PETALING JAYA: Being away from home for a long time, they missed the abundance of Malaysian street food. So they resolved to "cure" their "homesickness" by making Malaysian food from scratch and promoting it to others.
The Malaysian Project, a street food stall in New York City, was founded by friends Carlos Hon, Zoe Tang, Abraham Chin, Bryan Chew and Calvin Leong - all of whom are currently either working or studying in the Big Apple - to promote Malaysian food.
If you think you have heard about The Malaysian Project before, it might be because their attempt at recreating the iconic "Burger Ramly Special" was recently reported by a news portal in the United States, and that story was massively re-shared on social media here.
Leong told The Star that the response to the burger has been totally unbelievable.
Malaysians, he said, viewed the burger as just a "Burger Ramly Special", but this was not the case in the US.
"For the people here, it's something totally different. We usually get two kinds of response to it - either: 'Oh man, I know this, I've been to Malaysia. Ramly Special right?' or 'Wow! A burger wrapped in egg?! That's a genius idea! Wow it looks so good'," Leong said.
He said he and his partners make their own patties and started by experimenting with different spice mixes so as to not "stray too far from the roots of the Ramly Burger".
And their burgers have now been so well received that their followers nominated them for this year's Vendy Awards, known in certain circles as "the Oscars of street food" and "the red carpet gala for New York's pushcart heroes".
Besides burgers, The Malaysian Project has also turned out Malaysian favourites such as nasi lemak, beef rendang, sambal, curry chicken, ayam goreng, cendol, limau ais, kuih lapis, seri muka, pulut panggang, roti canai, ikan bakar, satay, pisang goreng, bubur cha cha, hainan chicken rice, prawn mee, pan mee, and even kaya!
"All the food that we have presented to our customers are those we miss the most from home. And what better way to cure our homesickness than to create Malaysian food," said Leong.
Leong said he and his partners learnt to cook the dishes from family members, friends' mothers and did their own extensive research of YouTube videos.
"It is funny to think how valuable these homemade videos are to us. One thing that we are all pretty proud of is that we actually make the green cendol jelly from scratch," said Hon.
The project started last year when the five got an opportunity to vend at a local market, called Vendy Plaza, in East Harlem.
Since then, they have participated in several local events all over the city including at the Queens Night Market, the Meadows Music Festival, Viva La Comida, Grub Street Hester Street Fair, Brunch Con and Summer Stage.
"At the moment, we have five people involved, but we do get support from friends from time to time," said Hon.
But while nasi lemak is a hit anywhere in Malaysia, the same cannot be said about New York.
Leong said that since their stall is located in a predominantly Hispanic community, they thought serving nasi lemak would be a great idea as rice is a staple food of the community.
He said, however, that it was difficult for the community to perceive rice "in the nasi lemak way" and this is despite the numerous different ways they tried presenting and explaining the dish.
He said after a while, they decided to stop selling nasi lemak and started selling roti canai instead.
Leong said he and the others always try their best to make The Malaysian Project approachable and relatable.
"Being a food stall also gives us the flexibility to be at events to showcase the taste of our homeland and to share our unique street food culture," he said.
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