The café is bright, airy and full of mainly Malaysian and other oriental diners, and there ’s two tables just leaving so our timing is perfect in this no reservations joint. Of course I have to order the soft shell crab, it’s not on the lunch deal, it’s reasonably priced anyway and definitely a mango bubble drink. Rhoda tries the big bowl of laksa, her speciality from our time in Singapore. Vincent settles for Malaysian pancake and Nasi Goreng.
Let me tell you about the joys of a bubble drink. First of all they're like kissin' cousins to the smoothie and step sister to the milkshake, just about anything goes, lots of fresh fruits, chocolate syrup you can even get crushed biscuits in the more elaborate versions. However the big difference and it has to be said this is a fairly significant addition, black balls of jelly like tapioca nest in the bottom of the glass, the bubbles in the drink if you like. Now if like me you spent a childhood listening to your mother, scold, stop playing with your food, this is the time to forget your age, ignore any comments from your past and start behaving like a big bad old baby. Bubble drinks are by design for playing with. If you get one of the slightly bigger than normal tapioca bubbles stuck in the straw a game of Russian roulette begins, suck too hard and you’ll send the ball ricocheting down your wind pipe inducing convulsions, small sucks, a little at a time until the tapioca ball rolls onto your tongue unblocking your drink, permitting access to another mouthful of fruity deliciousness. You can of course blow the ball back down the straw but you know what that’s going to do and if you remove the straw then blow, you risk sending a tapioca ball ricocheting across the room. When you get to the bottom of the drink you can also pick up the remaining oversized balls using the straw with your finger on top as a single vacuum powered chop stick. Some places offer Jumbo width straws, with the increase in incidents of brain freeze, I don’t see the fun in this option. I love bubble drinks.
The food arrives, a big crunchy plate of soft shell crabs, chilli and salted we dip them in the sweet sauce and some in the curry sauce that comes with the pancakes which are also good and reminiscent of our time in Singapore. The Nasi Goreng is fine, lots of wee tasty bits of meat, leek, vegetables, no fried egg though, I love piercing a runny egg have it drip down the fried rice, small gripe, the rice is perfectly fried and tasty. A big sumptuous bowl of noodle soup arrives, spicy a pot luck of prawns meat vegetables in a well balanced coconut scented broth. The Laksa is good it would be unfair to compare it with the Die Die Must Try versions we ate in Singapore, definitely the best we’ve tried in Scotland .
Rumours yes indeed do the best bubble drinks in the far west and the food is pretty damn fine too.
