Mandy Yin on Celebrating Malaysian Food and the Realities of Running a Restaurant
Words by Christina Dean
Mandy Yin wears many hats – chef, food writer, restaurant owner, TV cook – but the thread that connects them all is her passion for Malaysian food
She’s been spreading the word – and the spice – since she stamped her mark on London’s street food scene with a chicken satay burger a decade ago. Getting into the food business was a drastic change from corporate law, but then she’s made big moves before, leaving Kuala Lumpur for London at age 11.
The career switch has certainly paid off; after a series of sell-out pop-ups she opened her Holloway restaurant Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar in 2018, introducing scores more Londoners to Malaysian flavours by serving up one of the finest laksas in the city. And now she’s taken on an ambassadorial role for celebrASIA, a new festival running at Battersea Power Station from 13th – 15th September that promises to bring South East Asia to south west London through street food vendors, live performances, markets, crafts workshop and more.
We caught up with Mandy ahead of celebrASIA to find out what we can expect from the festival – clue, it includes a fried chicken satay burger – how she rates the country’s Malaysian food scene and the realities of running an independent restaurant in 2024.
Can you talk a bit about your journey into food? You went from corporate law into food, was there a specific moment that made you make that transition or was it a gradual build?
Yes I was a lawyer for a decade or so, a corporate lawyer, so that involved extremely long hours. Long story short, I burnt out. Having grown up in Malaysia, food has always been my passion and I thought in that time when I had to take a bit of a pause, I needed to get into food because I felt that I had become like this empty vessel. So I started off in street food and from the ground up with no experience in commercial catering at all. I knew I could cook, I knew I loved food but that was a really nice synergy because obviously in South East Asia, street food and hawker food, that’s just how we eat naturally. So there was a natural relationship there and it made sense at that time for me to start there and learn the ropes.
Ten years ago the street food scene was massive, it was like a zeitgeist. I did my actual market research going around to all the street food markets in London and I realised the busiest stalls were always the burger stalls. I thought, ‘I can make a Malaysian burger’ and so that’s what I did. I came out with my chicken satay burger, which to my knowledge was the first time I’d seen it, it was unique to me. Over time my customers at the street food markets would say, ‘can you please open a restaurant? We want to come eat your food when it’s not raining and it’s not cold’. They also wanted me to serve laksa and that’s when I launched the laksa bar as a pop-up restaurant around London for a couple of years before finally opening in Highbury in 2018, six years ago as Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar.
You cooked the satay burger on Saturday Kitchen recently to mark a decade in the food industry, but you’ve also said it won’t be on the restaurant menu, is there a reason for that?
Do you know what, Matt didn’t give me a chance to explain! Obviously there’s such little time on the segment. I did have it on my menu actually for a good few months, on the brunch menu, but people just weren’t interested, they still came for the laksa. So you know, it’s difficult. I don’t know if you’ve been to the restaurant but it’s very small and we couldn’t afford to waste the chicken mix and the other ingredients so we just called it a day on that. I’m really happy to be able to bring it back in a slightly different form and actually the peanut sauce that goes with the satay burger, that’s still with me at the restaurant, I serve it with the Malaysian fried chicken. It’s just a very natural marriage with Chick ‘n’ Sours’ amazing fried chicken sandwiches, so I’m very happy to be able to do that with them. I’ve known David for ten years because we came up together, we used to be at Street Feast and all over the place together, so it’s really nice to be able to come back to my roots a bit.
And it’s nice to see so many people that used to be at Street Feast, like Bleecker and Smokestak, have such popular restaurants and see how successful those platforms have been for people.
Yes, it was just like a launchpad and as you say quite a few of us have gone on to do really good things from that. Not throwing shade to anyone that’s still now in the street food scene and is still there but I’m happy to see relative newcomers on the list for celebrASIA and I’m really excited to try what they’re doing.
Being in the industry for a decade now, what would you say have been the biggest learnings or takeaways you’ve had in that time? Or what have been some of the biggest surprises about being in the food industry and running a restaurant?
