EatAlley brings the best of Malaysia’s favourite hawker stalls to Melbourne.
Quincy Malesovas
Some of Malaysia’s best food comes from hawker stalls, where vendors dedicate themselves to a single dish refined over decades. Kher Chink Pang (PappaRich, NeNe Chicken)’s new venture in Melbourne’s QV precinct brings 10 of the country’s best hawker stalls to Melbourne, including noodle stall Kedai Koon Kee and pork broth specialists Klang Siong Huat. Some date back to 1945.
Khiang Pin kopitiam, run by Pang’s grandfather until closing in 2023, has also been revived in Melbourne with Hainanese-style kopi (coffee), where coffee beans are roasted in a claypot with margarine, butter and sugar, but topped with a thick head of salted cream for a modern twist. Hainan butter toast has also been adapted, made from Japanese milk bread filled with a slab of butter and finished with a crackly sweet crust like Japan’s pineapple buns.
Other stalls are remaining faithful to beloved Malaysian dishes such as bak kut teh, a herbal pork soup. It comes in a claypot with optional add-ons like shallot rice, boiled lettuce and Chinese doughnuts for dipping.
Kuala Lumpur-style hokkien mee from Hong Lai, a vendor that’s been operating since the 1970s, is made with thick noodles braised in dark soy sauce then finished in the wok for added depth and texture. Both the Hainanese chicken rice from BM and sunset-orange curry laksa from Petaling Street Curry Mee come from hawker stalls that have since closed in Malaysia, but whose recipes were passed on by family or former staff.
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