More from dahmakan.....yippee ki-yay!

Dah makan?  I makan.....again-lah......from dahmakan! ^_~  Since being a Select member, I had to take advantage of the discounts as much as I could (for a month) and that means having more meals from dahmakan.

Anyway, I was more than happy and satisfied with the meals I had from my second wave of dahmakan meals, so it made sense to try even more meals and repeat those that I love before my membership expires.  Let me share with you what I tried in my third wave.

#1 - Herb Crusted Salmon @ RM35 (my price RM19.90, savings RM15.10)

salmon fillet, mashed potatoes, broccoli & carrot, lemon cream sauce

As the salmon fillet is prepared ahead of time, don't expect the herb crust to be crispy as it won't.  The salmon was cooked all the way through but wasn't too dry with the help of the sauce.

The potato mash was both chunky and smooth similar to the one with the Braised Beef Brisket I had previously.

Again, the texture of the broccoli and carrot was harder than I would have liked (I couldn't eat the carrot). The pic in the menu showed slices of grilled red peppers but there weren't any.

The lemon cream sauce was nice, slightly garlicky and had a refreshing tang to it...but there just wasn't enough of it, especially when the mashed potatoes needed a bit of moisture as well.

#2 - Spicy Tofu with Minced Chicken @ RM14.90 (my price RM9.90, savings RM5)

minced chicken, tofu, white rice, spicy sauce

This dish is very similar to mapo tofu with its firm tofu cubes in minced chicken (there was more meat than tofu, only about 5 rectangle pieces) and a sauce that's made from taucu (a type of salty, preserved bean paste).

Except this spicy sauce isn't spicy at all.  Suitable for those who like to eat their rice with sauce.  Also ideal for kids who can take a little heat in their food.

Actually, the ratio of rice to meat to sauce was just nice but it wouldn't hurt too to throw in a fried egg only if you want to...hehe! ;)

#3 - Beef Rendang Tok @ RM29 (my price RM19.90, savings RM9.10)

beef rendang, brown rice, okra, carrot & radish pickle

I had a similar dish (Tenderloin Rendang Tok) from my first wave of eating food from dahmakan...and I remembered it well as it was the best dish I had then.

This beef rendang tok was tender and full of that lovely traditional rendang flavour.  The portion was particularly filling, there was no necessity to add an egg.  The okra could be more tender, the carrot & radish pickle was nice and crunchy.

Though this beef rendang was very decent, it just wasn't quite as good as the previous version.  The previous one was slightly wetter (which I prefer) and the flavours were well rounded.  This rendang had a bit too much kaffir lime leaves, the taste of which was slightly overpowering.

#4 - Honey Barbecue Chicken @ RM24.90 (my price RM19.90, savings RM5)

chicken thigh, soy ginger rice, broccoli, homemade chilli & ginger dip

The honey barbecue chicken thigh had more flavour than the previous misoyaki roasted chicken thigh. Again, it's another dish with a filling portion.

The soy ginger rice of this one was also the tastiest of all the rice I had so far as this one had the flavour of chicken stock.  The cook on the broccoli was also the most well cooked one by far.

But it was the homemade fresh chilli & ginger dip that stood out the most (the ginger dip was better than the chilli dip).  The dips are like the ones you get from chicken rice & roasted meat stalls, just not as good.

#5 - Thai Red Fish Curry @ RM26.90 (my price RM19.90, savings RM7)

perch fillet with lychee & baby corn, brown rice, okra, thai red curry

The perch fillet chunks were supposedly cooked with lychee and baby corn (unfortunately, I found only one lychee...and no baby corn!).  The sauteed vegetables turned out to be okra and, for once, it wasn't under-cooked like all the previous times.

The Thai red curry didn't taste like a curry but more like a sauce with a much thinner consistency, a bit similar to assam pedas but minus the pedas (spiciness).  It tasted lightly tangy...not to say it wasn't delicious, it was alright.  Because the sauce with the fish was of a more watery consistency, it arrived with a lot of spillage (it spilled out into the paper box).  No choice, I think this one needs to be put in a plastic container with a tight lid.

