the Chinese treatment came through. The prawns were breaded and deep-fried then cut into pieces, and tasted alright, although, all they had going was the flavour of the meat itself; they weren't supported by the cooking in the slightest. The Manchurian Chicken and Chili Prawn looked exactly the same, and I make a remark to that effect. Waiter-guy said "you said gravy." I said, "if you remember correctly, I said that in reference to the chicken only." I politely asked him to take it back and bring what we had ordered, and although he was very reluctant, he did it. Since he came back in about 2 minutes, I can only assume he did not recook the dish, only rearrange it. There's no one in your restaurant, don't you think you should be taking care of your ONE CUSTOMER a little more????? The Chili Prawns tasted nothing like they did in Malaysia, and from no angle did it appear to be the same dish. I really hate how FOBS speak with such an ego about stuff (the dish is obvious going to be the same, how stupid are you?) and the fact that they're pretty much ALWAYS WRONG. The fucking bill hit 50 bucks, and for 50 bucks, we could have all had all-you-can-eat ribs at Montana's, the massive buffet at Mandarin with money to spare, or 24 pieces of Broasted Chicken with a good 20 bucks left over. We could have gone to Lucky's and pocketed half the money too.

What those dumb fucks don't understand is that with their ego, stupid service, crappy food and idiotic waiters, no one, including me, is ever going to return. Hence, the empty parking lot.