Dapur Malaysia
Ian Jones, Food and Drink Editor
Based in Chapel Allerton in Leeds, Dapur Malaysia serves up home-cooked South East Asian cuisine, with influences from Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures. Owner Valerie grew up in Malaysia and launched the restaurant as a tribute to her mother, using cooking as a form of therapy and a way to make something beautiful out of the nostalgia of their favourite dishes.
We tried a hefty platter of South-East Asian cuisine, featuring a South Indian pork curry, beef rendang, chicken in lime leaf curry, jackfruit rendang and butternut squash, sweet potato and chickpea curry, plus two big tubs of steamed jasmine rice.
First up, the rendang dishes. These deliver an impressive kick, all dark, potent spices and a warm heat that doesn’t burn but raises your metabolism a few notches. The beef is beautifully prepared, soft nuggets of meat that make the perfect match for the spicy sauce. The jackfruit is an ideal alternative for vegetarians and vegans, coming with sweet potato chunks – both proteins hold the sauce as good as any meat. There’s the right amount of sauce too – it isn’t a bowl of liquid by any means, just enough to coat all the ingredients, with an unbeatable coconut flavour underpinning it all, thanks to the 19-ingredient-strong paste used as the base.
The pork curry has a more homely feel, the kind you can imagine passed down through generations. This consists of belly pork, stewed in a unique mix of tamarind and spices, with an unmistakable tangy tartness. This is wonderfully matched with the vegan butternut squash, sweet potato and chickpea curry, which has an earthy, sweet taste, packed full of hearty, healthy ingredients. It’s the kind of meal you could eat for lunch every day for an energising pick-me-up.
Finally, the chicken in lime leaf curry is the most memorable of the lot. It delivers an intense citrus kick, weaved in with aromas of lemongrass, tamarind and kaffir lime leaves. It’s a complex dish and wonderfully satisfying, and could only be matched with the gentle subtle taste of the slightly-sticky jasmine rice.
If you’re tired of the same old food and want to sample something with a little more depth and culture, Dapur Malaysia is the ideal choice. For the typical diner, this will open your tastebuds to a new world of South-East Asian cuisine, each more moreish than the last.
