At Kelang, Malaysian Specialties Hit The Table With a Brooklyn Accent

By Scott Lynch

Kelang is located at 715 Manhattan Avenue, between Norman and Meserole Avenues, and is currently open on Wednesday through Friday from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m., on Saturday from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and on Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Chris Low, the co-owner and executive chef of Greenpoint’s remarkable new Malaysian spot Kelang, wasn’t supposed to get involved with his family’s restaurant business. He helped out, of course, when his parents and sister Rebecca were opening Hainanese Chicken House in Sunset Park a couple of years ago, but Low is a filmmaker by trade, and this was his father’s dream, not his.

But when the Malaysian, hawker-style dishes at Chicken House earned the place several rave reviews, the family’s modest counter-service spot became a surprise hit, and the once-reluctant Low found himself wanting more. “Based on the setup there, and the neighborhood, I felt like we couldn’t really dive into all the stupid things I wanted to do,” Low told Brooklyn Magazine. “So we decided to expand, and do something new. I’m still working in film, still shooting, but I figured, why not? Why not explore this restaurant thing further? We deserve to see what we can do.”

What Low and his family can do, apparently, is turn an abandoned medical office on prime Manhattan Avenue into a rollicking, full-service restaurant called Kelang, named for the small city in Malaysia where their parents are from and featuring a full menu of regional specialties, many of which hit the table with a bit of a Brooklyn accent. “I grew up in Brooklyn,” said Low. “Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Park Slope… and I went to school in Canarsie. So we ate a lot of Caribbean food. A lot of Haitian and Jamaican, which makes its way into the food here at Kelang.”

Smoked oxtail rendang, $34 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

You’ll find the most obvious manifestation of this in Low’s rendang, which he prepares with oxtail, instead of the more commonly seen beef, amping up the traditional Malaysian stew with a luscious Caribbean staple. After smoking the meat, Low adds things like lemongrass, a coconut-based condiment called kerisik, and fiery chilis before serving the beast with a bowl of rice that’s a mashup of Haitian djon-djon and Malaysian nasi ulam.

Hainanese chicken, $35 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

There’s a Hanainese chicken on the menu, of course, and it’s a doozy. You get a half bird (including one foot) with your order, poached to supreme juiciness in a ginger, scallion, and garlic broth. Surrounding the fowl is a bowl of rich chicken rice, a cup of swoon-worthy jus, along with red chili and black vinegar sauces, for dipping or sipping between bites. Other large plates include a curry chicken pot pie and an eye-grabbing pork trotter stew called bak kut teh that I lusted after when I saw it burbling away at the pass.

Paratha with red lentil dhal, $18 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Lime leaf ricotta ravioli in brodo (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Rojak salad (pineapple and yuca with shrimp paste), $15 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Our party couldn’t decide which was the meal’s stealth winner—the flaky paratha, which gets plopped upon some spicy red lentil dhal and topped with—surprise ingredient alert—tangy stracciatella, or the large, intensely herbaceous ravioli, stuffed with lime leaf and ricotta and laid out across a pool of coconutty laksa consommé. The rojak salad, with chunks of pineapple and yuca littered with peanuts and chilis and slick with shrimp paste, was also in the running.

Abacus seeds (taro “gnocchi”), $24 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Make sure you don’t skip the noodle course, either. Low’s abacus seeds, which are like gnocchi made with taro, are blanketed with slippery, smoked shiitake and an impressive amount of garlic. And the moonlight kway teow, a platter of wide rice noodles just absolutely smothered in dark soy, might have delivered the single best bite of the night: the crunchy, meaty head of one of those fat, snappy prawns.

(Photo by Scott Lynch)

So the food is all great, and the setting is pretty delicious too. There are plush red banquettes, cool honeycombed mirrors, ephemera from Kelang (the city) on the walls, family photos tucked here and there, a circular bar up front, and lighting Low himself designed to make you feel like you’re in a movie. Note that Kelang is still waiting for its liquor license, but a couple of cans of Sarsi, a Singaporean sarsaparilla soda, hit the spot for me.

“For better or worse, so much of me, so much of my family is in this spot,” Low said. “My sister Rebecca and I were on our hands and knees laying down the flooring tile. My mother helped us paint the mirror frames. It feels so nostalgic right now, like some pastiche of our personal memories and familiar Malaysian films, all merged into this space.”