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SAVOUR
Malaysian born Jimmy Chong has become Australia’s ‘Uncle Laksa’, introducing the
residents of Sydney to the foodof his homeland.
SarahRees
meets himtodiscover how
the boy from Ipoh became a restaurateur.
for cooking that had taken root at the
tender age of seven when he would take
charge of cooking breakfast for his family
of nine in Ipoh.
“It was only simple things,” he says
modestly, “but I always wanted to learn
– Mum was my teacher!”
From savouries he moved on to sweets
– coconut jam and cakes – when he
spotted an opportunity to learn from a
Meet Uncle Laksa
I
n
a vibrant colourful shirt, with
a warm, wide smile and a laugh
always lurking on the edge of his
lips, it is easy to see why the people
of Sydney have fallen in love with
Jimmy Chong.
And yet it is not only Jimmy’s
charisma that earned him his reputation
and has made him a firm and adored fea-
ture of Australia’s bustling city. The fond
nickname of Uncle Laksa is a moniker
that bears testament to the quality and
authenticity of the Ipoh-style
laksa
he
has been serving up in Sydney for the
past two decades.
“When I first came to Australia there
was no Malaysian food anywhere,”
Jimmy remembers with a sad shrug, “and
it was difficult to even buy the ingredients
to make Malaysian food.”
This was the 1980s, and the then
40-year-old Jimmy arrived in Sydney with
his wife and two boys to embark on a
new life in a country he still adores – “the
weather is great, the people are so friendly
and the lifestyle is good,” he says.
The continent move coincided with
a seismic career change for Jimmy, who
left his job as a mechanic in Ipoh behind
and acquired a position within a Hong
Kong-style Chinese restaurant just outside
the city. The change, however, served to
be the realisation of a dream he perhaps
never realised he had, fuelled by a passion
Ipoh Town (flagship store)
89 York Street
Sydney
NSW
Australia
Ipoh Town
Grosvenor Building
225 George Street
Sydney
NSW
Australia
Ipoh Club
446Victoria Avenue
Chatswood RSL
Chatswood
NSW
Australia
Ipoh Town, Barangaroo (coming
late 2015)
www.ipohtown.com.au
Uncle Jimmy
in his flagship
store
Billy Chong
is set to
take over
his father’s
business
Asam Laksa