Seasons Kitchen USA

MALAYSIA 🇲🇾

COVID-19 UPDATE: As of this writing, there is no indoor dining allowed, but the Orange County restaurant does have three tables with umbrellas set up on the front sidewalk.

As you round the corner at the intersection of Euclid and Crescent, it first appears that you have entered a Filipino neighborhood. A stand-alone Jollibee/Red Ribbon lives on that corner and the next building houses a small Filipino turo turo. But pulling into the Euclid Plaza in Anaheim eventually reveals quite a mixture of (mostly Asian) foods available in this shopping center that is anchored by a 99 Ranch Market.

There are Chinese noodle and seafood houses, Vietnamese banh mi and pho purveyors, a Thai restaurant, another Filipino bakery, and because this is Southern California a Mexican restaurant and ice cream shop. Without much signage, Seasons Kitchen USA is tucked in next to a busy barber and a bit hard to locate on your first visit.

Despite the name, this is not the US offshoot of a Malaysian restaurant, it is a purely unique place in Anaheim and the passion of its husband and wife owners. The wife usually runs the front of house, interacts with all of her customers, and in better days pulls one of many ukuleles off the wall to serenade the diners. If you are interested in learning, she even offers free lessons for beginners.

Her husband is just as energetic and extroverted, but usually found in the kitchen cooking. The menu here focuses mainly on Chinese-Malaysian favorites, but any restaurant offering Malaysian food will always include the iconic curry roti ($5.99, above), a dish you end up craving early every morning if you spend any time near the Indian districts of Kuala Lumpur. Their version is soft, yet flaky and crisp from pan toasting and comes with a delicious curry for dipping with a good hunk of chicken and potato.

In the past you could sit here and overhear conversations about the Malaysian pantry items they have available or their incredibly expansive delivery routes that go as far as San Diego once a month and take in all of Greater Los Angeles and Riverside County. For now it is mostly takeout and pickup offered, but it is still hard not to get into conversations with the friendly owners.

There are multiple pages of "Seasons Kitchen Specialties" on their menu, so trying a good chunk of them will require multiple visits, but one simple favorite was pork char siu special noodle ($9.99, above). This dish has tasty curled egg noodles and pork belly lathered in their "secret" sauce, which is also delicious yet quite sweet, requiring sips from the the small bowl of house broth that is served alongside.

Char kwey teow ($10.50, above) is done expertly, a dish of wide stir-fried rice noodles (a bit mangled from takeout and next day eating here). Quality pieces of shrimp and Chinese sausages are to be found within, as well as sprouts and egg. The dish is best chosen to be spicy, and even so this lets the skilled wok hei shine through.

Just as good or better is their pristine bowl of curry laksa noodles ($10.50, below), more rice noodles but this time thin tubes, all bathing in a smooth creamy, somewhat spicy broth of chicken curry laksa. Pieces of fried tofu, pork balls and an assortment of vegetables join the chicken.

You may have noticed a running theme here if you have ever visited Malaysia. Many of the foods offered are those you can find in night markets and eat in steamy nighttime open-air environments. This is what Seasons Kitchen USA strives to perfect here, and might just have done it.

Lovers of Hainan chicken will not be disappointed by their Hainan chicken special rice ($9.50, below). The chicken leg is also available with dry or soup noodles, but shines brightest when paired with fragrant garlic chicken rice. This allows you to get the most out of their three sauces.

They also do these same three preparations with roast chicken if that suits you more. Along with all of these street food specials, future visits that can take in the jovial hospitality and more elaborate dishes like nasi lemak beef rendang and the house special shrimp rice are looked forward to with anticipation.

Until then, pick up some fun candies from the pantry or schedule a delivery order.

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ANAHEIM Orange County

641 N. Euclid Street

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