“Malaysian food, it’s not like anything really.” That’s how Juliet Moo, a co-owner of Chinatown’s newest restaurant, Kaya, puts it to me when we sit down for a chat after dinner.
Having just worked my way through piles of fiery curried Laksa noodles, buttery jam toast, tea, eggs, fragrant rice, cucumber, and fried chicken, I want to know more.
The special thing about Malaysian food, she says, is how it takes influence from the country’s three main ethnic groups – Malay, Chinese and Indian.
“Because Malaysia is a multi racial country,” she explains, “our cuisines are unique in the sense that it’s like a combo of all these different cultures and ethnicities coming together and sharing flavours.”
Heat, I have already learnt, is a must. Even the national dish Nasi Lemak – a mellow sort of Malaysian ‘picky tea’ with coconut milk aromatic rice, cucumber slices, boiled egg, fried chicken, peanuts and salty morsels of dried anchovy – has a chilli-based sambal on hand to spice things up.
Curried laksa noodlees with chicken, prawn and tofu at Kaya in Chinatown. / Image: The Manc Eats
Toast with Kaya pandan jam at Manchester’s new Malaysian restaurant. / Image: The Manc Eats
Kaya hasn’t yet been open a month, but Juliet says they have been ‘overwhelmed’ with the response to the new opening – admitting that they weren’t quite prepared for the number of people they would get coming through their doors.
Most of the flavours here are big and aromatic, with dishes using a lot of lemongrass and galangal, turmeric and other spices.
That said, there is also a surprising amount of toast on the menu served with homemade Kaya jam and thick chunks of butter that could’ve well been laid on with a trowel.
Eggs come two ways – half-boiled with a little soy and pepper with strips for dipping, or hard-boiled and halved – whilst noodle and rice dishes comprise the bulk of the mains.
It is, as Juliet has already explained, a real mishmash of flavours. But it totally works, with Kaya already drawing in the crowds.
“It was quite overwhelming to be honest, in the beginning, because we were not expecting this turnout,” she reveals.
“I guess a lot of people are obviously curious as to what Malaysian food is, so we had a lot of people coming in just to try, but we also had a lot of Malaysian coming in, just to, you know, because they feel like ‘oh cool, I can come here and eat the food from home.'”
Fiery laksa noodles at Kaya in Manchester. / Image: The Manc Eats
Kaya can be found on Faulker Street in Manchester’s Chinatown. Image: The Manc Eats
She also says they’ve already found it to be a balancing act with spice tolerance levels. Simply put, some English customers – myself included on this occasion – can’t always handle it.
I don’t know if I was having a bad day, because I’m usually into it when my lips start to tingle and my mouth feels like it’s on fire, but on this particular afternoon, I confess to finding the spicy curry laksa noodles a bit of a challenge.
Juliet laughs and tells me their Asian customers say the opposite – that it should be hotter. It doesn’t do my ego any good, but I suppose I’m not that surprised.
Her goal, she adds, is to make Kaya “as authentic as it can be, but at the same time introduce this type of food to locals.”
“I’m trying to find a balance, it’s been quite overwhelming, but it’s exciting to try new things, see people eat the food and we’re always improving, definitely, we want to make things better.”
Eggs are served as a starter half-boiled then mixed with soy sauce and black pepper with toast strips for dipping. / Image: The Manc Eats
A plate of chicken satay skewers with a chunky peanut dip, diced cucumber and red onion at Kaya. / Image: The Manc Eats
Whilst Malaysian cuisine has exploded in London, here in Manchester we’ve been slower to catch on – at least in the city centre.
For Juliet and her family, though, the lack of competition in town is a plus. They had previously tried opening a different style of restaurant a few years back, she tells me, that was a franchise and on a “very different scale altogether.”
By comparison, Kaya – she adds – is “very small, but it’s a nice size to start.”
“My brother, Nicholas, my older brother. He’s been in Manchester for I think about thirteen years. So we’re all from Malaysia, so we’re all born and raised there, so he came here for school and he stayed on,” she says.
“So the fact that there’s not much Malaysian food in the city itself made us feel like there could be a chance, so we just went for it.”
It certainly makes a very welcome addition to Manchester city centre.
Whether you’re already a diehard fan of Malaysian food, or you’re curious to experience something new, take it from me: Kaya is well worth a visit.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
Prestwich wine bar Chin Chin now serves roast dinner sandwiches
Daisy Jackson
A new (ish) wine bar in Prestwich has launched one of the city’s coolest Sunday offerings – roast dinner sandwiches, with a side of jazz.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times – Elnecot is up there as one of Manchester’s best Sunday roasts, with Yorkshire puddings you could fit a jug of gravy inside, blushing slices of roast beef, and generous portions that put you in the sort of food coma you should be in on a Sunday afternoon.
So when Roast Master (okay fine, his official job title is chef/owner) Michael Clay said that his sister venue Chin Chin was launching a Sunday offering, I was there with my nose pressed up at the window. I’m ready, Michael.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin, right in the heart of Prestwich village, brings that incredible roast beef and roast potatoes into a more casual format.
