The last Malaysia Kitchen event in Sydney was their pop up behind the State Theatre. It was wildly successful.  Malaysia Kitchen is about promoting Malaysian food around the world: London, New York, Canada, New Zealand and now Sydney, Australia.  The concept is simple, great food served up by the best local Malaysian restaurants.

Today, this experience comes to Parramatta in Sydney’s west and the local restaurants participating and the dishes offered are:

Oriental Tucker Box: Laksa
Ma’Leisia Cafe: Nasi lemak and ais kacang
Penang Cuisine: Lobak and roti canal with curry chicken
Temasek: Otak otak, chicken satay with tumeric rice
Albee’s Kitchen: Malaysian satay, pulut panggang
Jackie M: Char kway teow
KampongBoy: Ayan bagus, beef rendang, teh ais limau

I devoured Temasek’s otak otak which is a fish cake wrapped and cooked in banana leaves and served with rice.  For me it was the prawn paste that made it flavoursome and delicious.  The prawn laksa from Oriental Tucker Box was milder than I’m used to, but the lemongrass gave the whole creamy, hearty dish a real lift.

Also on the program is a series of cooking demonstrations by leading Malaysian chefs:

  • Wanitha Tanasingam (first picture below)
  • Florence Tan (second picture below)
  • Adam Liaw
  • Alvin Quah

Wanitha TanasingamFlorence Tan

It’s a great initiative of Malaysia Kitchen to bring great Malaysian food to Sydney’s west as part of the 2011 Crave Sydney International Food Festival.  Noodlies Sydney food blog’s participation was courtesy of Malaysia Kitchen Insiders and Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence.

Here’s Wanitha Tanasingam whipping up the crowd during her cooking demonstration.  The delightful Wanitha playful introduces herself as the ‘love goddess’ and displays a certain fondness for double meanings “the size of the tool counts..” and “take a firm grip”, were two that come to mind.  I love it!  Watch an excerpt of her cooking demonstration below with Wanitha and  Cr Lorraine Wearne, Mayor of Parramatta and Sara from Belly Rumbles food blog.

And here’s Florence Tan weaving her magic and entralling the crowd.

Finally, here’s an interview noodlies food blog recorded with Alvin Quah at the 2011 Campsie Food Festival.