Canton Malaysian

Ho Jiak is all about taking the flavours of Malaysian street food and home cooking and elevating them – better ingredients, more refined presentation, interesting twists. This Festival chefs Junda Khoo and Ralph So are teaming up with Benny Lam from Southside and Central in Brisbane to turn the Melbourne restaurant into a Hong Kong-style dai pai dong for one night only.

“We’re talking playful twists on crowd favourites,” says Junda. “The mood board right now is some Nyonya-inspired palate-fresheners (pickles and marinated raw seafood, say, and a white-cut chicken dish), two courses of dumplings, some salt-and-pepper action (maybe pork ribs, maybe cuttlefish, maybe both, with Victorian saltbush), some roast Aurum duck, a stir-fry, some claypot rice, a salad, a light dessert (like ginger panna cotta and sago) and then, for a less light dessert, some fried ice-cream. It’s going to be a good time.”