You can tuck into roast meat butties, roast potatoes loaded with cheese and gravy, and ice cream sundaes, all while perusing a well-thought-out wine list that’s written up by hand every time new bottles come in.
Oh, and did we mention there are £4 pints all day on Sunday – and that includes Guinness?
On the side of just about everything on the menu, you’re presented with a little bowl of extra gravy (how delightfully Northern) for dipping and dunking.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in PrestwichRoast beef sandwiches at Chin ChinLancashire cheese toastiesThe BifanaLoaded roastiesWine and vinyl recordsInside Chin Chin wine barThe wine list at Chin Chin
Our top pick would be the roast beef sandwich, served between ciabatta rolls and laced with mustard mayo and caramelised onions.
But the cheese toastie is worth a visit too – a hefty helping of Lancashire cheese and charred spring onions, with a ‘secret sauce’ on the side.
Coming soon will be a new menu item, a Bifana sandwich. If you’ve trudged the streets of Portugal you’ll have come across these – thin slices of pork marinated in white wine and garlic, piled into bread with a punchy mustard. Chin Chin’s are excellent.
And for afters, because there is always room for dessert, it’s a lovely ice cream sundae topped with miso caramel and a showering of pistachios.
The whole time you’ll be eating with a soundtrack of jazz, played through the wine bar’s vinyl record system and Michael’s own personal collection of vinyls.
Chin Chin is open now on Bury New Road, with food on Sundays served between 12pm and 6pm.
Drinking around the ‘Beermuda Triangle’ of brewery taprooms in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
If you’re looking for the best pints in Manchester, turn your ass around at the door of the pub and head to the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, a corner of the city centre where taprooms are king.
Our city has a great rep for craft beer and microbreweries, and a lot of these are concentrated in one brilliant, unexpected stretch of industrial estate.
Head beyond Manchester Piccadilly and you’ll find yourself in an area nicknamed the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, where tucked among tool shops and warehouses are breweries welcoming in thirsty punters.
These are places where you can sip on the freshest lagers, ales and sours, straight from the source.
As you kick back in one of these taprooms, you can see the brewers hard at work on their next creation, and see beers being canned before your eyes.
There are, of course, plenty of other taprooms and brewery-operated bars all over Greater Manchester, but if you want to minimise your step count and maximise your drinking time, this is where to head.
So we’ve gone out exploring the current residents on the Beermuda Triangle (I know, tough job) to give you the low-down for your next pub crawl.
All the taprooms on Manchester’s Beermuda Triangle
Cloudwater
When you think of craft beer, you probably think of these guys.
Since being founded in 2014, Cloudwater has gone on huge things and is now listed among the largest craft beer brands in the UK.
They’ve got their own pub (The Sadler’s Cat), a taproom down in London, and a huge brewery next-door to their taproom on the Piccadilly Trading Estate.
In here, it’s a stripped-back, Scandi-style interior upstairs, with a few extra tables squeezed in amongst oak barrels downstairs, plus a decent suntrap terrace out the front.
Our order? A pint of Fuzzy pale ale.
Track
Track TaproomTrack Taproom
Another big player in the craft beer game, Track’s taproom is comfortably one of Manchester’s coolest bars.
It’s a huge space, split between the actual brewery and the taproom, where beers are displayed on a rainbow-hued menu board and their own merch lines the walls.
With loads of plants, a leafy little beer garden, and a small kitchen that’s home to Slice Culture pizzeria, this one is the least rough-and-ready of all the taprooms on the Beermuda Triangle.
The most logical order here has, and will always be, Sonoma, they’re easy-drinking session pale ale available on both cask and keg – but there are always tonnes of other beers beyond their core range that are worth your attention.
Sureshot
Sureshot proves that you can take the art of brewing seriously but still have a laugh, with silly beer names and a giant bear mascot manically grinning at you as you sip your beer.
What’ll it be – a pint of ‘Wait… What?’, a schooner of ‘Small Man’s Wetsuit’, or a third of ‘Be Polite and Comb Your Hair?’.
They’re known for their hop-forward styles but are always dreaming up new creations and collaborations, like a recent sour with Bundobust, and collaboration with inclusive football club Manchester Lacesm with a donation of each ‘I Thought She Was A Pisces’ sold going to the club.
This one’s off the Piccadilly Trading Estate and is under the railway arches, handily with Nell’s next door who will deliver you a pizza while you’re on your taproom crawl.
Balance Brewing & Blending
The final stop on the Beermuda triangle is Balance, who specialise in barrel-fermented sours.
The taproom itself is a real looker, with fairy lights festooned overhead, a deep burgundy bar, and persian rugs thrown all over the concrete floors.
The beers here are all funky and punchy and well worth ordering a few testers of before you make your final decision.
Whatever you order, it’s going to have good British roots and a beautiful flavour.
Georgina Pellant -
6th July 2023 
