Jimmy's Recipe, Sydney

Jimmy's Recipe is a Malaysian restaurant chain in Sydney, known primarily for the laksa.

I have a very, very distant memory of the first time I was in Sydney, I think the first day, and stumbling into a mall food court where a colleague had told me to get laksa.  I don't think I even knew what laksa was, and I don't remember much else, except that I did it, and I found it very flavorful.  This was years and years ago now, and when I was in Singapore in 2020 I remember laughing thinking back to how novel laksa had seemed then ...

Anyway, years passed.  Malaysian still isn't a cuisine I experience much, and, the few times I've gone for Malaysian food in Sydney, it has always been to Mamak, for the roti (seriously, swoon, that dessert roti!  There *is* a reason people line up on the street, every single night, to get in to Mamak ...).

Jimmy's Recipe however is far more accessible.  Mall food court.  Easy peasy.

Gado Gado.

"A south east asian salad with beansprouts, lattice, fry tofu, tempeh, potato, green bean, crackers."

Ok, this was downright delicious.  Wow.

The base was fresh crisp cos lettuce, whole leaves (I think when the menu said "lattice", this is what they meant ...).  On top was a very generous amount of bean sprouts, that looked comical at first, but actually were perfect.  Super juicy, crisp, and went great with the sauce.

I could care less about the crispy bits of fried tofu, or the hard boiled egg slices, but the crispy fried cracker things on top were fantastic, I'm a sucker for textures and crunch, and these provided in spades.  A *very* generous amount, again, it looked like probably more than most normal people would want, but I loved it.

And then, the sauce.  This is what made the dish.  It was a peanut sauce.  It had bits of ground peanut for more texture.  It was crazy flavorful.  And, much like the bean sprouts and the crisp things on top, the ratio seemed entirely inappropriate.  Way too much.  Seriously over dressed.

But it was sooooo good it didn't matter.  I was literally licking the bowl clean.  Every. Single. Drop. of that sauce.

This came together wonderfully.  Fresh crispy lettuce, juicy crispier bean sprouts, crispier even fried bits, and tons and tons and tons of flavorful peanut sauce smothering the whole thing.  Absolutely delicious.