“J,” a pastry chef who grew up in Kuala Lumpur, says that her husband “M,” a savory chef who grew up in Kane County, is making problems for other couples with his food.
J comes from a food-obsessed family. Her father moved to Kuala Lumpur as a young man and found work selling Hainanese chicken rice at a kopitiam, one of the region’s ubiquitous coffee shops. He wooed her mother with extra chicken wings—her favorite part—whenever she came around.
But the pandemic accelerated their plans. They launched unofficially in July as a way to exercise their chops and improve upon an eventual brick-and-mortar menu (but also to benefit causes like My Block, My Hood, My City, and Heartland Alliance’s National Immigration Justice Center). They offered curry puffs for delivery or pickup on their personal Instagram accounts, but it was the resounding success of the nasi lemak bungkus two weeks later that birthed Kedai Tapao (meaning “shop” in Malay, and “takeaway” in Mandarin, respectively).
Next came roti canai, the coiled, crispy-chewy, paper-thin flatbread ubiquitous at Indian-Muslim mamak food stalls, served with dal and chicken curry. The particular difficulties of nailing this one were resolved by distributing the roti frozen with baking instructions along with an Instagram video demonstrating the particular “clap” a street vendor performs to aerate the layers and maximize textural variety.
