SINGAPORE: Malaysian actress and model Nurlisasqia Ahmad Dahuri, popularly known as Sasqia Dahuri, is pulling in the crowds not with her acting or modelling, but culinary skills.
Her shop in Toa Payoh is drawing hundreds of customers, even during weekdays, with just three dishes – laksam, mee celup and colek malah – on the menu.
The shop, called Kelate.sg, is run by the actress, who hails from Pasir Mas in Kelantan.
Cast as Dr Orked in the 26-episode Cinta Untuk Raf drama, which is being aired on Radio Televisyen Malaysia, Sasqia, 35, has been here since the lockdown in March last year.
She said initially, it was just a pastime making “home-based delivery” of laksam during Singapore’s eight-week “circuit breaker” last year to curb the spread of Covid-19.
“I couldn’t handle it alone when orders for laksam, which is based on my mother’s recipe, reached 300 to 400 a day,” the
actress, who is of mixed Thai-Malay parentage, told Bernama.
“My husband and two other friends, who started enjoying laksam, proposed the idea for me to take it more seriously,” said Sasqia, who married Singaporean Muhammad Asyraff Khan Baharudin Khan in 2018.
The graduate of Multimedia Malaysia University prepares the laksam, which is flat rice noodles, using a brand preferred by her mother.
“My mum is very fussy when it comes to cooking, including adding ingredients one at a time. I make sure it is done that way,” said Sasqia, who employs a few assistants.
Sasqia said nasi kerabu will soon be on the menu at Kelate.sg, and she is considering adding nasi dagang and nasi berlauk in
future.
“We are planning to go online as well. We are in the midst of doing it,” she said, adding that a central kitchen is the solution to meet growing demand.
