Oversea Taste stir-fries these stubby rice noodles, shown in close-up below, with shrimp, pork, egg, scallion, and bean sprouts ($6.75). From the cylindrical shape and tapered ends, you might gather why Cantonese speakers also use the affectionate name loh shee fun — rat tail noodles. Among English speakers, however, it's a name that's unlikely to catch on.
Also shown, from a group meal at this Malaysian restaurant some years ago: roti canai, Indian-style pancakes with curry dipping sauce; poh piah, steamed spring rolls stuffed with jicama and drizzled with a dark syrup; rojak, a "fruit salad" featuring cucumber and white turnip but no pineapple, and shrimp fritters rather than fried dough; asam laksa, thick rice noodles in a spicy and sour lemongrass and fish broth that takes its dominant flavor from tamarind (asam, in Malay); mee goreng, rice noodles stir-fried with shrimp, sausage, egg, bean sprouts, and cabbage; beef rendang, stew with coconut milk, chili, and cinnamon; crispy golden fried squids; sambal petai, "sauteed grass peas with spicy Malaysian shrimp paste," which added a double handful of shrimp and a jumble of onions and red peppers. The "peas," which also answer to Parkia speciosa and several other names, not all of them complimentary were especially tender.
Shown at bottom: ice kacang (kah-Chang), shaved ice atop red beans, corn, palm seeds, bits of jelly, and topped itself with "red rose syrup and coconut milk." The syrup is the make-or-break element; at Oversea Taste it had a coffeelike flavor. Our group also passed around a coconut pudding, served in the container it came from; once the pudding was gone, we scraped out the lining of coconut meat.
Oversea Taste Restaurant (formerly known as Oversea Asian Restaurant)
49 Canal St. (Orchard-Ludlow Sts.), Manhattan
212-925-3233