ADU Sugar Restaurant, Bangsar: A chef's life revealed in surreal portraits, on sumptuous plates

It's rare to find a restaurant that tells the story of its founder in every piece of furniture, on each page of the menu. But Chef Adu Amran Hassan reveals his heart in the paintings on ADU Sugar's walls and bares his soul on the plates that emerge from the kitchen.

As you enter, two striking portraits embellish ADU Sugar's entrance - one of an elderly, sarong-clad man with a philosophical smile on his lips and a cockatoo on his shoulder; another of a younger, regal-looking woman with a rooster admiring her. 

The man is Adu's father, whom he painted last year; the woman is his mother, a memory of her from decades ago; the birds represent Adu's childhood pets. Other paintings of Adu's seven siblings also feature vividly, each lovingly illustrated by Adu himself in surrealistic style. 

ADU Sugar may seem eclectically, even eccentrically, decorated. But every detail shines a light on different times in Adu's life, from a lion-bodied lamp he bought in London 20 years ago to a green door that caught his eye in India, from stately fabrics sourced in Thailand to soft pillows made by his sister, a tailor. Adu Sugar is a restaurant first, but it's also a gallery - of art, of family, of memorable moments.

That deeply personal intimacy is imbued into the food.

After four seasons of being a juror on MasterChef Malaysia beginning in 2012, Adu is no stranger to the public. But exploring his restaurant exposes more facets of the 51-year-old chef, who still has the vim and vigour of talents half his age.

Adu Sugar is popular for rendang recipes that span duck to daging. But since Adu has long practised vegetarianism twice a week, part of his menu is dedicated to vegan sharing plates, including Young Jackfruit Rendang, Lemak Labu with Jantung Pisang, and Sambal Hijau Chestnuts with Ulam.

He's a firm advocate of curtailing food wastage. His Ramadan buka puasa menu features Hidang-Style Kenduri servings crafted for at least two people, including Bubur Lambok Atuk, Puyuh Goreng Rempah, Sotong Masak Hitam, and Urab Sayur Kampung - but he refuses to hold buffets for the fasting month, since there'd be too many leftovers.

Adu's fare is vibrantly unique and imaginative but it also respectfully reflects his heritage. His parents were both palm oil factory workers in Kluang, Johor - today, his cooking incorporates ELAIESE red palm fruit oil sustainably cultivated in a single-origin plantation on Carey Island, Selangor.

Our latest visit to ADU Sugar kicked off with one of several vegetarian specialities - even after successfully running restaurants in Langkawi and London since 1994, Adu continues challenging himself to stay creative, which includes concocting meat-free masterpieces.

The Heirloom Tomatoes & Basil Kerabu (RM27.99) initially evokes Italy's Caprese salad, without the mozzarella. But a forkful of this conveys nuances of something totally new and original.

Adu uses four types of Cameron Highlands heirloom tomatoes, as sweet and luscious as ripe tomatoes should be, sprinkled not only with basil but a smooth, aromatic dressing blended with red palm oil, gula Melaka and truffle paste - nutty from palm oil, sweet from gula Melaka and scented from the truffle paste.

The dressing is Adu's homage to his childhood, when he used to collect palm fruits that fell the ground, burning out their oil and mixing it with sugar to turn into the perfect syrup.

Similar to how he selects the most nourishing tomatoes, Adu relies on ELAIESE, a premium red palm oil recently introduced by Sime Darby Oils Nutrition, heralded as a non-GMO superfood. The oil retains its rich nutrients as the palm fruit is collected and processed within 24 hours of harvest to ensure freshness and limit the oxidisation process.

This rendition of kerabu invigorates the local tropical salad while retaining its quintessential qualities - its appetising freshness, its alluring tang, and its amazing balance of straight-from-the-land flavours.

The Botok-Botok Tenggiri (RM37.99) has been on ADU Sugar's menu since the start, a dish we loved when we first visited in June 2019. It isn't vegetarian, but the moist, fleshy mackerel is luxuriously suffused with a bounty of whole and shredded local herbs, steamed with ELAIESE red palm oil, wrapped in banana leaves, making it as much plant-powered as fish-focused. A gorgeous preparation that does equal justice to the fish and the herbs, bringing both together in beautiful harmony.

