Why I started Old School Canteen

Since 2012, my wife and I have talked about how nasi lemak should be.  We were bored with the run-of-the-mill sambal that we got at most stalls.  Very few stalls offered the different types of sambal that our mothers cooked.

Everyone should have the chance to experience the taste of authentic nasi lemak and sambal the way they are cooked at home — the old school way.

Thanks to my mother, I am able to share what I learnt from her. 

My mother was quite a character.  She loved cooking.  She used to say, “Aku tendang saja, dah masak!”  (I just kick and it’s cooked!) … and she wasn’t boasting. 

She was an excellent and skilled ‘tukang masak’ who easily cooked at Malay weddings for a thousand or more people. Together with my uncles, aunts and cousins, I would be there all night to assist in the preparation of food for cooking.

I still remember how I used to accompany my mother to the old Geylang market to buy provisions for the family.  We would hail a trishaw and lug the fresh produce home.

Those overnight cooking marathons and hands-on marketing trips must have left an impression on me – I was in the food service line for 30 years before finally deciding to bring back the taste of my mother’s cooking.

Ramlan Said (Ross)