London-based F&B entrepreneur Mandy Yin also reveals her tips and tricks for nailing quintessential Malaysian dishes, including roti canai
Mandy Yin is the chef-owner of beloved Malaysian restaurant, Sambal Shiok Laksa Bar on Holloway Road, London. Like most Malaysians, she grew up on a diet of hot noodle soups and fragrant rice dishes. "I have so many happy memories of eating laksa everyday at the school canteen and going to hawker centres near my house," she recalls with fondness during our video interview. So when she moved to the UK with her family at age 11, it was quite a culture shock that school dinners consisted of beans on toast, sandwiches and pizzas.
See also: 10 Places in London for the Best Malaysian Food
"It was very strange at first but my mother was a housewife until my mid-teens. She was an excellent cook and I got to eat home-cooked meals until I went off to university," she says. Her undergraduate years were spent studying hard for law exams but she always took the time to cook herself a filling meal, whether it was a simple curry or stir-fry. "I was by no means an expert cook at the time. But I picked up a reasonable amount watching my mother over the years."
In fact, it was around her early 30s when she began to pay more attention to food. "I was practising law and working silly hours in corporate London. I burned out and took three months off to recover and reassess what I was doing with my life," she explains. Yin found herself back in her mother's kitchen but this time, determined to learn how to cook all the things she ate growing up.
"I'm sure you know how Malaysians are all about agak-agak cooking," she laughs. "So when she would pour or sprinkle something into the pot, I would physically stop her hand to figure out the measurements!"
From there, Yin's passion for Malaysian food and her journey as an F&B entrepreneur grew. In 2013, she ventured into London's growing street food scene, introducing Londoners to her chicken satay burger. "People really enjoyed it, especially the sambal. They were always asking for laksa but it was hard to do that as street food because there's so much liquid involved. That's when I began the laksa bar as a pop-up concept, where we would set up in different establishments all around the city," she says.
The experience in these restaurants proved to be formative and slowly gave Yin the confidence to transition from street food to restaurant. In 2018, she opened her flagship store in Highbury and has built a loyal fanbase for her signature laksa dish and crispy fried chicken with peanut sauce. This year, she is taking the Sambal Shiok brand to new level by publishing a cookbook of the same name with over 90 recipes to classic Malaysian dishes.
We sit down with Yin to talk about her F&B journey and her upcoming cookbook, Sambal Shiok: The Malaysian Cookbook.
See also: 12 Instagram Accounts For The Best Asian Vegan Food Recipes