Iconic Chef The BEST Malaysian Food @ Qually's Nusantara Kitchen Georgetown, Penang, Malaysia

The food we eat has the power to bring friends, families, and even complete strangers together. It introduces us to new cultures. It provides comfort and sustenance, feeding our souls as well as our bodies. Some people can take simple ingredients and weave them into complex stories through their food. We call these people iconic chefs and today we're meeting one in Penang, Malaysia. This is Ayu, the owner and chef at Quali's Nusantara Kitchen. In the three short years it's been open, she's gained quite a reputation here in Penang. She's fanatic about the freshness and quality of her food. Every morning I will hit the market, wet market, to get fresh proteins and fresh ingredients, so that I will be able to produce our customers with fresh ingredients. It's quite tough because every morning we don't miss. So if you come, you're coming and say, Sky, I'm coming immediately and I'm very sorry there's no stock in my fridge. I started this Quali's in 2019. I could say it was during the pandemic and I put a stop saying that I should try something in life. I started with home cooking, deliver food and coincidentally it was during the fasting month for Muslim and I took a chance to provide food to the homeless and also to the doctors that always, you know, the frontliners, I could say, that helps us a lot. People keep on asking me why I use a Q instead of K because even it's spelled in Bahasa, K-U-A-L-I, that is warm. And I use Q as a quality on my food and a journey of my and my dad, their love towards me. The operation hours for daily business, Monday till Saturday, it starts from 11 until 3, that is serving the nasi campur variety of dishes. But Ayu's day isn't over yet. Almost every night she caters dinners by pre-booked reservation only. She has a big group tonight and we were lucky enough to get a spot. She invited us along for her second market trip of the day to pick up fresh ingredients for the dinner shift. So he will mix and we will use it later on in the hour for you to try. Okay. So you want it spicy? Yes, please. Very spicy, huh? We've got this, this, this and let's go. For dinner, you may call me in advance, at least two days in advance to pre-booking and it's around eight packs that we will customize or I could say omakase style, Malay omakase. So you can call me and request whatsoever dishes that you want. Let's say you want fish, then I will explain to you and I will discuss with you what type of method of cooking would be nice for your dinner. I've got this and I've got this for you as well. Ah, is that lala? No, serup. Serup. There's one, two, three. So that you can suck. You know how to peel it? No. You know how to peel it? How hard can it be? You smash it upside the head, right? There is a way to peel it. We don't use this part but some of the restaurants, they kept it, this part. I don't really like it. That's like the guam, right? Yeah. And I'm going to do, we call it masak lemak. But this is my way. This is how I'm doing it. But as I said back to Negeri Sembilan, they have their own way doing it. And I'm putting this. Muni, look for belimbing in there. Have you tried this fruit? No. I... What is that? I can't remember. Is there a type of eggplant? What's it called again? Belimbing. Later we'll find out. First time I'm hearing of it. If you go to Negeri Sembilan, they love to cook this with all kinds of meat. We call it asam topeng. I don't know what that is. Is it a mushroom? It's not mushroom. No? It's a sandwich. Oh, my brain. Checking if they're done or... Yeah. So she pulled a couple of these out just to see if they're done here. And she just showed me how to do this. Apparently, you're supposed to take it. Just suck it right out of the shell. And I'm not crazy about snails as a genre, but the sauce in that is a little bit spicy. You can taste like the fresh chilies that went into that. Me, myself, I am a lazy bum at home during my childhood time. So I started this cooking after 25 years. Yeah, 25 years. And then I lost my mom. And there is a time all of us in a family, we miss her food so much. We do miss her food so much. So what I did was... Mom, I miss you. In a dream. Sounds ridiculous, but this is true. I request in a dream says that... That means, Mom, I miss your cooking. So yeah, day by day, I keep on practicing, practicing, practicing until I get the touch. So most of the cooking that I brought in is my childhood time that I love to eat. Chili powder. And also we're going to mix a bit of onion. A bit of... You like spicy, right? Spicy, spicy. Yeah. A bit of... Chili, chili, ginger, lemon grass. And I'm putting the yogurt instead of using the coconut milk. Ayu's kitchen is organized and spotless. Here, she's busy and has several dishes cooking at once. But she always takes the time to clean everything in between each and every step. It's just one more way that she shows her dedication to the absolute quality of her food. Remember just now, when we were at the market, we told the uncle and we bought this? Yeah. And I'm going to use this. A bit of add-on onion, sliced onion and curry leaves. All right, here I'm going to