PETALING JAYA, March 25 — Malaysian comedienne Joanne Kam has been selling roast pork since last year to earn an income especially after her work was affected by Covid-19.
And over the past one year, her passion for cooking siew yoke (roast pork) led her to make nasi lemak siew yoke and siew yoke buns that have received positive reviews from her customers.
Now, the comedienne has partnered with durian exporter Hernan Corporation to promote tempoyak (fermented durian), in this case Kampoyak, to the public.
Kampoyak gets its name from Kam’s surname and tempoyak dish itself.
“The main direction that we are going for the Kampoyak is to reintroduce and recreate this unique Malaysian delicacy and reintroduce new ways of eating it.”
Kam told Malay Mail that while Hernan Corporation manufactures the tempoyak with sambal cili padi, petai and ikan bilis, she has gone all out to introduce the delicacy in the market so that it can be eaten in a myriad of ways.
“One of the specialties of the Kampoyak is that it has two distinctive flavours that makes it more like a paste that can be eaten with bread or cheese.
“I have also put the Kampoyak spread inside a baguette and spread it with mozzarella cheese — the result turned out to be a bruschetta that is uniquely Asian yet has a western touch to it.
“Another outlet, D Artisan Cheese, also used my Kampoyak as a filling for their burratas and the taste was delicious.”
As a foodie, she said that she was able to experiment with different dishes and come up with the best flavour after months of trial and error.
“I often do food tasting and invite friends to come over to taste my creations — my friends are also foodies so their palate is definitely welcoming.
“And one might need to perfect their recipe over time.
“Even for my siew yoke, it took me several months to learn a variety of tricks from chefs who were kind enough to advise me on my food journey,” she said.
