And across the seas, there are many Malaysians working hard to introduce our country’s beloved cuisine to foreign appetites.

FMT Lifestyle speaks with three local restaurateurs who are cooking up a Malaysian storm in places far from home.

Malacca Straits on Broadway, Sydney

Malacca Straits on Broadway has been operating in Sydney for over a decade, even though its founder, 79-year-old Tan Fom Sau, has worked as a chef since the 1960s.

Fun fact: he was Malaysian Airlines’ first chief cook in 1972!

Tan and his family moved to Australia after he was offered work in a restaurant there. In 2009, he took over a friend’s struggling restaurant, introducing Hainanese kopitiam food such as chicken rice and laksa to Sydneysiders.

“They were draw cards for those wanting to experience the authentic taste of Malaysia that’s not diluted or compromised to suit local Australian tastes,” he said.

These days, many Malaysian herbs and spices like pandan and chilli grow in Australia. “But back in the 1960s, before Australia opened its doors to migrants from Asia, it was well-nigh impossible to get ingredients to make dishes similar to Malaysia.”

According to him, to make laksa back then, chefs would use cow’s milk instead of santan!

As there are now many Malaysian restaurants in major Australian cities, locals are well acquainted with the cuisine. “While that means more competition for us, we are proud to be the one of the OG Malaysian restaurants in Sydney,” Tan said.

As for his Merdeka wishes, he hopes Malaysians will remember the sacrifices it took to bring the country to where it is now. “It is also an opportunity to reflect on how far we, despite all of our differences, have travelled and achieved.”

Bungkus, Toronto

Having been brought over to Toronto by his mother in 1993, Karthy Subramaniam is introducing Malaysian food to Canadians from his pop-up stall.

The 34-year-old now runs his Malaysian food business Bungkus with her, sharing her recipes with customers in the Ontario capital.

“For the 30 years I’ve lived here, I’ve rarely had many Malaysian options to choose from,” Karthy told FMT Lifestyle.

The stall, which opened last year, serves authentic street food like curry puffs and char kuey teow, giving Malaysian expats a taste of home.

Karthy pointed out that while ingredients are available, they’re often expensive and frozen. Nevertheless, once-limited items such as lemongrass and curry paste are more accessible nowadays.

“If anything, the difficulty comes in selecting what menu items we’ll provide since there are so many different types of Malaysian food,” he added.

Cooking local cuisine has allowed Karthy to reconnect with his roots after being away for so long. And he hopes that Malaysian food will one day be as popular as Thai or Vietnamese.

In fact, one Canadian customer had this to say after trying Karthy’s char kuey teow: “I’ll remember the taste of this for the rest of my life!”

As for Merdeka, Karthy said: “Let us continue to excel and break barriers. You are only limited to what you can do and your own willingness to try.”

Roti King, London

The Brits are no strangers to Asian food – in fact, Indian food is something of a staple in Great Britain!

Now Malaysian food is leaving its mark on local palates, thanks to the likes of Sugendran Gopal’s restaurant Roti King in the heart of London.

Born and raised in Buntong, Perak, Sugendran has been in the United Kingdom for nearly 16 years now, and has introduced roti canai to foodies in Euston and Battersea.

“I was close to the hospitality industry back in Ipoh as my family had a restaurant. I watched it grow as I grew up,” he shared with FMT Lifestyle.

“It was always my dream to take this to the UK. I had faith that Malaysian food could qualify as world-class, and that it would be something the British people would enjoy. So I moved here to achieve that dream.”

He acknowledged that while Malaysian restaurants are now plentiful in the UK, this wasn’t the case in the early 2000s.

Initially, Roti King wasn’t all that well received. “We were getting interest only from Malaysians or lovers of Malaysian food, but we weren’t reaching a new audience,” Sugendran recalled.

This changed when famed food critic Marina O’Loughlin visited Roti King in 2014 and wrote positively about her experience.

Almost overnight, Roti King was swamped with hungry Brits and its treats became the talk of London.

“I feel immensely proud that I have the opportunity to give Malaysian food to the world. It is a truly special thing,” Sugendran concluded.