Vittles Reviews: London's Finest Food Hall
Some of the best new Malaysian cooking is, yet again, in Queensway Market. Words by Mohammed Ali Salha. Photographs by Michaël Protin.
Good morning and welcome back to Vittles Restaurants. Today’s review is by Mohammed Ali Salha.
Before we get to today’s review, a reminder that you can still pre-order issue 1 of Vittles magazine through our website here if you’re in the UK or US — it is currently discounted to £18 (or £16 if you are a paid subscriber). We’ve been blown away by the response since we announced – thank you so much to all of you who have ordered so far! In that time, the preorders from the UK alone have exceeded what we expected our entire print run would be, so we’ve had to re-adjust our expectations. If you wish to order we would highly recommend doing so before preorders close on April 24th.
We also now have distribution worldwide via Antenne Books, which means that the magazine will be available upon release via bookshops. For trade orders, both in the UK and abroad, please email maxine@antennebooks.com and mia@antennebooks.com (or harass your local bookshop into ordering some copies!)
Every Sunday felt the same. At least that’s what I remember about going to Whiteleys Shopping Centre in Queensway at the end of every week. Like a lot of not-quite-first-generation families, Sunday was the one day when our parents took a break from the hustle and hassle of looking after three kids. During the late ’90s, we’d go to the same McDonald’s in Whiteleys, where my parents would meet their friends and order us a McChicken Sandwich meal before setting us loose to terrorise the shopkeepers one floor at a time.
Once the novelty of our escapades had worn off, we were hastily shepherded up Queensway towards Hyde Park. On the way, I lusted over the lacquered and tanned roast meats in the windows of the Chinese restaurants. My dad would tut ‘ack, haram’ under his Marlboro-scented breath. But that never put me off, it just delayed the inevitable. As I got older and returned to the area, I was finally able to visit Four Seasons for roast duck before hotstepping to Gold Mine for its all-day dim sum. It was a chance to experience the Queensway I got to know as a child, before the faces and shopfronts shifted and changed.
We now live in a new era and one of the cultural networks keeping the gastronomic history of the area alive is the Malaysian diaspora, which has made Queensway its own. Stretching from Putera Puteri on one end all the way up to Normah’s in Queensway Market on the other, you would be correct in thinking this locale is becoming a little KL in its own right. Still, my current favourite place to eat – for its obsessiveness and clarity of expression when it comes to classic Malaysian street foods – is also located on the uneven floors of Queensway Market, past the computer fixers and birdcages.
It’s hard to call Cham Kampung Boy a restaurant. It’s more of a corner stall with scattered seating that often gets moved out of the way during Friday prayers. But the food that the titular Cham produces (mostly off-site, at home) stands out. For what it’s worth, Cham is indeed a Kampung Boy. Like the popular book and cartoon, he too hails from Malaysia’s northwestern Perak state. Cham is from the city Ipoh, but his is a journey that took in stints working for large American food companies across Singapore and Thailand before he landed in London. It’s a blessing that he did. Across four visits, I ate through his short menu and revelled in the attention to detail that lifted some of his star dishes from good to great.