Growing up in Kuala Lumpur in the ‘60s, we had a Sunday routine of Banana Leaf Cuisine for lunch. We’d take a 5-tier tiffin-carrier to the Ceylon Restaurant in Malay Street and buy the food there and take it home where we’d eat it.Fish, chicken, mutton or a different chicken preparation, 2 types of vegetables, and pappadum packed separately. The chicken was always Ceylonese Chicken Curry; that was the one thing that never changed, because it was such a fantastic tasting dish that the whole family loved it.

The Ceylon restaurant had two floors. On the ground floor, the centre section had long communal tables. At the sides and upstairs were smaller tables.

At meal times, people would come in and either sit at the long communal style tables or smaller tables. Without a word, a banana leaf would be put in front of the person, and a generous helping of rice dished out.

The waiter would then ask the customer if anything special was wanted, special meaning chicken, fish or meat or some such item. Meantime, another waiter would come with a multi-sectioned serving platter and dish out portions of 3 types of vegetables. This would be followed by the ‘gravy’ waiter who would come with this 3 sectioned container and offer a choice of fish curry gravy, chicken curry gravy or dhall. One of them would then return with any extra orders, and put down 2 or 3 pieces of pappadum.

Unless you made an order for the specials, it all came at a fixed price. For that price, you could ask for more rice and gravy if you wanted. Basically, you were guaranteed a full stomach at a fixed low price.

Fish would be sold by the piece, as would large kurma style or fried chicken pieces. Small chicken pieces like the Ceylonese Chicken Curry would be sold by the plate, a plate being a small saucer holding enough for a single portion.

The Ceylon Restaurant continued to be popular well into the ‘70s. Indeed, when I started work in Kuala Lumpur, Saturday lunch there was a routine.

Then I left Kuala Lumpur in the late ‘70s. When I went back sometime in the ‘80s (if my memory serves me correctly), the place was gone. Friends recommended other Banana Leaf restaurants. Whilst some of them were good, none had the very special Ceylonese Chicken Curry.

There were obviously people who knew how to cook it. The caterers at a friends wedding some years back served a pretty good version of it. So, I experimented with several recipes, made a few tweaks and came up with the one on my site.

As usual, I continue to experiment, and am considering increasing the quantities of coriander seeds, among other things.

Had dinner at one of my regular places the other night, a bar and grill. Tenderloin, medium. It was not tough, but it was hard. Actually, a strange kind of texture that I doubt I could re-create even if I wanted to. Taste was good though, and the sauce was nice.

The mash on the side was mushy. Perhaps they should have called it Mushed Potatoes. Anyway, I could only eat half of it.

I wanted to conduct an experiment and asked the waitress for a Milkshake straw. They did not have one, as they do not have milkshakes there, so my theory had to remain untested. But I really think that it would be possible to eat the mash with a straw - it could barely stick to the fork!

If you’ve seen my article on Mashed Potatoes, you’d know that I like them to have some texture. Creamy should not mean the consistency of a milkshake. Unfortunately for me, there are too many restaurants that do this.

As the plan for steaks did not work out earlier in the week, I decided to have a steak for dinner Friday night. I was out in town, and the place I went to had never disappointed. It was the eve of the Songkran holidays (Thai New Year) and perhaps the regular chef was away, but whatever the reason, this time my New Zealand sirloin was a disappointment.

I ordered it medium, and it came well done. The mushroom sauce was totally bland. Even a generous sprinkling of salt could not rescue it.

So, more out of frustration than anything else, I stopped off at the Villa Supermarket and bought 2 Thai-French aged rib-eye steaks. About 10 ozs / 280 grams each, 510 baht ($16) for the 2. Grabbed a pack of button mushrooms for my mushroom sauce.

That was dinner last night. Seared them in a very hot pan for 2 minutes a side, rested them whilst I finished off the sauce, then back to a medium-hot pan for 1½ minutes a side. At the thickness I had (slightly below 1″ / 2.5 cm.) this timing was good for a nice juicy medium doneness.

Rested them for 5 minutes, and we then had them with a potato salad, green salad on the side, and of course the mushroom sauce.

I say so myself, but they were eminently better than the sirloin I had, and the sauce was definitely vastly superior to what I was served on Friday. And my home cooked dinner for 2 probably cost perhaps 10% more than my Friday dinner.

How kitchen professionals can mess up a dish that they have probably prepared hundreds of times is beyond my comprehension.

One of the reasons why I hardly eat out nowadays, unless I happen to be out and it is a mealtime.