Chef Tommy Lai and Camie Lai who are both siblings, grew up in a small village called “Rasa” just an hour north from the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. “Rasa” in Malay means taste, it also means feeling.
Although the Lais grew-up in an impoverished environment, they were showered with love and affection from their parents and developed their culinary skills alongside their mother. Both Tommy and Camie absorbed their mother’s recipes of Malaysia’s legendary street food as well as also “choo char” cooking techniques - a style of comfort food cooking unique to Malaysia - and have lovingly recreated it at this 52-seater restaurant in the heart of Greenwich Village.