Malaysian persuasion Malaysian persuasion (April 22, 2005)

Atmosphere, diverse menu impress at Baba Neo

By Roseanne Pereira

When you first enter Baba Neo, a new Malaysian and Singaporean restaurant on Moffett Boulevard, you know you are about to have an experience. The set-up is classy -- spacious interconnecting rooms with red, melon, and pale green walls, light streaming through a series of adjacent windows onto white tablecloths. Ceiling fans resembling purple banana leaf petals twirl overhead, adding to the relaxed, tropical feel.

Servers dressed in white tops and black bottoms attend to every patron's need, filling tall glasses of cold water garnished with thin lime halves. Heaping dishes of colorful food are continually brought out from the kitchen. You may, in the back of your mind, wonder if what you're looking at is a mirage.

Baba Neo's cuisine is linked to Baba, the term for the male descendants of Chinese immigrants populating the area from the Malay Peninsula and proceeding south to Indonesia. Dishes are a mix of ingredients from these areas - spices like turmeric, hot chili peppers, and lemongrass, but also more tropical fare like pineapple and coconut.

A great way to start a meal is to first try the Baba Neo Platter ($7.50), an assortment of some of the restaurant's appetizers. The highlight of the platter is the Otak Otak, a yellow fish mousse made up of fish mixed with coconut milk and herbs and served wrapped in banana leaves. This dish is extraordinary; it tastes fresh, decidedly un-fishy, and has a smooth texture.

Also delectable are two skewers of beef saté, tender beef served with peanut sauce, with raw red onion and cucumber on the side. You can assemble the vegetables onto the skewers and grill them at your table.

Less notable components from the sampler are the Inchi Kabin, chewy chicken wings flavored with Asian spices, and Popiah, a wide-mouthed spring roll made of rice paper and stuffed with vegetables.

Baba Neo's menu has an array of poultry, meat, seafood, and vegetarian offerings. A great deal is the lunch special, served Mon. to Fri. from 11-3. For $7 to $8, a lunch portion entrée is served with the soup of the day and rice. On a recent visit, a mild sweet and sour soup was served steaming. The clear broth, studded by corn kernels and seaweed, made for a delicious sour, salty taste.

Other soups at Baba Neo include Sup Kambing ($7.50 for two) a soup made of lamb slowly cooked with aromatic herbs and spices and Penang Prawn Noodles ($8.95), a noodle soup dish made with fried shallots, chicken, shrimp and chili paste.

One of the lunch options, Prawns Bostador ($7.95) is a spicy Eurasian dish that includes thin strips of red onion, green onion, and coconut, as well as chilis and bits of cilantro.

The actual dish didn't quite live up to its mouth-watering presentation. The strong flavors do not come together into one sauce, and the taste of the dish is reminiscent of something thrown together without much expert handling.

Similarly, the Nasi Goreng ($6.95), pan-fried prawns, squid, chicken and tofu, mixed with seasoned rice and sprinkled with ground peanuts rice is nothing special. Chunks of potato in the rice gave the dish a breakfast feel. Again, the dish has delicious ingredients, but the ensemble has an unremarkable result.

Other dinner options include Mango Chicken ($9.95), a dish of spicy mango, bell peppers and chicken served in two mango halves. The first few bites are addictive, the chicken seems well-matched with the red sweet-sour sauce and the strips of mango.

After a few more bites, the sauce can flood all other flavors. Ultimately, a dish that could have highlighted the ingredients - the fresh mango, for instance - is overwhelmed by a sauce that starts tasting more and more like soupy ketchup.

Versions of the ketchup-like sauce make their appearance in a number of dishes at Baba Neo, including Mee Rebus ($8.50), a noodle dish ladled in a gravy made of sweet potato and served with bean sprouts, squid, prawns, boiled egg, shallot and lime. A huge pool of ketchup is served on the side of the dish.

Mee Rebus is a dish that is best shared with others and enjoyed in small amounts. After a few bites, the taste can become bland and the extremely starchy texture adds to the strangeness of the combination of seafood and noodles and gravy.

With so many options though, chances are a visit to Baba Neo will have plenty to entertain your palate. Other dinner menu options include enticing Singaporean crispy fried squid ($6.95), Malaccan Black Pepper Crab ($21.95), and Malaccan Okra ($8.95).

A well-matched accompaniment to any of these dishes would be one of Baba Neo's rice options. In addition to steamed rice ($1), two others are available: a mild Malay Coconut Milk Rice ($1.50), and Hainan Chicken Flavor Rice ($1.50), a rice flavored by poached chicken, and a spicy sauce.

In addition to an extensive wine list, Baba Neo offers Malaysian drinks, such as hot or cold Malaysian milk teas ($2.50). Sweet and delicious, these add a refreshing note to any main dish. Also worth trying is the lemon grass tea ($2), similar to iced tea, but with a hint of citrus and spice.

The star of a Baba Neo visit is often a dessert: Bubor Cha Cha ($2.50) is a combination of cooked sweet potato, yam, sago, coconut milk, and rock sugar made with pandan leaves. The result is a sweet mash that has an interesting starchy texture from the sweet potatoes.

Served in a margarita-like glass, Onde Onde ($4.95) includes orange-colored ice cream topped off with pale green gelatinous balls made from rice flour, filled with palm sugar, and covered in grated coconut. The dessert is both beautiful to see and a delight to consume. This would be a perfect dessert to share, given that one ball goes a long way.

At Baba Neo, the atmosphere is beautiful, the service at the restaurant top-notch, and the descriptions of dishes showcase exciting new food combinations. But is it too good to be true?

While some of the dishes are thoroughly delicious, some are a conglomeration of disorganized flavors, lacking in taste what they have in presentation. If the food can be consistently on par with the rest of the atmospheric elements working so well, Baba Neo could be Mountain View's own lucky restaurant paradise.
Dining Notes Baba Neo 311 Moffet Blvd. (650) 903-9219 Hours: Mon.-Thurs. 11-3, 5:30-9:30, Fri-Sat., 11-3, 5:30-10, Sun. 5-9:30 www.babaneo.com Reservation-yes, Credit cards-yes, Parking-yes, Liquor-yes, Wheelchair accessibility-yes, Outdoor dining-yes, Banquet facility-yes, Catering-yes Highchairs-yes, Takeout-yes, Bathrooms-good, Noise level moderate

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