Longing for lontong: Chef J. Jay keeps his mum's tastes cooking

Recipe feature shoot for Sunday Star2 at The Apartment. RAYMOND OOI/ The Star

Try as we may, there's no way we can recreate the delicious dishes prepared by our mum, but that doesn’t mean that we can't attempt them. 

Every Hari Raya, one thing that excites Chef Fazil Shahreen Ahmad is returning to his hometown of Ipoh, Perak, and tucking into his mum's special lontong. Every year, without fail, she prepares the coconut milk-based vegetable stew (some add seafood to the mix), which is typically served with bite-sized ketupat or nasi impit. Chef Fazil, better known as Chef J. Jay, doesn’t recall a Hari Raya without the lontong and has since learned the secret recipe behind his mum's mouth-watering rendition of the famous Malay dish.