Pair the fish with Adu's Vegan Nasi Minyak (RM14.99), which swaps out ghee and butter for red palm oil, lending the rice its attractive hue, with a lighter, cleaner taste compared to conventional nasi minyak. 

It may seem like a simple rice recipe, but it's packed with goodness, with raisins for sweetness and a house-made masala spice mix that hints at coriander, cumin, cloves and star anise. Adu appreciates the red palm oil too, not only for its versatility - it works as a salad dressing, it works for marinating, baking and frying - but its nutritive value, comprising natural phytonutrients, including Pro-Vitamin A and Vitamin E Tocotrienols, that boost immune health and hair and skin health, and curb cholesterol.

ADU Sugar has its roots in Adu's Johorean heritage, but the fruits of its founder's labour bloom beyond that, reaching out to the rest of Malaysia and Southeast Asia - the Lotus Root & Jungle Vegetable Green Curry (RM27.99) is Thai-inspired, of course, but like everything here, the curry is vital and thoughtful, a contrast from green curry chicken cliches. 

With a farm's full harvest of lotus roots, green aubergines, pea aubergines and butternut squash, coupled with a forest's forage of ulam raja and daun kaduk, and a village's worth of sayur kampung, whole and shredded herbs, this curry tastes truly green - grassy and leafy in a generous form, full-bodied with nature's abundance.

The Pucuk Paku Urab (RM28.99) is another typical-sounding recipe with a subversive twist. Fiddlehead fern tips are lightly blanched and tossed with sambal kelapa and pine nuts, turned into a vegan dish that shuns the stock of shrimp or anchovies. Instead, the umami comes from multiple mushrooms, including shiitake, porcini and oyster mushrooms, chopped and slow-cooked for hours to extract their earthiness. 

We can't leave without a bowl of Laksa Johor (RM34.99) - if one dish is an ADU Sugar signature, this is it, the pride of Adu's kitchen.

There are no shortcuts to this - the spaghetti is showered with a soft, rich gravy that's painstakingly made with ikan parang, salted kurau and prawn flesh. 

Ikan parang is used per tradition for a fattier texture, with its numerous bones laboriously removed - which explains why many modern eateries resort to the conveniently less bony tenggiri instead.

Each component is crucial - the ikan parang conveys a fatty mouthfeel, the kurau is savoury, the prawns are sea-sweet. The laksa is mellow with chillies, instead of being punishingly spicy, so we can enjoy it easily and entirely.

Chef Adu shares a fun fact with us - for a long time, even in Johor, you couldn't find great Laksa Johor at just any restaurant or stall. Cooks rolled out the red carpet for this recipe at kenduri-style celebrations, such as for Aidilfitri, making it a special-occasion indulgence.

Some might balk at the price for ADU Sugar's Laksa Johor - but if spaghetti aglio olio with seafood costs more than RM30 at a respectable restaurant, why shouldn't this laksa, which relies on top-notch seafood too and takes even more time and effort to create? ADU Sugar vanquishes the stigma that Asian food should be cheaper than its Western counterparts - at a time when quality produce costs more than ever, this Laksa Johor merits its price, with its wealth of ingredients and intensive preparation.

Those revelations and reminders make ADU Sugar an experience that not only satisfies and surprises the taste buds, nourishes the body and warms the heart, but enlightens the mind. Many thanks to ADU Sugar for having us here.

ADU Sugar Restaurant
10A, First Floor, Lorong Ara Kiri 2, Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur.  Open Tuesday-Sunday, 12pm-10pm. Tel: 03-2201-1441

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com

The Gardenman KL, St Mary Place

Family recipes prepared with love and respect by a team of Malaysian friends who come from different corners of the country: From Nyonya Laksa to Sarawak Laksa, nasi lemak with a Malacca matriarch's rendang to chee cheong fun with Ipoh's red sauce, The Gardenman blossoms with honest, hearty flavours, with ingredients sourced from their original roots.

If you enjoy local classics cooked by people who genuinely grew up on this food and care profoundly about what they serve, this new restaurant with a soothing setting is well worth visiting in the city centre.

The Gardenman's head chef, Jessy, hails from Malacca - her Nyonya Laksa (RM25.90 with tiger prawns; RM15.90 with regular shrimp) is the ideal introduction, served with a choice of mihun, mee or mixed.