When I first started, the reason I did it was there was like no Malaysian food in London. I could count on a hand how many eateries there were. It’s been such a pleasure to see it grow in London. Roti King, it’s a massive conglomerate now and good for him. I’ve been eating his food for nearly thirty years since arriving in this country so hats off to him. Of course there are people like Eat Lah, Abby Lee from Mambow, Julie Lin in Glasgow, and Ping Coombes from MasterChef, so there’s a few of us continuing to fly the flag for Malaysian food. But actually when I first started my business, Sambal Shiok, sambal is a Malaysian chilli sauce and shiok is Malaysian slang for delicious. I chose that name as a secret marker to Malaysians because we would know what that slang means and I thought Malaysians might be my audience but they’re not! It’s Londoners and locals.
For example with the chicken satay burger when I first started, the sambal was not there as a default because I thought maybe people didn’t want it. But they absolutely loved it and that’s been so gratifying for me to know that I don’t have to hold back on my chillies. I love chillies! I don’t de-seed them, otherwise what is the point of using a chilli? People wanted more sambal, extra sambal, and it’s stood me in good stead all these years. The laska that I’m known for now, it’s my unique laksa paste, we make it in-house ourselves and it is spicy. When I say spicy, it’s spicy spicy. But at the same time we’ve been able to tailor it to give people a mild version or a medium, so I’m pleased to be able to offer full-on Malaysian flavour but if you want it tailored that’s also fine.
You’re making Malaysian food as you would like it, I assume that’s how it would be done in Malaysia, if it’s spicy it’s going to be hot, it’s going to have chillies in it. How do you feel about food being “authentic”?
I hate that word. A few years ago I did a video diatribe against that word. What I would say, my food is authentic to me. For example, the chicken satay burger, you wouldn’t find that in Malaysia because in Malaysia you find actual satay. There’s great weather all the time, you can have these massive troughs of charcoal anywhere and do satay, you can’t do that here. Cuisine to me is like this constantly evolving beast, in the best possible way. Even my laksa is not something you’d traditionally find in Malaysia because it’s already a cross between KL milder curry laksa and Penang really spicy, sour Assam laksa, and it’s based on a version I’ve had in my dad’s hometown Malacca. Malaysian food is already in itself so vast, so varied and it draws from so many influences, the indigenous Malay tribal people, Chinese like myself, Indians, so of course it’s gonna change a tiny bit. And now I’m here and my whole mission in life is to introduce as many people to Malaysian food as possible and showcase it. If that means using more accessible ingredients I’m gonna do that because I just want to demystify Malaysian food. If you love curries, stir-fries, braises and spices, Malaysian food is for you.
Each cuisine is different but do you think that’s part of the reason why Malaysian food isn’t as mainstream as Chinese or Indian food? Because people are unaware of the ingredients?
Yeah that’s right and it is such a melting pot, it’s like, ‘is it Chinese? Is it Indian?’ It’s all of those things and more. That’s my life goal, that’s my mission, constant education, shouting about ‘yes it’s similar to Thai, it’s similar to Chinese but it’s also it’s own thing’.
You mentioned some people before like Abby Lee and Eat Lah, do you think Malaysian food has evolved since you started cooking professionally? There are more Malaysian restaurants but is there still a way to go to making it more well known?
Absolutely and I hope I have helped to pave the way for others and we are stronger together. The more of us showcasing the food the better. I love what Abby and Rob and Mel at Eat Lah are doing, we each bring different things to the scene. And like I said, Malaysian food is so vast anyway, the more the merrier.
You’ve written articles before and been quite open about the challenges of running a small independent restaurant. Do you think people are starting to grasp a bit more why things cost what they cost or have you still got to bang on that door?
No! Once a week I’ll read an end-of-day report and it’ll say, this customer complained and said ‘why is the noodle soup costing £20?’. It’s really frustrating. It’s a constant education process. We don’t buy in any of our sauces or laksa pastes, we make it all ourselves, so we have to explain when you go out to eat in the UK, you’re paying for the labour. That’s the main thing people disconnect from, they think it’s somehow free and it’s not. I’ve always been a card-only establishment because I’ve been transparent, I pay my taxes, I always pass service charge on directly to my staff, that’s just how I want to run my business.
