Sharizah Hashim's Dapur
May my recent visit to Dapur on a hot summer’s day serve as a reminder to return if you have been before or to go for the first time if you have never been before.
Dapur is a small, friendly and inexpensive Malaysian café near Holborn with lovely outside tables under the trees on Lamb’s Conduit Passage. It opens Monday to Friday only, 11am to 3pm, and I gather it can get busy quite early.
You go, you join the queue and, once at the counter, pick your food from what’s in the pots. They post the daily menu on Instagram so I always gen up in advance. However, the only word that seems to stick in my head is ‘ayam’ (chicken).
Last week, I had the vegan option – radish and bee hoon. So mild, delicate and pleasing. The tofu was almost brutish amongst such gentle flavours. Yes I had rice with my rice noodles. I don’t know if that’s normal but it’s what I had.
Iced teh tarik to drink – milky, sweet, slightly tannic.
Quality eavesdropping on two actors (not famous) discussing recent auditions. Holy crap, that shit is brutal.
I don’t know much about Dapur’s founder, Sharizah Hashim, other than that she is in her fifties, a former accountant, and, while she cooks recipes from her mother and grandmother at Dapur, she cites TV chefs like Nigella, Jamie and Phil Howard, of all people, as inspiration. Giving up “a perfectly good job” (her words) to open the café appears to have been a good call: Dapur marked 13 years this year.
Above is a picture of another visit a couple of years ago with my mum as I think it is more representative of the full Dapur spread. I was drawn back to the same purple table but there are other colours! Let me know your favourite in the comments (jk).
Radish and Bee Hoon + Ice Teh Tarik, £16.50
Dapur, 13 Lamb’s Conduit Passage, London, WC1R 4RH
Dapur is one of the best places to get good Malay food.