review: el cerdo

address: 43 & 45 changkat bukit bintang

tel: 603-2145 0511

site: http://www.elcerdokl.com/

Sometimes you just want a place that's noisy. Where you can eat without needing to always mind your manners. And you can just watch other people and not have to make polite conversation all the time, except when its about the food in front of you. 

With that in mind, El Cerdo should be on your shortlist if you feel brave enough to venture into KL. Parking isn't easy, so you might have to weave through a bit of traffic before you arrive at your destination. 

Since this wasn't our first meal there, we decided to stick to lighter fare. Well, it's light for me. There's salad - surely that's light, right?

It's not easy to find cured meats in KL so I was perfectly happy to order Jamón Ibérico de Bellota el Pata Negra (Iberico ham from a black-hoofed pig) and a mixed appetizer plate which included rilettes, pate of pig trotter and Spanish salamis. 

The Iberico ham was lovely - sliced paper-thin and marbled with fat, lending a funky taste when it hits your tongue. I would have loved a few more melon balls to go with the ham though - the sweetness of the fruit complements the richness of the meat. The appetizer platter though... hm. I might have actually be ok omitting the pig trotter pate as it was a bit too fatty, but I did enjoy the salamis. The nuts which were scattered on the salad were freshly toasted as well, a nice touch which I appreciated. 

I've always loved the oven-roasted spanish ribs - they come sticky to the touch, but without the tangy, almost harsh sourness of a barbeque sauce. The pineapple marinade is a lot softer on the palate, and the ribs were nice and fatty. Eat these with your hands please, as the best part of eating ribs is always being able to strip that last thin film of meat from the bone.

This time we tried something new - a pig tail stew with garlic and onion sauce. I was mildly amused to find that the pig tails were served in a cow platter - a bit of a contradiction, no? 

The pig tails actually contained a surprising amount of meat, and very little fat. The skin which covered the tail had already been cooked down to a sticky, gelatinous consistency - if you want to try something different, I would recommend this as one does not normally see pig tails in the market or on a menu!

address: 43 & 45 changkat bukit bintang

tel: 603-2145 0511

site: http://www.elcerdokl.com/