THE SPICE IS RIGHT

The Gold Coast’s first PappaRich has opened in Surfers, with the franchise set to teach us a thing or two about Malaysian food, writes Sally Coates

OFTEN you’ll see a Malaysian dish on an Asian menu, but it’s rare to find a whole restaurant dedicated to traditional Malaysian cuisine.

Nick Ong has opened his own branch of the popular franchise PappaRich at Chevron Renaissance to fill a gap in his soul – and stomach – that’s been unfilled since he moved away from his home country.

“This is basically a new industry for me as previously I was in the tourism industry,” he says.

“It’s a passion project. I was born in Kuala Lumpur and I love the food of Malaysia.

“It’s the thing I missed the most when I left. “I couldn’t find many things that really reminded me of home.

“When I discovered PappaRich I decided to save up some money and open my own.”

There was no dippy eggs or snack packs for Nick growing up.

“When I was a kid I always loved laksa. In Malaysia we even have it in the morning for breakfast – no bacon and eggs,” he says.

“Every time I go back I will have my laksa every morning when I wake up.

“Pretty much from the age of three or four we start eating normal adult food only and I was eating spicy food from about two and a half years old. We do love our spicy food.”

For Nick to be content with the PappaRich menu, after trying for so many years to find authentic Malay food, speaks volumes.

There are a few staples Gold Coast diners may not be familiar with, from something so simple as the hainan bread to the different types of roti – canai, telur and kaya – or the 22 different varieties of noodle curries.

Nick says, in addition to the laksa, there are a few other dishes that are really representative of Malaysian food. “Traditional Malaysian comprises of a lot of things,” he says.

“Satay is really famous and we do real satay here. It also comprises of things like rice noodle and Hainan curry rice.

“Everything is very full of flavour, the flavours are very strong and a lot of Malaysian food is quite spicy too.”

“Some dishes can be quite similar to Chinese, because our countries are so close together, but our food is a bit creamier, we use coconut cream in a lot of dishes. And often our food is stronger in flavour and spicier.”

Nick says even people from Malaysia won’t be put off by the fact that PappaRich is a franchise.

“Even though it is a franchise it is very authentic,” he says.

“They have set procedures and ingredients in place so everything is the same with PappaRich all across the country. The owners of PappaRich are Malaysian too. We are the 30th store in Australia and New Zealand.”

PappaRich, Chevron Renaissance, Surfers Paradise