The merriest mall in Subang this Christmas might be Main Place Mall, which is celebrating the season with its theme Jolly Christmas In The Air, featuring live carolling, Santa walkabouts and magic shows, orchestra and dances, gift with purchase, bath bomb snowman workshops, and much more!
With so many activities to anticipate, your appetite is bound to be stirred - here are our latest recommendations for year-end feasts with your favourite people while visiting Main Place Mall.
Aroi Thai (2F-20, Second Floor)
For an Asian-themed feast with family or friends, Aroi Thai offers generations-old recipes handed down by the brand's founder Angie Ng's grandmother, who sold food from boats on Thailand's canals in the 1940s and 1950s.
Aroi Thai's boat noodles remain budget-friendly at mainly RM1.90 per bowl, in petite portions that remain true to tradition, perfect for boat travellers who had to eat precariously over rocky waters and preferred the safety of consuming smaller servings.
Aroi Thai's boat noodle varieties include tom yum glass noodles, beef glass noodles, and chicken glass noodles, all silky, smooth and slurp-worthy. The cooking here remains true to tradition, importing as many ingredients as possible from Thailand, spanning the rice noodles to the kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and holy basil, as well as condiments like chilli flakes and fish sauce.
Beyond noodles, rice bowls are also popular - the rice with crispy omelette is always a huge hit for both lunch and dinner, blanketed with a moreish layer of egg, while other crowd-pleasers include rice with hot basil minced chicken and tom yum fried rice to bring spice and sparks to your meal.
Starters and side dishes are aplenty too at Aroi Thai - fried wantan chips might make for merry munching, as would Thai fish cakes, vegetarian spring rolls stuffed with glass noodles, grilled chicken or beef meatballs, crispy spinach, and green papaya salads.
If you're seeking a snack for several ringgit, try these can't-fail favourites for RM4.90 each: Spiced anchovies (denser and crunchier than typical Malaysian ikan bilis), pandan chicken, or chicken wings, all three pictured above.
Single meal platters are also available to cater to individual preferences - protein-packed poultry pleasure can be found in the green curry chicken with rice (RM10.90) and the stir-fried boneless chicken cooked with hot basil (RM10.90), both flavourful and fragrant enough to do justice to the Thai culinary legacy. Prices are pretty reasonable, considering there's plenty of meat on these plates.
Aroi Thai's sweet indulgences are distinctive, relying on Thai jasmine-infused water for a floral uplift - soothing, reviving fare such as a coconut ice blended beverage, flowing with mellow tropical notes (RM5.90), the classic water chestnut red rubies with jackfruit (RM4.90), and shaved ice in fruity flavours like mango (RM5.90; with sliced mangoes and mango popping balls) and strawberry (RM5.90). Red tea and green tea (RM2.90 each) are also brewed with authentically Thai-produced components.
Farmers Street (LG-23-25, Lower Ground)
Originally founded by a farmer from Sekinchan, Farmers Street is another one of Main Place Mall's family-friendly restaurants that tackles comfort food for all ages in hearty, heartwarming portions.
Intriguing specialities here include the butter curry series, which comprises a rousing range of poultry and seafood with various renditions of Asian-loving butter curry. Try the deep-fried chicken chop, featuring boneless and crunchy-battered thigh meat, loaded with plenty of butter curry (RM15++), or the deep-fried prawns with butter curry salted egg yolk, fresh-tasted crustaceans in a robust sauce (RM18++), as well as fish and squid possibilities. There's also a variant of the butter curry with Italian cheese; all butter curry platters come with spaghetti, fries or rice to ensure nobody leaves hungry.
If you adore Southeast Asian cooking, you'll relish Farmers Street's efforts, which span the Balinese-inflected nasi ayam bertutu, roasted chicken that's moist and marinated overnight for genuinely Indonesian flavours (RM15++), ikan masak tiga rasa, tenggiri fish that's submerged in a Thai-style sweet, sour and spicy sauce for tongue-tingling enjoyment (RM16++), and the steaming-hot claypot loh shi fun, featuring noodles in dark soy sauce, made creamy with egg, rounded out with minced chicken, mushrooms, fish cakes and beansprouts for supreme satisfaction (RM13++).
Save space for Farmers Street's sweet treats, both chilled and warm - the fresh mango milky ice beautifully evokes bingsu, loaded with chunks of farm-fresh mangoes and vanilla ice cream (RM10++), while the peanut paste and black sesame soup promises nostalgic soulfulness in its classic simplicity, simultaneously nutty and earthy (RM6++).
Fish & Co. (LG-13, Lower Ground)
Fish & Co. might heat up your year-end celebrations with its boatload of new and old seafood sensations, the ideal destination for fans of the ocean's fresh, flavour-packed catch.
