Anyone who mentions Springleaf would be assumed to begin a post about their menu, their murtabaks, or their pratas.
I, however, choose to begin this particular post with one very special dish that they had on the menu for Chinese New Year and which we- Chinese that we are- decided we would today have.
What makes this dish very special is that it was a once-off seasonal item on the menu, and which, in all honesty, I had not expected to see at Springleaf at all.
Because, how does it be that at a renowned (local) prata place we have a dish that includes fried nian gao?
Yes, they might have gotten inspiration from local Chinese snack stations where the 3-in-1 deep fritters (tapioca, sweet potato and nian gao) are sold as an everyday thing, but, hey, they need not have done it here.
I mean, everyone who comes to Springleaf knows they're all about the pratas and the murtabaks.
I'm pretty sure they don't come expecting to see a seasonal pastry made out of prata crepe wrapped round a rectangular block of sweet nian gao then either deep fried or grilled.
Honestly I don't know if the pastry was deep fried or grilled.
I think it's grilled- prepared the same way as they do their pratas- but whichever way it was, the pastry was so, so good.
If you ask me I think it was the crepe which made the most difference.
Where other pastry skins might be crispy or crunchy, this one balanced out the crisp with the chew so even though the skin might have been crisp on the upper layer, there was the little bit of chew on the lower layers.
It made the pastry incredibly lovely to eat with the warmth breaking out from the pastry sliding into your mouth.
The chew was incredibly good. I liked how the texture gave you that little hint of mush and then disappeared into a sort of fudge that, together with the soft, warm nian gao, wrapped around your tongue with a warm, sticky, slightly chewy sweetness.
Unlike how other nian gao would have been odd tasting (if you were ever to eat it on its own) or crunchy (because of the skin or the batter), this one gave off such a comforting chew that made you wonder just why you'd never seen anyone else do it this way.
So delicious was it that three pieces didn't feel like enough, and we contemplated ordering another three.
But then there was also the Murtabak which we had ordered and which we were sure we wanted to finish. Of course, you might wonder like why we could not just tabao the Murtabak and take it home with us, but the Murtabaks of Springleaf somehow don't taste the best when brought back home.
No, that don't mean they're soggy or not crisp.
Just that it's kinda hard to tabao it back when you've got it on your table this good.
This, I think, is either a beef, or a mutton Murtabak.
What I like about this is just how crunchy and crispy the piece is, how the different layers come together, and how the filling inside, although not big pieces of meat, does have enough flavorful bits that make it all come together very well.
You know a Murtabak is good when you are able to eat it on its own without any curry- even though their chicken curry is good, and they also have fish.
That's what I do.
Eat the Murtabak on its own and just take a little bit of the curry because there's all this spice here and it would be very silly to walk out of the place without having a dip or a taste or both.