Old Bibik Nasi Rendang ... rekindled my affinity for rendang in food centres

Whenever I have Rendang, I'll think of my Grand Aunty who's a nonya. She is my Grandma's foster sister who used to cook a formidable beef rendang. She was so good that she's been teaching nonya cooking in her estate to pass time. Every year during the Chinese New Year, we will visit her and every time looking forward to her rendang. So when Karen of Superfinefeline invited me for lunch to try Old Bibik Nasi Rendang, I was all for it cos' I haven't been eating good beef rendang in a while since it was "time's up" for Grand Aunty. Old Bibik started business in the Lavender Food since December 2011. It's in the same food square as the popular Kok Kee Wan Ton Noodles. 

In order to try both their Beef and Chicken Rendang, I ordered the $6 Combo set that came with sides like fried eggs, cucumbers, long beans and a piece of papadum. The papadum was served with its concave face down on the rice. My itchy hands had to turn it over and leaving it on the rendang sauce a bit too long for me to take some shots. Grr ... it turned soggy. I liked my papadum crispy so you can imagine me munching on it begrudgingly.

Old Bibik's rendition of the beef rendang was unlike how Grand Aunty did it. This one had more gravy and almost like curry gravy. The beef was tender and definitely friendly to my set of teeth as I detest the feeling of chomping on dry sinewy beef. There are simply too many charlatans peddling mediocre beef rendang so much so that it invokes in me a disdain for beef rendang in food centres. Haven't had such tender beef rendang for a while and Old Bibik rekindled my affinity for this dish. Even Madam Tan's beef rendang (from Wok and Barrel) wasn't this tender. If I had my way though, I would prefer the gravy to be further reduced to achieve a more intense flavor just like how Grand Aunty did it. However, their excess gravy was good to go with rice. 

The Rendang Chicken helped score a double strike in the tenderness category. It was fully coated with tasty rendang gravy. Chicken was good but I still prefer their beef rendang.

Here's the stall as I visited during lunch today. Click link to visit Old Bibik's Website.