Unusual Marketplace in Damansara Perdana
[Pork-free] Unusual Marketplace in Damansara Perdana is a new restaurant opened by the folks behind Rare the Food Company.
Located in Empire Residence (and just below Rare the Food Co), Unusual Marketplace offers up wild-caught sea products harvested from local waters, with in-store water tanks to keep them swimming and alive.
We enjoyed the seafood porridge here and seafood starters.
Unusual Marketplace in Damansara Perdana
The interior is a fitting tribute to the fish markets of Japan with kanji sign boards that evoke the spirit of Tsukiji markets, and posters displaying the variety of fishes.
Mala Shandong Squid is worth the ticket price
We started off with the Mala Shandong Squid (RM19) – easily one of the best starters we’ve had in months.
As the owners rightly pointed out – the mala spiciness was a muted affair in the gravy, which gives way for the suppleness of squid flavours to shine with lovely embellishments from peanuts, lotus root and coriander.
The squid is fresh with a lovely bouncy texture.
Coral Grouper Fish Balls
We also enjoyed the Coral Grouper Fish Balls (RM15.90) – beautifully moulded for a nice bouncy texture with clean sweetness of the grouper coming through. The fish balls are wonderfully flavoured with garlic dashi, momporok chilli and clam broth.
Other starters available include Sricharan Curry Cockles (RM25) and Live Oyster Ceviche (RM49.90 for 3).
Mixed Seafood Milled Congee
For mains, Unusual Marketplace serves udon and ramen prepared in 12-hour vegetable-chicken broth with your choice of seafood toppings.
At the recommendation of the lady boss, we went for the Mixed Seafood Milled Congee (RM68) which was plenty to feed the two of us.
This was a seafood porridge unlike any we’ve had as it was made from specially stone-milled Japanese rice cooked with smoked fish broth, smoked eels and ago (flying fish) dashi.
You may opt for your preferred seafood, but the Mixed Seafood was an ample catch with squid, fish, tiger prawn, clams and scallops cooked fresh on the table.
No complaints about the seafood – all were fresh, sweet and perfectly cooked. The porridge was subliminally sweet with undercurrents of seafood cooked and sweetness of dashi.
The milled rice grain has a certain earthy quality vs. the typical white grain rice.
Summary
The Mala Shandong Squid will be the reason for our returning visit, as we are also intrigued by the ramen/udon.
Unusual Marketplace will have curry rice and western on the menu soon as well.
Unusual Marketplace
Address: Ground Floor, The Club@ Empire Residence, Jalan PJU 8/1, Damansara Perdana, 47820 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Hours: 9am-5pm (Closed on Mon-Tue)
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