The secret, of course, is in the broth - The Gardenman's abides by authentic Peranakan traditions, made every morning with fresh herbs and spices, with a base of shrimp, chicken and fish simmered for two hours, free of curry powders or commercial spice blends. 

The light-textured broth is nonetheless luscious in natural, nuanced flavours, rich without being cloying, addictive to the final spoonful, topped with the complete essentials. The tiger prawns, plump and juicy, are a big bonus, helping to make this the most rewarding Nyonya laksa in the city centre.

A shoutout too to the sambal - The Gardenman uses no fewer than four different chillies, including cili padi for fine-tuned firepower and other chillies for different dynamics and dimensions, rounded out with ikan bilis for briny umami.

Mee Goreng (RM14.90) sounds like a predictable staple, but The Gardenman's is specially inspired by Malacca kampung-style preparations, less salty but brighter than mee mamak. 

We like its mellow tang and its mild heat, fried with sambal that's aromatic with candlenut, garlic and onions. This Mee Goreng might make you nostalgic, recalling how you dug into a similar plate in some forgotten kopitiam in your hometown in the 1980s.

Nasi Lemak also receives the Malacca treatment - the gorgeously fragrant, kukus-style grains come with satisfying choices including a chicken rendang that's the recipe of Mak Chetah, the foster mother of one of The Gardenman's Malacca-born members. It's creamy and captivating, fleshy and fulfilling, heady with more than 20 ingredients, from kaffir lime to lemongrass, kunyit to lengkuas, like a favourite dish that'll make you return for second helpings at a household gathering.

The Nasi Lemak Rendang Mak Chetah (RM18.90) is complemented by Nyonya acar that takes more than a day to laboriously prepare, with crisp, lively cucumbers, long beans, carrot and cabbage, tasting totally homemade. We'd happily bring back this acar in a huge jar if we could.

The Gardenman's Wenho, who heads the service team, comes from Kuching - he brings his favourite here, the Sarawak Laksa (RM15.90). 

The broth boasts the best-quality paste Wenho could find, costly but with richer spices, balanced with shrimp and fish to yield fuller, more complex aromatics. Again, this turns out to be our best bet for Sarawak laksa in KL's city centre, potentially ranking in the top five for the entire Klang Valley. 

For Chee Cheong Fun, The Gardenman gets its rice noodles from Ipoh for a slickly thin and smoothly fine variety that's extremely enjoyable for fans of silky CCF, sprinkled with sesame seeds and dried shrimp.

Have it Ipoh-style with the northern city's distinctive sweet red sauce; alternatively, the central region's brown sauce or a Malay-style curry are available (RM6.90).

For the ultimate CCF, order The Gardenman’s Chee Cheong Fun (RM15.90), a large portion with chicken spring rolls and fish cakes. Even those of us who aren't usually CCF fans can find ourselves relishing this.

While most of The Gardenman's top temptations are Malaysian, its international offerings are also thoughtfully conceived. Its Thai tom yam and Vietnamese pho, for example, were introduced by a team member who formerly often travelled to Thailand and Vietnam for work.

Pastas also merit a mention. The Spaghetti with Gardenman Green Salmon (RM34.90) looks like a pesto preparation, but it's a spinach-based sauce blended with bok choy and kailan, with no basil. It's a well-executed, wholesome vegetable sauce that enhances the pasta in a way that's true to the restaurant's name; the salmon too is excellent, clean-tasting and chunky, tender to the chew. 

House-made tong sui to wrap up The Gardenman experience? Save space for the Bubur Cha Cha, a final Malacca-inspired rendition with potent tropical hints of banana (RM8.90), and the mom-endorsed Sweet Potato in Ginger Soup, with three types of ginger, including the sharper Bentong ginger, each terrifically tempering one another (RM7.90).

Many thanks to The Gardenman for having us here.

The Gardenman KL 
A-0-8, St Mary Place, 1, Jalan Tengah, 50450 Kuala Lumpur. 

Open Monday-Friday, 10am-7pm; Saturday, 10am-3pm. Will open for breakfast and dinner in stages.

Tel: 03-9771-0393

This post first appeared on eatdrinkkl.com