In New York City, a town chock full with every cuisine under the sun, there are just 31 Malaysian restaurants — compared to more than 10 times as many Thai spots. But even among this select group, new Greenwich Village hot spot Rasa stands out.
The cuisine — a mix of traditional Malay, Chinese and Indian influences, with a heady dose of fish sauce — is considered so authentic that when dignitaries like the general of the Malaysian army visit the city, they pop by the unassuming eatery.
Right by co-owner Camie Lai’s side at the restaurant, named for the small Malaysian town where they grew up, is a partner she’s known her entire life: her younger brother, chef Tommy. At 7 years old, Camie was tasked with cooking for the family of seven while her parents worked. She learned how to cook by watching her mother and grandmother.
“My mom would give me a dollar to go to the market,” recalls Camie, 46. “You had to figure it out, how to not overspend and how to have a little pocket money left over.”
One dish that sells out every night, Hainanese chicken rice, is inspired by their grandmother’s recipe. “I want to serve my own recipes to show how we eat,” Camie says.
When Camie was 9, she passed her kitchen know-how to Tommy, then 6, who took over cooking duties while she attended school.
The family moved to New York from Rasa in the early ’90s. Years later, Camie landed at the West Village location of the Malaysian chain Penang. When the restaurant needed a new chef, she knew who to call: her brother, who was working as a dim sum chef. It was there where Tommy, now 43, added Malaysian street fare to his repertoire.
Camie then became a co-owner at Laut, a Malaysian restaurant in Union Square, and she jokes about how she “dragged” Tommy there in 2011. Laut earned a Michelin star in 2011, and Tommy became New York’s first Malaysian chef to snag the honor.
Laut was a critical success, but Camie wanted a restaurant of her own. She opened Rasa, at 25 W. Eighth St., in December. “Now, Tommy and me can say, ‘Let’s put Grandma’s recipe there.’ This is our home cooking,” she says.
Indeed. Their mom worked with them to perfect the restaurant’s signature dishes: rendang beef (a slow-cooked curry spiced with ginger, turmeric, kaffir limes and chilies) and Penang assam laksa (a pungent, spicy-sour fish-based noodle soup).
At first, the siblings fought about how the food should taste.
Tommy was surprised by his sister’s standards: “Sometimes, I make a big pot of sauce, and she says, ‘Throw the whole thing out,’ ” he says.
Still, when your partner is your sibling, you can be more honest. “I tell him the food is good or the food is no good,” says Camie. “Even though he’s my brother, I don’t give a damn.”