Ordering in: After years of looking after her child, a devoted mum spread her wings and started selling Nyonya fare

Wong's nasi ulam is incredibly herbaceous and good from start to finish.

When Florence Wong had her son 15 years ago, she dedicated herself to the task of raising and schooling her child. In fact, Wong (a former English teacher) home-schooled her child for over a decade until he scored a scholarship and went off to middle school.

With her child out of the house, Wong found herself with more time on her hands, so she decided to try something new. And that’s how her home food business The Secret Foodsmith was born.

“I was starting to get a bit bored when my son was school, and one day, I tasted someone’s nasi kerabu. It didn’t meet my expectations, so I started experimenting and did my own version and friends and family said it was very good.

“I thought, instead of sitting in front of the TV again, why not do something new? So I started The Secret Foodsmith a few months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit,” she says.

Wong’s entry into the food delivery business wasn’t just a spur-of-the-moment decision though. In many ways, the avid Nyonya food aficionado has been priming for this her entire life.

Wong has always had a keen interest in Nyonya food.

“I’m not Nyonya but I am a Nyonya wannabe! I just love food and from a very young age, food has intrigued me. I actually learnt to cook from my grandmother who is Hokkien, but I have always loved Peranakan food.

“These days, it has come to a point where people now say to me, ‘Hey, your Peranakan food is very authentic and it tastes like the food my grandma used to cook’,” says an elated Wong.

To put together the predominantly Nyonya menu for The Secret Foodsmith, Wong looked up recipes online and recreated dishes she had tasted at good Peranakan restaurants. Initially, she did everything by herself and only took on sporadic orders, but in June 2021, she decided to fully immerse herself in the business and soon more and more orders began flooding in.

To cope with the increasing demand, she now has two helpers (and her husband who is taking a break from the corporate world) to aid her in the kitchen.

Wong says putting together each meal requires a lot of back-breaking, laborious work as she insists on making everything from scratch, from the sauces to the sambals.

“I make everything from scratch, because this is important to me. It is also why I just couldn’t cope on my own, because it is very tedious work cooking Nyonya food. Can you imagine just to pluck the daun kesum and mint leaves takes over an hour? So it’s a lot of work and one person definitely cannot do it,” she says.

The nasi kerabu is tantalisingly good and is testament to Wong’s mastery of the dish.

To get a true idea of Wong’s cooking abilities, try the Nasi Kerabu with Ayam Percik (RM24). The tell-tale blue rice (made by dyeing the rice with blue pea flowers) is studded with cabbage, long beans, bunga kantan (torch ginger bud), daun kesum, kerisik (toasted grated coconut) and the slightly unusual addition of salted fish.

Toss the entire assemblage together and delight in the fresh, herbaceous quality of the meal, which is enhanced by the surprisingly welcome bursts of saltiness from the salted fish in the mixture. The simple, unvarnished attributes of the rice are taken up a notch or two when paired with the coconut gravy and hot sambal provided alongside, which give the dish added depth and dimension.

The ayam percik in this constellation is also very, very good. Wong oven-bakes the chicken and the result is a sublime chook that is juicy, succulent and tasty.

Slather the chicken in Wong’s percik sauce (a family secret) and sit back and enjoy the tropical coconut-infused flavours that will soon descend on your palate.

The kerabu kay bok nee salad features spongy wood ear fungus juxtaposed against tender chicken. — ABIRAMI DURAI/The Star

Wong’s Nasi Ulam with Cencaru Hu Chee Rempah (RM27) features turmeric-tinged rice alongside a cast of characters in the ilk of galangal, daun kesum and bunga kantan, among a host of other leafy collaborators. The forest-fresh rice is like taking a culinary walk through the backyards and tropical terrain of our homeland – all encapsulated in each mouthful.

This is further accentuated by the fish, which is marinated overnight and stuffed to the gills with a piquant sambal that adds so much flavour to a seemingly benign dish, that you’ll be dreaming about it long after.

Up next, try the Kerabu Kay Bok Nee salad (RM17) which is essentially wood-ear fungus with shredded steamed chicken in a lightly-spicy citrusy sauce enlivened with the presence of herbaceous elements like bunga kantan and tropical undertones like grated coconut. This is a salad that will make you want to ditch all those mundane lettuce-heavy Western style-salads in favour of this energising, invigorating concoction.

Another dish that is definitely worth trying is Wong’s Gulai Tumis Stingray (seasonal pricing). The dish is only available on selected days and features a thick gravy with pleasant tangy undertones coating chunky slices of sting ray, okra, tomatoes and pineapple slices. It is a dish that requires a delicate equilibrium of flavours, one that Wong has nailed to perfection, resulting in a meal where utter satisfaction is a surety.

Ayam buah keluak is quite difficult to find in the Klang Valley and Wong's version is particularly good.

Perhaps one of the rarer dishes on Wong’s menu is the Ayam Buah Keluak (RM20) which makes use of the buah keluak (kepayang fruit) which is known as the “truffle of the East”. The nut is notorious for its poisonous properties if not treated properly i.e. buried in ash to remove the toxins.

As a consequence, this is a dish that is not very easily found, especially in the Klang Valley. Wong’s version (which is only available on selected days) is cooked in a tamarind-based gravy and is delicious from start to finish. The chicken is incredibly tender and the buah keluak adds an opulent, almost palatial quality to the meal.

Having gained quite an ardent following, Wong says the next step in her game plan is to open her own restaurant, a dream she has been nurturing for quite awhile now.

“Oh, it’s definitely on my list of things to do, and because this will involve a huge sum of money, I want to make sure if I do it, I go all out and not just do it half-heartedly. So hopefully by the end of this year, if everything goes well, I will have a physical restaurant – that’s my goal and I hope I can reach that,” says Wong.

Order from The Secret Foodsmith by sending a WhatsApp message to 010 225 4259.