Navas Cafe, Ponsonby

The murtabak, mamak lamb soup, sotong sambal and roti. Picture / Fotopress

A note stuck to the sandwich board outside Navas cafe claims THE BEST curry puffs in Auckland (but only available at lunchtime and they disappear fast). Our hosts Gita and Chris hail from Malaysia. Chris is a Swiss-trained former hotel chef and has had restaurants in Wellington and Auckland. The counter and open kitchen are located at the back of this deep restaurant space and the place is simply appointed to allow the food to take prime position. But you will love the frozen moments in time and gentle cultural touches of the place.

As soon as we walked in, we knew we had arrived at a good food street cafe transported from Malaysia to Ponsonby Rd. It was the aromas emanating from the stoves.

Navas serves a simple menu of dishes for sharing and all the sauces and accompaniments are made in-house.

The mamak lamb soup is a traditional hawker's Indian Muslim soup "which will never disappoint the tastebuds". It is made from a lamb shank stock, with layers of flavour from garlic, ginger and spices including cinnamon, star anise, cumin and coriander seed. This base is then blended with fresh spring onion, coriander leaves and enriched with ground almonds. Cubes of tender meat are settled back into the finished soup. As the weather cools, it will be just the thing to have this "to go" for lunch the next day with hot, toaster crispened, roti chanai.

Our Indian/Chinese-style rojak differs to the fruity Nonya/Chinese-style. This is a combo of fried tofu, potatoes, shrimp fritters, fried fish balls, spring roll, boiled egg and cucumber. To me, too much like a mixed entree chopped into mouthfuls but it is served with a supremo duo of homemade, chunky roast-peanut sauce and curry sauce for dunking. I'm sure it would appeal to many as my ironman, Abs Neil, wolfed down most of it in prep for his 8-hour cycle the next day.

The Navas murtabak is best described as a flaky dough filled with spiced lamb mince and egg, served with pickled red onions and the good house curry sauce. You receive four generous squares with each order.

By this stage, our waiter is somewhat surprised at how much two people can eat in one sitting. We'd ordered two curries to have with rice as well. Sotong (squid) sambal (medium hot) a dish of stir-fried pieces of squid rings in a rich gravyish sambal with herbs. We were particularly pleased with the lamb curry (medium hot). Unlike other versions where the meat is dry and tough, this had very tender boneless lamb cooked in a rich thick gravy. The pungent heat of both dishes was sufficient to take us on a journey back to "eat street" and we're no sissies.

Other popular favourites are the dry-style Indian Muslim mee goreng and the deep brown traditional beef rendang. Chris makes no compromises with the heat of this dish. He smiles widely as he tells me it is a 9/10 on the hell-heat scale "a superlative recipe, exclusively created for Navas cafe patrons." My Malay friends give this their thumbs up.

Next trip, I'm keen to try the vegetable dhal curry, which uses five types of lentils, and the chef's recipe Navas spicy potatoes and peanuts, deep-fried potato cubes sauteed with chilli paste, onions, coconut cream and nuts.

To finish, I choose one of my favoured treat breakfast foods. Sago pud Malaysian-style comes as 2cm squares of soft sago pudding bathed in a warm coconut milk soup and topped with gula malacca palm sugar. This is the dark toffee-coloured palm sugar which is sold in short logs formed when the molten sugar is poured into bamboo cylinders. The difference in flavour is noticeably more complex with treacle, toffee and toast notes lending itself to both sweet and savoury uses.

Abs Neil's choice was kueh bom pisang, a Malaysian-style baked banana pudding served with vanilla icecream and fresh banana.

What to drink? Tiger beer

Turn up soon, before you have to make a booking. It is good.

WHERE: Navas Cafe, 14 Ponsonby Rd., K'Rd end. (09) 378 4478. Licensed and BYOW
OUR MEAL: $101 for 2; entrees $7.50-$10; mains $8.50-$19; desserts $7.50; rice and roti $2-$3.
OUR WINES: by the glass $6 (house), by the bottle $25-30; Beers $5.50-$6/bottle.