Café Malacca’s Mrs Poon keeps the tastes of Malaysia and Singapore real

When you ask any Malaysian or Singaporean living in Hong Kong where their go-to restaurant in Hong Kong is when they crave nasi lamek, laksa, rendang and other dishes from their homeland, more often than not they say Café Malacca.

Café Malacca’s menu is filled with Singaporean and Malaysian favourites, such as Penang char koay teow, a stir-fried flat rice noodle dish with prawns, Chinese sausage, chives and bean sprouts, and mee goreng, spicy Indian-style fried yellow noodles with prawns, potatoes, bean curd topped with lettuce and crispy fried shallots with a wedge of lime.

Hotel Jen’s Malaysian-Singaporean hawker-food restaurant is as authentic as it gets in Hong Kong, and culinary director Poon Toh Suan Ee - or “Mrs Poon” to her regulars - has a lot to do with that.

“I took the chefs over to Malaysia and Singapore one or two at a time every few months, when the restaurant first opened, to teach and show them how the food should taste and how it should be plated,” Poon, who was born and raised in Penang, says.

“I made the chefs eat at as many stalls as possible, taking pictures to see what the dishes looked like and then, when we came back, I would give them the recipe and we would work on it until we achieved the authentic tastes of the dishes.”

Poon’s background as a microbiologist and biochemist has made her a perfectionist in the kitchen. “From the bowls to the food itself, we make it as close [as possible] to what you would experience in Malaysia,” she says.