Chef Nik Michael was only 9 years old when he first cooked his first dish. Shortly after that, he then moved on to cooking for family functions, gatherings or just regular meals at home. His dad who is a chef himself, is one of his biggest contributor that led to him developing his cooking interest and skills. His dad was also the person responsible in encouraging him to take part in the first season of MasterChef Malaysia back in 2011. The show brought him to national stardom and he is now one of the most renown celebrity chef in town.
A super cool and down to earth dude, Chef Nik invited us over to have dinner at his restaurant, PickNik which he opened together with his dad. The father and son tag team restaurant serves comfort food as their main theme. Why? because most of the dishes on the menu is a personal favorite comfort food of Chef Nik himself. And being the ‘Kiasu’ Malaysians that we are, we sat down and ask the waiter to recommend what is their signature/popular dishes.
We think the fact that Chef Nik is of Australian-Malaysian heritage plays a big role in how he cooks his East-Meets-West dishes because it was somewhat pretty hard to pin-point what we were eating at times, because the dishes looks so western, like a bowl of pasta that looks like an ‘Aglio Olio’, but once its in your mouth, it taste totally not like what you expect. And we mean that in a good way. We can safely say that almost every dish has a Malaysian or Asian twist to it.
So if any of you peeps are in need of some comforting, head on over to PickNik in Publika and munch on some comfort food. For more info on the restaurant, add them up on Facebook page here, and if you any of you are fans of Chef Nik Michael, follow him on his Facebook page here.
PS: Besides the dishes shown below, we had a few dishes that were not stated on the menu, and unfortunately we gobbled it the moment it reached the table, so we would like to apologize for the lack of pictures from us. Same thing happened for dessert. But here is what we would recommend you to try for dessert:-
- Peanut Butter Slice: Peanut butter with cream cheese on a biscuit crust
- Pandan Creme Brulee: A cross between Buah Melaka & Creme Brulee
- Salted Caramel Brownies
Lamb Cutlets
Pan Seared Salmon
Truffle Olio with Soft Shell Crab
