Halenia Pop-up at LIOCO Tasting Room

Most of you know how we feel about authentic Asian street food. And how hard it is to find it around here. So when our photographer friend Erik Castro told us he recently shot an up-and-coming Bay Area chef doing Malaysian street food, and issued his highest recommendation, we pounced.

Chef Jesse Manuel grew up in the Bay Area and worked as a chef and consultant cross-pollinating various foods and cultures with different regions. Her first major consulting project in Bangalore brought Mexican food to India! In 2019, she was ready to make her own vision a reality and bring authentic Malaysian street food to the Bay Area.

She launched her business on the streets of San Francisco— just a chef, her cart and a traditional Malaysian dish from the island of Borneo called LAKSA. “Once I set up the cart, the broth sells itself. I sold out in two hours, 300 bowls of soup all by myself,” she said. “You don’t really find anything like what I’m doing in the area. I’ve had a lot of people say they’ve never tasted anything like this before.”

For these LIOCO pop-up’s Chef Jesse Manuel plans to showcase a dish called Nasi Lemak, and to cook a different rendering of it each week. Nasi Lemak is a fragrant rice traditionally served with sambal, roasted peanuts, fresh cucumbers, fried anchovies and a “main dish” whether it be Malaysian fried chicken, some kind of curry, fried fish etc. Chef Jesse cooked for our team one day in the tasting room and it killed us dead.

LIMITED: Just 50 bowls produced each night
Jesse’s events sell out – Please reserve to guarantee your meal
Tickets $35, limited walk-ins available
5pm – 7pm

Weekly Menus:

Sept 10 – Nasi Lemek Beef Rendang
Sept 17 – Nasi Lemek Chicken Curry
Sept 24 – Nasi Lemek Fish Curry
Oct 1 – Nasi Lemek Sambal Undang (prawn)
Oct 8 – Nasi Lemek Chicken Rendang
Oct 15 – Nasi Lemek Ikan Bakar (fried fish)

Special LIOCO Wine List curated for each menu, each week