THE Old Trafford and Manchester United come to mind when someone talks
about the city of Manchester.

Tang aims to promote Malaysian food from the perspective of a local in Manchester.

But for Harry Tang, who grew up in Petaling Jaya, Manchester is about adapting to a new life experience and telling others about the Malaysian food culture – through his blog, A Malaysian Kitchen in Manchester (http:// malaysiankitchen.blogspot.com).

Tang did his undergraduate studies in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s, stayed on to do postgraduate in business administration and went on to get a job in IT, specialising in business-to-business applications and EDI solutions. He now calls Manchester home, together with wife and son.

“I found it difficult to adapt to the food in the UK. When I moved to Manchester after graduation, I had access to many Asian grocers and from there started learning to cook the food I grew up with.

“Over the years, as the Internet grew in popularity, I have been getting ideas and recipes from it.

More recently, I stumbled across Malaysian food bloggers, who inspired me to start my blog,” said the over-40-year-old.

His blog aims to give a UK perspective on eating and cooking, Malaysian style.

“I’d like to think that it would provide some culinary insight into Malaysian cuisine. Food is one of Malaysia’s greatest assets, and I’m proud to be able to promote it from the perspective of a local in Manchester,” he said.

Tang started the blog in January last year. So far, it has over 16,000 unique hits.

Tang is happy with the response, given that he doesn’t update the blog regularly.

“Unlike in Malaysia, people don’t eat out regularly in the UK because it’s expensive. So, I have less daily culinary experiences worth writing about,” he said.

Despite that, a magazine editor in Manchester has asked him to do restaurant reviews and people who have returned from a holiday in Malaysia, cooking tips.

“The best compliment I have ever received is from someone who visited Malaysia asking me where my ‘restaurant’ is so he could sample some Malaysian food. I must have disappointed him when I explained that I’m just an amateur cook,” Tang said.

He hopes to put his experience of staying in Manchester for two decades to good use.

“AirAsia now flies to London and is sponsoring MU. I would like to think that soon there would be direct low-cost flights from Kuala Lumpur to Manchester.

“If there is an indication of a surge in people searching for local information on Manchester, I would be more than pleased to put them on the blog.

“I could tell them where to shop, eat, stay or sight-see.

Manchester is not just about MU, after all,” he said.