Kuala Lumpur’s Masterchef Asia 2015 runner-up, Marcus Low, makes some of the most amazing desserts in KL. His bakery-cafe, Madhatter Desserts, takes its name after his fedora-wearing personality during his Masterchef Asia stint.
Last Sunday, we dropped into Madhatter Desserts in search of exciting new creations from this talented, young baker.
Marcus with the Bornean tuhau (wild ginger) plant here. He sources for lesser-known and rather exotic herbs and fruits to create exciting new flavor and texture profiles for his desserts.
We started off with two savory items, both very tasty.
- Braised ox-tongue with coleslaw and steamed Chinese mantou buns
- Braised ox-tongue, white cheddar cheese, chimichurri, coleslaw and bagel
- Palate cleanser: Ulam Raja sorbet with oat-milk. The ulam raja is a fragrant herb frequently used in Malay salads. This is the first time we’re seeing it made into a dessert. Outstanding.
Clockwise from top-left: (1) Cheesecake gateau with raspberry layer, (2) Kedondong skin cake with kedondong terrine topping, and (3) Belimbing buloh pudding, peanut ice-cream & crushed cashew nuts.
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Belimbing buloh pudding, peanut ice-cream and crushed cashewnuts. Belimbing buluh are small, very sour fruits usually used to make soups, stews or jams. Here, it’s worked into a deliciously moist pudding, then paired with a rich, peanutty ice-cream, with crushed cashews to provide some extra crunch.
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Kedondong skin cake with kedondong terrine topping. “Kedondong” is the local Malay term for the sourish ambarella fruit. The complete Malay term is actually “buah kedondong” (“buah” translates as “fruit”). In Singapore, the linguistically-challenged local Hokkien-Chinese populace mispronounce “buah kedondong” as “bahlonglong” (don’t ask
) - resulting in the fruit being known as “bahlonglong” in Chinese-majority Singapore.
In Penang, the majority Hokkien-Chinese populace chose the term “ambarella” to refer to the fruit, but mispronounce it as “ambra”. It’s very popularly served as an iced juice drink, so you can order “ambra” in virtually any drink kiosk in a food court, or a traditional coffeeshop (known as “kopitiam”) in Penang.
In Kuala Lumpur, it’s generally not as readily available in the food courts or coffeeshops compared to Penang, and the locals will refer to it as “buah kedondong”, and will most likely not understand the term “ambra”.
But over here at Madhatters, Marcus purees the peeled “buah kedondong” fruit skin and adds it to the sponge cake batter which he then bakes. He cooks the fruit’s flesh in syrup, caramelizing them to a certain degree then layers them atop the baked cake. The resultant product was absolutely scrumptious.
- Cheesecake gateau with raspberry jelly layer.
- Chocolate ganache - this was a revelation: Kelantan chocolate ganache with cherapu jam filling.
Prior to that day, I’d never heard of “cherapu”, which is a small native fruit (also known button mangosteen) which has a slightly sweet tangerine-like flavor. Marcus chose the “cherapu” for his jam filling. Chopped “kedondong” is added for texture - an absolutely brilliant stroke of genius: the texture and mouth feel of the ganache was elevated manifold by this.
The chocolate sponge cake as well as the chocolate coating were made using chocolates grown in Kelantan, a northwest Malaysian frontier state. So good.
These have to be some of the best-tasting desserts in town!
Address
Madhatter Desserts
26, Jalan Medan Putra 4, Medan Putra Business Centre, 52200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Tel: +603-6734 9631
Operating hours: 12 noon to 8pm daily, except Tuesdays (closed).