add a bit of chili powder. And I'm gonna use this yogurt. Normally they will steam or they will soak it with hot water first. The crab. And I didn't do it because it's a fresh crab. So I still want to have you guys to try the fresh. So I'm gonna finalize with this sesame. This is the fun. Just now our... How do you say? The fire is quite big. And once you reach this area, you need to slow down the fire. And I'm putting the minced meat on top. I'm mixing the four egg yolks with sticky beans. And you just like blanch them? Yeah. Five to eighty pieces of roti jala. And inside I already put two eggs. Two eggs and one kg of flour. And that's milk. My minyak. Turmeric powder. Turmeric. Why I use Kuala Susantara kitchen? Because I can conquer all kinds of cuisine. I can use Thai cuisine, Indonesian and a bit of Indian. You know, pick on my previous restaurant where I used to manage. I use it as authentic Malay cuisine. But this time on my own business, I use Kuala Susantara kitchen. Hi. Wow. How are you today? Do you mind? No, please. Tell me to stop or else I won't stop. Just a little bit more. He's gonna eat all the rice. All right, go. All right, this is an absolute feast that she has prepared for us here. And first thing before everything gets too cold here is I am going to go after the balutong, which is the snails that you saw us try earlier just to make sure they were done. We're going for another one of them here. I think we are. Oh, there it is. So you get this like gorgeous meaty snail. It's got a really nice kind of savoriness to it. And then it's just bathed in this beautiful chili curry that she made. And they're just swimming in it. And it's delicious. Oh, my. That is awesome. These are so good. The chilies are happening with it. The curry that she made up that she's simmered the whole thing in. It's just beautiful. Classic chicken satay. Oh, my gosh. Chicken is so tender. And then it's got like this thick, rich, beautiful peanutty sauce. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my God. That is delicious. That is the best chicken satay I've ever had. Oh, my God. Are you serious right now? I'm going to give a try to this jenahak bakar, which is a grilled snapper. It comes with this beautiful sauce made of like desiccated coconut, as well as like onions and a ton of other aromatics. This is right up my alley. Oh, my God. This is ridiculous. Like every dish I put into my mouth that she's making is out of this world. I'm so good. First, the fish itself. So flaky. So fresh. But the sauce, which Kakayu described as a like a local style salsa, that coconutty and those aromatics in it just takes it over the top. Amazing. And this is karabu karam. And it's a cockerel salad. It's got the stinky beans in it. So you've got that bitterness from the stinky beans and from the red onions. And then you've got this freshness from the ginger flower. Nice, meaty, savoriness from the cockerels. This is like just a beautiful, complex seafood salad. That is beautiful. Ginger flower. You can taste every bit of it in there. The cockerels are gorgeous. The onions, everything. The whole thing is just beautiful. Oh, yeah. We're struggling with the local name for this. They're behind the camera going, yeah, you did it. I doubt I did. I think they're just being kind. Comes with this beautiful sauce. It's beef brisket. You can't go wrong with beef brisket. But these sauces that Kakayu makes just bring everything up to an entirely different level. Insanely good. Oh, God. Perfect little char to it. And this is the roti jalan that Kakayu just made in the kitchen. It's so beautiful. Jalan means net, right? And you can see why because it's got this beautiful laciness to it. Comes with its own special curry dipping sauce. Oh, and look at all those pieces of net just kind of like soak up and hold all the sauce onto it. That is so good. It's got like an entirely different texture from any kind of roti that you're going to try. And it just holds all this beautiful curry sauce into it. Like I said, Kakayu makes the best sauces. Are you kidding me right now? Kakayu is an absolute genius. This is insane. All right, here we go. Finishing off here with this crab. We're going to try and... Get out of here. My gosh. I'm just digging in with my hands. Like a big chunk of crab meat, that curry, the rice. Oh, my God. I want a piece of crab meat. All right, here we go. Oh, wow. That sauce is unbelievable. That crab meat is sweet and the sauce is spicy. Oh, that's delicious. Wow. Kakayu is truly a culinary genius. She is a genius. This is unbelievable. Some people cook straight from the heart, showing you who they are through the food they cook. Ayu's cooking honors her childhood memories while also looking forward to the future with a new and flourishing business for her and her family. In our eyes, the sky's the limit for this iconic chef. Sadly, our time in Malaysia is winding down. The last four months here have introduced us to so much food that we have fallen in love with. Next week, we list 15 of our absolute favorite dishes we had in Malaysia. Will your favorite make the list? Make sure you subscribe and turn on those notifications to tune in next week to find out.