Coco garden, located in Henrietta, offers its customers a true Malaysian feast. With a large menu full of delicious flavors and authentic dishes, Coco Garden sets itself as one of the best Asian (and best Malaysian) restaurant in Rochester.
I found the interior of the restaurant to be particularly inviting, especially with one of those automatic Chinese cats that waves at you when you walk in.
After drooling at the menu for quite a bit of time, I finally decided on what to order. I ordered the Vegetable Spring roll as an appetizer, and for main dishes, I ordered the basil tofu, vegetable chow fun, and the vegetable curry mee. Of course, my mom ordered her favorite dish--roti canai--a Malaysian staple consisting of a Malaysian Paratha (bread) and chicken curry. Unfortunately, I am vegetarian and I couldn't enjoy this dish but I did take some of the paratha to eat with my other food.
Wow! I was blown away by the food. It was so delicious and flavorful, I wolfed it down and my stomach is rumbling as I write this. Luckily, I had some leftovers, and personally for me, Asian leftovers just hit different, and are almost more tasty than the actual meal. I loved basil tofu--each tofu was drenched in a sauce that made the tofu crispy and soft at the same time, full of immense basil flavor. I enjoyed eating the tofu and the sauce and vegetables it came with with the coconut rice, and I also ate it like I eat Indian food, wrapping a piece of the paratha around each tofu. The noodles and vegetables that came with the vegetable curry mee didn't look too appetizing, but the curry (which came in a separate container) was super delicious. I chose to mix the curry with the coconut rice. But the vegetable chow fun was extremely delicious, and I enjoyed every bite of these noodles. I liked mixing all the foods together to create a burst of flavors in each bite.
Coco garden not only presented the opportunity to learn about (and eat!) Malaysian food, but it also allowed me to learn about the Malay language (Bahasa Melayu). Malay, which is very similar to Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is a pretty simple language compared to other Asian languages, with simple grammar and pronunciation. Malay also uses the same alphabet as English, making it easy to read and write.
Malaysia also has many endangered languages threatened by the unifying Malay language. Most of these languages are on the side of Malaysia that is located on the Island of Borneo, and include languages like Orang Kanaq, Temoq, and Lelaq. These languages are on the verge of extinction. Read more here: https://www.thesundaily.my/local/danger-of-minority-languages-going-extinct-EN8935710
selamat tinggal!
-The Linguistic Foodie :)
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