The newest temptation here is just a few weeks old - the Asian Mixed Platter (RM59.95) will net you and your companions a medley of different dishes with lively spices, including a white fish fillet with fiery, fragrant house-made harissa sauce (crafted with cili padi, saffron, garlic paste and coriander), plus calamari and chicken with Indonesian-style kecap manis (bearing thick notes of palm sugar syrup) and tiger prawns with a Balinese flourish of sambal matah (a Southeast Asian shallot salsa, aromatic with lemongrass, lime leaves). A cucumber salad on the side brings a cooling balance to the ensemble.
If you haven't visited Fish & Co. in some time, you probably also haven't tried All 'Bout That Bouillabaisse (RM79.95), a European-inspired partnership of boiled clams, blue mussels, tiger prawns and scallops in a light tomato-based soup, harmoniously paired with paella rice for soulful relief that conveys both French and Spanish inflections, a testament to the versatility of the kitchen here to leap effortlessly from East to West.
And if this is your first visit to Fish & Co., the ideal introduction might be The Best Fish & Chips (RM21.95), a classic staple with a gentle batter and tender flesh, jazzed up with lemon butter sauce. Fish & Co. offers numerous variations of fish and chips here - for example the Malaysian fish and chips comes coated with sambal, the Afrika-style boasts peri-peri sauce, while the Swiss surfaces with mozza-oregano stuffing. Wash down your meal with mocktails like the citrus or lychee mojitos, fizzy with a blend of soda and juices (RM12.95 each).
Nyonya Noodle (LG-K-08, Lower Ground)
True to its name, Nyonya Noodle tackles slurp-worthy fare, serving up bowls of broth-laden noodles that hit the spot for strands of satisfaction, notably made with meticulously sourced ingredients.
Top recommendations include the traditional rice noodles with fish paste and fish balls in a soup that's slow-boiled with fish and chicken stock and anchovies (RM13.90) - the densely textured fish paste is made with Spanish mackerel, freshly purchased at 4am from the Selayang market, tinged with sesame oil and tasty on its own with minimal salt and pepper, while the fish balls feature tender saury. The noodles are supplied from Melaka, with other noodle flavours besides the traditional that include sweet potato, spinach or beetroot, with naturally coloured hues.
For pure Peranakan pleasure, pick the Nyonya Asam Mee (RM10.90) - predictably tangy with notes of calamansi, bearing the fragrance of fresh coconut milk, loaded with tofu chicken fillet and squid balls, plus house-made sambal for that perfect final kick.
Other Straits-inspired familiar favourites include the quintessential Nyonya Ayam Pongteh, richly savoury with a lingering depth of flavour, enriched with gula Melaka and essential with rice (RM11.90), and the Nyonya Mutton Curry, a dry-style curry that's robust in its meaty dynamics (RM13.90).
For fans of creamy, gooey desserts, try the warm pumpkin with lotus seeds, proudly Nyonya Noodle's own recipe, nourishing and nectarous, partnered with a wholesome beverage like the Winter Melon with Butterfly Pea Flowers and Barley, for a fulfilling beverage (RM6.90).
Tealive (GF-27, Ground Floor)
Tealive launched this past May in Main Place Mall and is also well worth a visit before 2020 for its latest year-end promotional beverages.
The Pop Pop Pearls series (RM7.90 each) is scarcely a couple of weeks old, so it's still a nifty novelty even for many Tealive loyalists. Bursting in your mouth with fruity flavours, the strawberry milk tea with mango pop pop pearls and mango milk tea with strawberry pop pop pearls are an explosively playful pleasure - many thanks to the Tealive team for letting us also try the pearls on their own, since we loved the popping sensation produced by these mango and strawberry-flavoured gems.
Also making a splash is the Bang Bang Fresh Milk (RM7.05), a cold-and-hot contrast of temperatures, with icy Australian milk mingling with warm pearls coated in brown sugar syrup for a beautiful blend of contemporary milk tea inventiveness.
If you'd like to stay true to the classics, Tealive's most popular refreshment is the Signature Brown Sugar Milk Tea (RM6.50), soothingly smooth and velvety, with pearls made fresh everyday at the outlet (trivia: the pearls take about an hour to cook. Beyond milk tea, Tealive also tackles coffee - the Signature Coffee (RM8.35 for either hot or cold) is made with 100 percent Arabica beans, mellow enough to put us in a merry mood for Christmas.
Many thanks to Main Place Mall and the respective outlets for having us here.
Main Place Mall
Jalan USJ 21/10, Usj 21, 47630 Subang Jaya, Selangor.
