#penang-malaysia

#penang-malaysia

"What we didn't expect was the response - customers were coming by, messaging us, and sharing stories about what the restaurant meant to them. It made us realize this wasn't just a place to eat - it had become part of people's routines and memories."

"I think Phnom Penh has become far more confident in its own voice. A few years ago, much of the retail and lifestyle scene felt either NGO-adjacent or heavily expat-driven. Now there's a noticeable shift toward Cambodian-led creative businesses that are designing for a more discerning local audience."

"It has a more modern cuisine, and it caters more to a Gen-Z Asian American crowd," said one college-age diner, who gave her name as Eris, during a recent weekend.

Hoi An's charm lies in its timeworn architecture and vibrant culture, with lantern-lit boats drifting along the Thu Bon River at night, creating a magical atmosphere.

Walking through the narrow bylanes of Mylapore neighbourhood at dusk is like watching a sepia-tinted postcard of Madras coming to life and gently reasserting itself over the Chennai of today. The 7th-century Kapaleeshwarar Temple, the fulcrum of commerce and culture, draws the devout into its timeless force field, and on nearby Pitchu Pillai Lane, a small crowd gathers around the Raghul Kuzhi Paniyaram street stall to buy kuzhi paniyarams: spongy orbs of pan-fried batter speckled with mustard seeds.

Mamak stalls in Malaysia are where everything comes together - after work, after football, where the night ends or carries on. When I look at Morley's in London, I see that same energy and sense of community, which makes this feel bigger than just a collaboration.

With over 20 years of experience in luxury hospitality across the globe, Chef Memo is set to elevate the hotel's storied culinary program, including the highly celebrated Bespoke Temple Dinner at the ancient Angkor archaeological park. Born in Costa Rica, Chef Memo brings a wealth of culinary expertise to Raffles, having honed his skills in diverse locations such as the Bahamas, Kosovo, Vietnam, Tanzania, Fiji, and Dubai.

A sprawling tale of two Singapores, the short documentary Sandcastles draws connections between Singapore, Michigan - a 19th-century ghost town swallowed by sand following widespread deforestation - and the island country of Singapore, where rapid development and land reclamation has, for decades, been enabled by the importation of sand. More poetic exploration than call to action, the work surveys waterways, cycles of development and the transient nature of sand - deceptively sturdy over short timescales but, over decades, quite volatile.

Stir-frying is all about wok hei, or wok's air' in English, which you can think of as the height of fire', or the level of heat. It's said that Chinese cooks have good wok hei if they have a true understanding of the heat of their wok and how to handle it in all situations, and a stir-fry's success is based on the quality of the cook's wok hei.

Med Salleh, which has has one Malaysian restaurant in Bayswater and two Vietnamese ones in Westbourne Grove and Earl's Court, has just added a fourth branch in Kentish Town. The newest site is Malaysian-focused, like the original, serving a menu of street food inspired by Med's upbringing in Malaysia, including dishes from his hometown of Kampar as well as flavours from Ipoh and Penang.

The paratha ($18), a beautifully single, hella-fluffed and towering round, sits on top of creamy dal where the sambal oil adds some nice heat. The abacus seeds ($24), where soft, earthy gnocchi made with taro are paired with smoky and chewy mushrooms, and amped up with chile and shaoxing wine. The rendang ($34) comes with pulled stewy spicy smoky oxtail (Kelang's Caribbean influence), rounded out with a delightful rice mixture of djon djon (a Haitian black mushroom rice) and nasi ulam (Malaysian herbed rice).

At most, Lim recalls, maybe one item - say, a curry puff - would nod toward the local food culture. Because afternoon tea at the big hotels was "fancy" and expensive, Lim says even locals wanted the food to be authentically British. Why would anyone pay so much to eat a Malaysian snack they could buy down the street for just a few ringgits?

We are now in Dungeness season, which is the perfect time try one (or two) of Damansara's crustaceans. I ordered a chili crab with rice today as a first-season crab to have for lunch over the next two days. I will also make a broth out of the shells to freeze for spicy crab broth on demand. Hello, future bowls of ramen! The thought of this is truly comforting already.

This is the time of year when my kitchen starts to tell the truth about who I am. Scottish crab, fresh from Tarbert, is lowered gently into a bubbling chilli bath of sambal and egg to become chilli crab, scooped up with steamed mantou buns and eaten messily with friends and family. Oysters from Lindisfarne are deep-fried in a light cloak of rice and corn flour, fished out of the wok with long chopsticks and dipped into sweet chilli sauce.

Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese Lunar New Year and Spring Festival, is one of the world's biggest holidays. The 15-day celebration is not only observed in China, Singapore, Malaysia, and other Asian countries but by 2 billion people worldwide. That said, there are other Asian countries with their own, distinct Lunar New Year traditions, and like China's, they've been around for thousands of years.

Ever since Noodle Inn on Old Compton Street went viral, it's had people queuing around the block for its hand-pulled biang biang noodles slapped down on the counter, and knife-cut noodles, cut off from blocks of dough straight into the pot. It became so popular that at the back end of 2025, a second site opened in the City, close to Liverpool Street station. And the team isn't losing any momentum as a third location is now on the way.

The cult-worthy French-Asian bakery already has branches on Mercer Street in Covent Garden and Duke Street in Marylebone, and will be launching on Shaftesbury Avenue this spring . The bakery combines Parisian patisserie flair with global flavours, stocking the likes of housemade shokupan (Japanese milk bread), sausage and cheese croissants with Japanese bbq sauce, tomato confit pain suisse and miso bacon escargot with spring onions and coriander.