This dish also turned out to be the smallest in terms of portion (the rice portion was also smaller than usual), so don't choose this one if you have a more ferocious appetite (I wasn't all that full myself but, after a while, I didn't feel hungry and was actually glad that I was forced to exercise portion control).  Between this Thai Red Fish Curry and the earlier Portugese Steamed Fish, I preferred the taste of the latter.

Sometimes when I order more than one meal, my family can share the proteins thereby giving us more variety on our plate of rice.

As much as I've seen some improvements from the last time I ordered from dahmakan to now, these are some of the areas I'd like to see further improvements in the future.

#1 - Prioritise On-time Deliveries

Although I'm appreciative that they've included more delivery time slots now, making ordering food delivery more convenient, it doesn't mean squat if you don't deliver your food on time.

From my experience of the meals I ordered, half of them were late...and two were as late as 40 minutes.  An on-time rate of 50% isn't a number I'd be happy with.  I can excuse maybe a 10-minute delay but more than half an hour isn't acceptable.  This was very apparent if you choose delivery time zones within peak meal times.  So, if you don't want your meal to arrive late, take no risk and make sure you ask for a delivery time zone that's earlier by an hour than the time you intend to have your meal (even if the food may be cold and you may have to reheat but that's at least better than not having your meal arrive at the stipulated time).

I wish they can manage the system better to reject orders when a certain number of orders have been reached for a particular time slot...and make that time slot automatically not available and force customers to choose another time slot instead.  Simply accepting more orders than you can handle for one time slot for the reason of selling as many meals as possible will lead to disappointing your existing customers with late deliveries.

#2 - Provide More Options Other Than Chicken

On a typical day's menu, you'll find chicken featuring as the protein in almost every dish with only about 1 or 2 dishes that's fish or beef.  I'd like to see dahmakan feature more options for fish and beef as well as create new dishes that include seafood like prawns and squid.

#3 - Include a Greater Varieties of Vegetables

From my experience, it's almost always carrot, broccoli (two vegetables that I don't like all that much) and okra (besides corn and tomatoes).  I've only gotten cauliflower once.  I hope to see dahmakan provide a greater variety of vegetables in their meals.  I know not all vegetables can be included because some don't keep well (after cooking) but I'm sure there are more vegetables than these few that do (like long beans, eggplant, french beans, cabbage, etc).

#4 - Relook at Improving the Packaging to Minimise Spillage

I've had some meals where the foil containers arrived with its content spilled.  Some of the foil containers came without the foil covers but even when they did have foil covers, there was still spillage.  This could either be due to the foil containers not closed properly or the delivery riders handling of the food boxes. >_<

#5 - Reduce the Use of Plastics Further

I think this can't be helped especially if the meals are eaten on-the-go or ordered as eat-in by office staff (where no pantry facilities are available).  I do wish that they could give us an option to say no to cutlery during the order process or get their rider to ask if we want cutlery but that may prove too cumbersome logistically for them.

I ended up with so many, I don't know what to do with them (although I recently found out from kyspeaks that I could actually return the cutlery to them, so I shall do that in future).  But we can't be sure what the riders do with the cutlery though, whether they actually return them or just discard them.

The RM29 I paid for a one-month membership, I ate as many as three meals a week (sometimes) from dahmakan, not that I'm complaining, since I didn't have to cook for a month.  I could get used to this...haha! ;)

I won't go as far to say that the food is fantastic (seeing that it's food delivery) but I would say that some were more than decent.

But I think I need to take a short break from dahmakan before I sign up again (lest I get tired of the food + I have lesser choices since chicken isn't my utmost favourite protein, especially if it's chicken breast).  That'll be my course of action as long as the Select membership is available (you can choose to cancel your membership outright or pause it for up to 3 months).  Even if the cashback is no longer on the table, it's still worth paying RM29 (to get the discounted prices of meals) and continue to enjoy eating decent, healthy and portion-controlled meals from dahmakan...my go-to food delivery service! ^.^

Note: Dahmakan has since been rebranded to Pop Meals (in late 2020)