Unable to satisfactorily find a publisher for her first cookbook, Dayana Wong founded her own publishing house, Bulan Press, and recently launched “Penang Makan: Heritage Street Food Recipes”.
Wong, who was born and raised in the northern state notable for its rich heritage and culinary delights, loves collecting cookbooks. It is apparent her debut publication is a labour of passion.
Here, she shares more about her affinity for Malaysian food, fond memories of family, and what inspired her to cook up a cookbook.
SET THE TABLES: How did you end up doing what you do now?
It took the gruelling environment of investment banking to make me realise what I wanted to do was make books. And cookbook writing also grew organically out of my love for eating!
What inspired you to launch your first cookbook?
It all began when I was in London doing my masters degree. I missed home terribly, and that meant missing the food – specifically Penang food and my own mum’s cooking.
She would smuggle a tub of beef rendang when she came to visit me, or sometimes send me care packages with long-shelf foods such as serunding, kaya, muruku and other snacks. These were really “precious cargo” for me.
One of the many things my parents instilled in me was a love for reading, and I’m an avid cookbook reader. The cookbooks I had at the time were mostly on western recipes, as Southeast Asian culinary books weren’t as abundant then as they are now. I had to call my mum each time I wanted to make something!
So the primary motivation behind my learning to cook was to eat. And that’s when I thought, why not create a cookbook on the dishes I grew up with?
And what were some of these dishes?
Mainly Malay- and Chinese-style home cooking. At my maternal grandmother’s house, we had traditional masakan Melayu such as masak lemak pucuk ubi, pajeri nenas, ketam masak lemak, ikan keli goreng – and always a kari daging, ayam or ikan as my grandfather loved curry!
Two of my fondest memories of food and family are having cucur udang, made by my maternal grandmother and sharing it with my grandfather for afternoon tea after he was done exercising in his garden. He would always pick out the prawns and give them to me.
The second memory is of my maternal grandfather’s sister, my great aunt, who made the best karipap sardin in the whole world. We would go over whenever she had bulk orders for these tasty treats, and I would help her to scoop the sardine stuffing into the pastry she made from scratch.
We would all congregate on the floor of her outdoor kitchen and make an assembly line, and I would always want to do the scooping because I would be able to sneak a couple of mouthfuls of the sardine. These are memories that always put a smile on my face.
Our family also enjoyed our fair share of street food, or “outside food”, as we called them. I truly believe Malaysian cuisine has much to offer the world, especially in showcasing our unique and diverse culture through food.
‘Penang Makan: Heritage Street Food Recipes’ is priced at RM120 and available via Bulan Press. It is also sold at Kinokuniya KLCC, MPH bookstores, independent book shops across Penang, and Lit Books in the Klang Valley. All recipes are halal.
This article was written by Theri Burhan for Set the Tables. Set the Tables is positioned to inspire and educate those in the industry as well as the aspiring reader who dreams of a future in the food business, and maybe even the merely curious tantalised by the vast and irresistible universe of food and drink. Follow them on Instagram.