My Elephant @ Happy Mansion, PJ

My Elephant is located in Happy Mansion, which is at SS17. It is at the third building from the entrance, and if you’re a regular customer of Food Foundry or that nasi lemak place, then it shouldn’t be too hard to find. I love the way they have glasses on the exterior, it does exudes some kind of elegance to it.

Once you enter the restaurant, you may find that it’s always packed. We had to make reservations earlier or otherwise would have to wait at the waiting area, which looks like the above. Then again, seeing how classy it was I wouldn’t mind just lying on the sofa cum bed, if only there weren’t a lot of people there to give you the stares.

There’s this really comfy section for group sessions, and it feels like some sort of hearthy area, where you have the fireplace nearby to give you a nostalgic feeling especially if you’ve lived overseas. I’d love to come back if possible to celebrate, say, a friend’s birthday over here. It is, however, a little cramped as there’s not enough space to go around anywhere.

While waiting for the rest to come (I arrived the fastest) I made the orders upon recommendation by other bloggers which I will include at the end of this post. One of them is the Fish Cake that you see above. Dipped into this sweet sour chilli sauce, I thought the taste sorts of whets my appetite, to prepare myself for the incoming main dishes. Savoury and yet not salty (which I usually find in most fish cakes), it does make one hell of  a good appetizer 🙂

My Elephant has quirky drinks in its arsenal. I can’t for the life of me remember what you call this flower but I remember having them before, so once again it did brought back some nostalgic feeling. Apparently it’s good for health etc etc but you know, a lot of people would have said that as a gimmick so I tend to just let it all pass, relying just on its sweet yet subtle taste.

When the rest came, we were served. First off we had healthy multigrain brown rice, which had a particular flavour that may not interest some people, but when eaten with savoury dishes it will be totally drowned so it was okay for all of us. A healthy option of course.

I ordered an apparent specialty that they have (though I missed their famous  Miang Kum which is a self-service Thai delicacy, sadness) but was a little disappointed. The Yam Mamuang Talay or otherwise known as Mango Salad (Gado-gado look-a-like) was more bland than it is tangy, and the salad isn’t as crispy as I’d like. We actually didn’t finish this dish, but then again, the three of us ordered quite a lot.

Of course when eating rice, Kangkung belacan is never to be missed! This was obviously one of our favourites as we started whacking it the minute it was set down (well of course I wouldnt’ let them touch it until I took a decent picture of it lol). Savoury and spicy, definitely a good try to have when you’re here in My Elephant.

I also had the honour to order  a main specialty of theirs, which is the Salt Baked Siakap Fish. Interestingly enough you’d have thought that it would cost you a bomb, but it is surprisingly moderately priced! It was so interesting as the waiter brought an aluminum foil wrapped fish looking all hard and brittle, then as he proceeded to knock it with an apparatus, peeled off the aluminum foil I swear you could see steam rushing out of the hardened salt baked skin of the Siakap. He then proceeded to take a portion of the skin off like you see above, and there it was; a meltingly delicious looking fresh Siakap meat that had the aroma enough to skin a cow! It was baked in salt just long enough to maintain the right bounciness of the flesh as well as having it marinated just right. Needless to say it was so irrestiable and looked so easy to eat that we basically tore at it without mercy.

Oh and need I mention that to eat the other side of the fish, one just needs to pull of the bones in the middle and snap it off at the rear end? Ah the beauty of it all, it’s certainly a gastronomic experience.

How could we not order Tom Yum in a Thai restaurant? It would have been an insult worthy to be punished by Heavens above! So here we had Tom Yum Gong which is a clear-based tom yam soup with seafood. It was surprisingly spicy but not to the extent tha would have made you teared. Once again we were not disappointed as we gulped every ounce of Tom Yam there was in this generous bowl.

This dish was delicious as I remembered it, but easily forgettable too, so much so that I forgotten what it was called. If I had to give it my own name, it would be “Fried Spiced strips of Chicken” which had a unique aroma, thanks to the herbs which they used to marinate it. If I can recall we didn’t finish this dish either. But then again, we were only 3 and….

There was at least THIS much of food in front of us. Lol. Talk about being greedy 😛 But then again you have to admit the squarish table coupled with that cute little round banana leaf on top of the plate lent to the aesthatic factor in My Elephant 🙂

The total amount came up to just about RM140, which for the amount of food we ate, would be actually quite cheap! Rare it is these days to find cheap but quality food especially in PJ or KL. As you can see, the fish costed RM40 which, for the size of the Siakap, really priced at a great value! 3 of us paid RM46 or so each (which could’ve been less if we were 4 people, since we ordered enough for 4, really, amounting to RM35 each) and left the place in high spirits. Service was par excellent despite the horror stories we heard of My Elephant staffs (and even bosses, I hear!) so I guessed we either hit it at the right time and were lucky enough to be spared, or that these rumours were unfounded to begin with.