An Oasis of Spice in Orange County

Tropika seems like a mirage in the middle of Orange County: white linen, full bar, and authentically spicy Malaysian food. And did we mention that it’s in Orange County? elmomonster checked it out and confirmed its culinary cred.

Start with roti prata (also known as roti canai), a classic snack with Indian roots. “Similar to naan, but stretched impossibly thin, the texture of roti is flour tortilla meets phyllo dough–crisp and crackly at its periphery, paper-thin and chewy throughout.” Dip it in the aromatic red curry with chicken and potato.

Tropika does a spot-on version of nasi lemak, rice cooked with coconut milk, so richly flavored you could eat it alone. But you don’t have to, since it comes with chunks of deep-fried chicken steeped in spicy red curry, fried anchovies with peanuts in sambal (chile paste), and hard-boiled egg and cucumbers to balance out the heat.

Rendang beef, a dish beloved in Indonesia as well as Malaysia, is braised in coconut milk with ginger, garlic, coriander and lemongrass. Tropika’s rendang is properly falling-apart tender, the sauce reduced to a sticky brown paste. The spices are as sharp as a hot blade, sharper than even the mellower Indonesian style.

Seafood hor fun is more subtle and nuanced, flat rice noodles stir-fried and sluiced with a velvety gravy, with shrimp, squid, scallops and baby bok choy mixed in.

At lunch, soup (a tangy broth stocked with vegetables) and salad come with all dishes. For less adventurous dining companions, there’s also pad Thai (the restaurant bills itself as Malaysian and Thai cuisine), and it’s pretty tasty.

Roti prata is $3.25, nasi lemak is $8, beef rendang is $13, and hor fun is $9.

Tropika [South OC]
17460 E. 17th St., Yorba/Enderle, Tustin
714-505-9908

http://www.tropika.com

Map

Board Links: Tropika in Tustin–New Malaysian Restaurant for O.C.–Review with PHOTOS