Hawker-style food, filled with flavour
Pan-Asian delights influence the menu
The owners of Potluck Hawker Eatery and their wives are a pan-Asian collective.
Chef/co-owner Justin Cheung was born here, but his roots are Malaysian. His wife’s family is from the Philippines.
His sous chef and partner Dominic Sai is from Myanmar and grew up in Singapore, and his wife is from South Korea.
They all influence the menu at Potluck, and the chefs don’t hesitate to bring in other Asian cuisines. Tofu pad Thai is already a mainstay and Hainanese chicken is coming soon, although the pandemic has slowed menu development.
Cheung was previously the chef at Longtail Kitchen at New Westminster Quay, creating casual Thai dishes.
I was a big fan. He ran it for Angus An and had spent six months cooking at Maenam, An’s fine Thai restaurant as well. Sai worked at Longtail under Cheung and the two became friends.
From its git-go in mid-July, Potluck has been hopping
with the demand for their elevated hawker-style food. With socially distanced tables, lineups and a small kitchen, they kept the menu to about a dozen items for quick turnovers. The emphasis is on hawker-style dishes, and Malaysian dishes dominate.
It’s part of Cheung’s history. “Eating together was a very important part of growing up for me,” he says.
Staff are diligent about social distancing and you will find hand sanitizers at each table. I was quite rightly told to step back when I got too close to a customer to look at the wall menu. You order at the counter behind a Plexiglass shield and a server delivers your order. The kitchen behind the counter is clamorous with wok action and I noticed bags and bags of takeout orders ready for pickup.
Alas, a couple of star dishes were sold out when I visited for an early dinner. (Diehards get there at the 3 p.m. opening.) First, the crispy pata, a Filipino pork hock dish. There are only eight to 10 portions a day and they go like greased lightning. “It’s crazy,” Cheung says. “There might be three groups lined up, and all three will order it.”
The hocks, from 200-pound pigs, are braised in an aromatic broth then dried overnight. They are then deepfried for a noisily crispy skin and served with sawsawan dip (vinegar, soy, chilies, shallots, garlic). Tip: You can reserve one by DM-ing on Instagram. It’s $26, and four or five people can share it with other dishes.
The other must-try dish is the salted egg-yolk fried chicken sandwich ($13).
Chicken thighs are dipped in a batter of fermented duck egg yolk, cornstarch and seasonings, then deep-fried. It’s big in Malaysia and Singapore.
Potluck Hawker serves it in a hollowed, grilled milk roll from Fife Bakery with chili jam, green mango slaw like a lobster roll, and a side of Malaysian shaker fries (with sugar, salt, galangal and rice powder, chili and fried curry leaves) completes it. Catch: It is only available from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. until they run out, after about 35 orders.
There is only one deep fryer, Cheung says, and it is in high demand for dinner service.
Alas, they had also run out of tofu pad Thai, but there was enough of interest on the menu for me to eat very well.
OK, so what did I eat? The roti canai ($7), flaky, crispy and light, was excellent.
Cheung’s got moves to “push the hot air out of it to keep it fluffy and crispy.” It is served with a caramelized onion curry dipping sauce.
There are many versions of laksa throughout Malaysia and Singapore and at Potluck Hawker, it’s Mama Cheung’s laksa ($15), similar to Cheung’s Longtail version. Prawns, fish cake, puffed tofu, egg and vermicelli and egg noodles inhabit a coconut curry broth.
“It’s a nostalgic take on what I grew up with,” Cheung says.
“The vermicelli gives texture and soaks up more sauce.”
I liked the lightness of this laksa with a hint of heat.
Char kway teow ($15), hawker-style fried flat rice noodles tossed with sambal, was inspired by an uncle who sells the same in Malaysia. The dollop of punchy house-made sambal flavoured with ingredients such as chili, ginger, garlic, shrimp paste and shallots is an umami bomb. The noodles are total comfort food with prawns, lap cheong sausage, fish cake and eggs.
Fried chicken wings ($13) are done with fish sauce caramel or with a Burmese mix of herbs, rice, dry chili and herbs. We tried the latter.
The chicken from Farmcrest in Salmon Arm (naturally raised) is a good product to begin with and I liked the crackly skin.
Seafood nasi goreng ($15), a dome of rice with clams and other seafood, is flavoured with sambal and topped with a fried egg (just let the yolk ooze) and some kerupuk (shrimp rice crackers). For beverages, there’s Tiger Beer and some sodas and Thai iced tea (tea, milk, sugar).
And if you are not comfortable in restaurants in these uncertain times, do a takeout.
Staff do check the lines and will take your number and call you when your table or takeout order is ready.