VILLAGE CAFE
On 4 August 2007, Dim and I went to Village Cafe in Birmingham China Town for lunch.
It is situated on Ladywell Walk, in front of Ibis Hotel, next to the Malaysian Delight restaurant.
It offers a wide range of dishes from Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and China (especially Canton province). Its Chinese name is composed of the first characters from the Chinese names of these first countries (Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand).
We tend to have late lunch Saturdays and also today we arrived at around 2 o'clock. That is why there is no one else in this photo, but usually it is a busy place.
The décor is cheapish, but clean and bright with the sunlight from large windows. On sunny days, I definitely prefer to have lunch with natural sun light.
About this place we have heard both bad and good reputations, but I was not much worried, as if it is really bad, there is no way that it can always be so busy with Chinese customers. I was just guessing that it was a kind of place some like and some don't.
Inside this window, decorated with roast meat, is the kitchen. It is supposed to be an open kitchen, but it is not visible from the street and the seated diners cannot see the chefs cooking, so it does not have show effect. The chefs, however, can have natural light in the kitchen and it is probably positive for their mental health.
This is my husband's Fried vermicelli with fish sauce (£5). Thin rice noodles stir-fried with dried shrimps, red onion (shallot), spring onion, fresh red chili and egg. It must be cooked with fish sauce, but did not smell so much.
It was slightly too salty, but tasted quite all right. It seems somehow expensive, as it does not contain meat, but it you can order meaty version for the same price.
This is my Sambal King Prawns with Rice (£6.50) chosen from the Malaysian dishes.
Sambal is chili sauce sauce used in Malay cooking. This one was not so hot. There were 8 or 9 shell-off king prawns, stir fried with onion and peppers. Rice came in big quantity, probably too big for this quantity of king prawns and veggie. The cucumber without skin is Malay style decoration. The plate that mimicking banana leaf, though it was bit worn, also proclaims its Malay identity.
It tastes quite nice wish strong smell of fish sauce, or maybe of some other fermented condiment. I liked this smell, but Dim was complaining it was too much like used socks.
We ordered also 1 cup of Jasmine tea (£0.50) and 1 Coca-Cola (£1), and the total bill came to £13. The price is all right, probably cheaper than Malaysian Delight, but more expensive than the Arcadian Palace, partially because of the charge on Chinese tea. And I need to say also that the rice tasted better at Arcadian Palace. But it offers many interesing dishes, and I would love to return.
