KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — If you are as much of a fan tong (literally "rice bin” in Cantonese) as I am, you eat rice every single day. This isn’t a craving or love for a food; it’s as necessary as breathing.

But even with a ubiquitous starch like this — rice is a staple food for more than half the world’s population, after all — there can be days when plain ol’ rice can be, well, boring.

Yes, as much as I adore rice, yet another bowl of steamed white rice can be a bummer sometimes, a "grain drain”, if you will.

Sacrilegious, I know.

Which is why I seek new ways to enjoy this humble grain from time to time. What I have discovered is that sometimes the best way to excite the palate is to pair flavours or techniques from different food traditions.

Take onigiri, the iconic Japanese rice ball. For those of us who drop by a konbini every chance we get when travelling in Japan, this is a lifesaver.

More often shaped into a triangular shape rather than round balls, onigiri can delight with fillings ranging from tuna or salmon in mayonnaise to more uniquely Japanese ingredients such as umeboshi (pickled plum), tarako (marinated cod roe), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), and kombu tsukudani (a seaweed side dish).

What happens when you mix things up a little by incorporating decidedly non-Japanese ingredients into your onigiri?

I experienced this first hand at Airplane Mode Coffee in Taman Rasa Sayang, PJ. Run by veteran barista Sing Thong, the café is known for its excellent espresso-based and filter coffees as well as their homemade chasiu.

The Cantonese style barbecued pork belly is typically showcased in Airplane Mode Coffee’s signature dishes such as their Charcoal Grilled Pork Belly Rice Bowl and APM Porky Sandwich.

Sing Thong has also incorporated his decadent chasiu, sticky with a caramelised glaze and kissed by the smoke of a charcoal grill, into an onigiri.

Airplane Mode Coffee’s Chasiu Onigiri is not unlike a yaki onigiri or grilled rice ball. Besides the shredded morsels of chasiu, every bite reveals hidden treasures such as pickled cucumber, seaweed and sesame seeds.

It’s the lightly toasted crust that makes this onigiri a standout — the best of two cuisines, Japanese and Cantonese.

Clearly, playing with textures can make a big difference.

While Airplane Mode Coffee’s Chasiu Onigiri is more tightly packed (though looser than, say, a Malaccan chicken rice ball, which is meant to be dense and compact), the fluffy grains of Ebony & Ivory Coffee’s Pesto Rice barely adhere to each other.

Indeed, the resultant rice is almost pilaf-like in how every rice grain is separate, held together only by the herbaceous pesto sauce which is made in-house. No bottled stuff here.

This dedication to fresh produce and fine fare, coupled with a casual dining ambience, has been a trademark of Ebony & Ivory since they first opened in Taman Cheras years ago. Operated by married couple Cheong May Lee and Ejay Loi, the café has become a popular brunch and teatime destination.

So much so they had to rent another shop lot nearby to seat more customers, many of them regulars. (Tip: The view of the greenery outside is so soothing.)

Who can blame them with classics such as the Minced Pork Scrambled Egg Rice Bowl, Kurobuta Pork Tonkatsu with Curry Omu Rice, Som Tam with Mackerel Fish on Coconut Rice and Bunga Kantan Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl?

Truly a paradise for the serious fan tong.

Yet it is the Pan-seared Chicken Breast on Pesto Rice that I keep returning to: the moist, French style sous vide chicken breast with an ambrosial gravy; the Mexican inspired cilantro salsa verde that both looks and tastes green, the sharp arugula offering some necessary bite to balance everything.

And that Italian pesto sauce, a dance of pine nuts and Parmesan, garlic and coarse salt, bright basil leaves and zesty olive oil. Who knew it would go so well with rice? (Pair this with one of their specialty milk coffees.)

Ebony & Ivory’s freshly-made pesto sauce also features in other dishes, including a more traditionally Italian pesto linguine. Even here, some Japanese influence is present as the pasta is paired with a deep fried salmon croquette.

The croquette is coated with panko, that lightest of breadcrumbs made from Japanese milk loaves. The result? A crispy golden brown crust and a creamy salmon filling — again, more textural contrasts.

Why taste from one country’s cuisine when you can sample from many, provided the flavour pairings work?

At the very least, we know they do at Airplane Mode Coffee and Ebony & Ivory.

So whether you prefer nibbling on an intensely savoury rice ball studded with little chunks of barbecued pork or spoonful after spoonful of a deeply green rice dusted with — what else? — more Parmesan cheese, you know there will be food purveyors who will "rice” to the occasion (no apologies for this terrible and wicked pun).

Better yet, take a leaf from the Barbenheimer rulebook and enjoy them both. We live in Malaysia after all, a food haven; here we can have our onigiri and pesto rice — and eat them too!

Airplane Mode Coffee

9A, 1, Jalan SS 4C/5, Taman Rasa Sayang, PJ

Open daily (except Wed closed) 9am-6pm

IG: instagram.com/airplanemode_coffee/

FB: facebook.com/airplanemodecoffee/

Ebony & Ivory Coffee

No. 4A, Jalan Kaskas 4, Taman Cheras, Kuala Lumpur

Open daily 10am-6pm

Phone: 013-616 1286

IG: instagram.com/ebonyivory_coffee/

FB: facebook.com/pg/Ebony-Ivory-Coffee-1336078529769524/

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*This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.

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