Obviously it’s still early days in terms of the new government but do you see any signs that there might be improvement for hospitality to make it a bit easier to operate?
I’ve seen whispers that the government will help to reduce business rates a bit but honestly that’s just a drop in the ocean. I have mentioned a reduced VAT rate for hospitality but again that’s just not gonna happen because there’s no money, especially after Covid. We’re in such a massive deficit so I do understand and that’s again why I have to charge what I charge otherwise I go bust. The margins pre-Covid, if you were good, were 15% – 20%, now if you’re lucky it’s like 5%. Especially this summer it’s been really challenging because of all the sporting events, we’ve lost money this summer. You’re managing cashflow to make sure that I can pay everyone, but touch wood match days are back. We’ll go into the autumn and winter with no roadworks because we had three months of roadworks right outside our shop. I keep banging on about it and actually I’ve just engaged a videographer to work with us to create a series of reels to document the full processes. For something simple like our soft-boiled eggs, we do charge £3.50 for that and people are like ‘why doesn’t it automatically come with the laksa?’. Because there’s so much that goes into the laksa itself, and a soft-boiled egg, ok per egg it costs like 50p but it’s the labour of boiling the egg, peeling the egg, cutting the egg, and the wastage from the bad ones that don’t make the cut.
Also some people don’t want the egg! I don’t like having egg on my ramen sometimes so I don’t want someone to put the egg there and then the egg goes in the bin.
Right! Again we cannot waste anything. You understand but so many don’t. But we focus on the people who love us and keep coming back and we’re grateful for that.
Can you talk a little bit about why you wanted to become an ambassador for celebrASIA and what people can expect from the festival?
I was just incredibly honoured to be an ambassador for this incredible event. To my knowledge it’s never been done before on this scale. I don’t know if you’ve been down to Battersea Power Station, it’s so impressive. The two years since it launched as this amazing riverside hub I’ve admired it from afar. So to be able to come to it as an ambassador for this new celebrASIA festival, because I’m obviously very proud of my heritage, being in the diaspora and representing Malaysian and South East Asian culture, I’m just very excited to be part of it. celebrASIA is so all encompassing and it’s been put together by Battersea Power Station in collaboration with the ten missions of ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations. Big thought has gone into it and a lot of effort so I really can’t wait to see it all come together.
And are you going to be cooking there, doing demos? What are you going to be doing on the days?
In my ambassadorial role, I just get to enjoy it and showcase it. I’m really excited because in the cost of living crisis, those of us in the diaspora can’t afford to go back home as often as we can, so this is a chance for us to be transported back to South East Asia. Also for locals who’ve not been to the region, it’s gonna be really immersive. There’s going to be loads of decorations like elephant sculptures, lantern displays under Grosvenor Bridge, tuk-tuks, installations within the Turbine Halls, lots of activities, traditional dances, DJs, orchestras, arts and crafts like batik, people can learn how to make pewter dishes, an artisan market, just so many things for the family. There’s going to be a grand tour for kids with quizzes and souvenir passports, face painting, lantern making for the mooncake festival. Yeah three days of joy and colour and vibrancy at Battersea Power Station. I think it’s going to be the start of something really iconic and hopefully it’ll be repeated every year. I’m not cooking myself but I am doing a collab burger with Chick ‘n’ Sours that will be on offer, the fried chicken satay burger, and they’re also doing a collab with The Rangoon Sisters, some Burmese garlic tamarind chicken wings. It goes without saying, I’m very excited to try all the street food that will be on offer that weekend.
You’re writing a second book, how’s that going?
Yes cookbook number two, touch wood I should be submitting my manuscript within a week. It will be coming out in about a year’s time and it’s again showcasing Malaysian food but more home cooking and how we like to eat at home. Still using chillies, coconut milk, tamarind, shrimp paste but making more use of store cupboard essentials that you can find in most Western supermarkets nowadays, like soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil. I want to make sure that people understand Malaysian food can be unfussy, very easy, very quick, very simple because that’s how I have to cook now, having a three year old, juggling work and home. It just has to be ‘how do you get a really tasty meal on the table in as little time and fuss as possible’.
celebrASIA is taking place at Battersea Power Station across Fri 13th – Sun 15th September