Some of Malaysia’s best food comes from hawker stalls, where vendors dedicate themselves to a single dish refined over decades. Often family-run and hyper-specialised, they’re nearly impossible to replicate outside the country – and much-missed by Malaysians living abroad.

“There are all these comfort foods that Malaysians [seek out] that are not popular in Australia,” says Kher Chink Pang, who handles operations for fast-casual restaurants including PappaRich and NeNe Chicken. “This is why we go back to Malaysia.”

With his latest venture, EatAlley, in Melbourne’s QV precinct, he’s bringing 10 of the country’s best hawker stalls to Melbourne, including noodle stall Kedai Koon Kee and pork broth specialists Klang Siong Huat. Some date back to 1945.

“Every single one here is an actual store in Malaysia,” Pang says. “Some of them are in their third generation.”

That includes Khiang Pin kopitiam, run by Pang’s grandfather until closing in 2023 and now revived in Melbourne with Hainanese-style kopi (coffee) and toast inspired by the original menu.

Coffee beans are roasted in a claypot with margarine, butter and sugar, just like Pang’s grandfather used to, but a modern drink layers the sweet milk coffee with a thick head of salted cream.

Hainan butter toast has also been adapted, made from Japanese milk bread filled with a slab of butter and finished with a crackly sweet crust like Japan’s pineapple buns.

Other stalls are remaining faithful to beloved Malaysian dishes such as bak kut teh, a herbal pork soup. It comes in a claypot with optional add-ons like shallot rice, boiled lettuce and Chinese doughnuts for dipping.

Kuala Lumpur-style hokkien mee from Hong Lai, a vendor that’s been operating since the 1970s, is made with thick noodles braised in dark soy sauce then finished in the wok for added depth and texture.

Both the Hainanese chicken rice from BM and sunset-orange curry laksa from Petaling Street Curry Mee come from hawker stalls that have since closed in Malaysia, but whose recipes were passed on by family or former staff.

Translating these legacy recipes for a Melbourne kitchen took time. “It’s not easy to replicate what the hawkers have been doing for the last 60, 80 years,” says Pang.

Sourcing was also a challenge – ingredients like egg noodles are imported directly from Malaysia – and so was adjusting for differences in climate and taste preferences.

“When someone knows the taste so well and you try to cook the same dish in a different location, there’s a very high expectation,” says Pang.

Among the roster of dishes deeply familiar to Malaysian diners, there are also items more common to Australian menus such as nasi lemak with fried chicken, wonton noodle soup, and a small line-up of dim sum.

The concept was inspired by a friend’s hawker-style food court in Singapore, but Pang opted to make a single dining space within the old PappaRich site, where guests order via QR code and receive dishes from different vendors at the same table.

Lunch and dinner daily

Shop 11, Level 2, QV Square, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne instagram.com/eatalley.qv