This pie may look like a sweet doughnut, but take a bite and you’ll see the savoury entree is far from it. Rendang is a quintessential “home-style street-food” Indonesian curry says Sunda head chef Khanh Nguyen, whose refined menus feature the best of Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries. He uses the rendang to fill these warm and fluffy pies, which are served with cold pickled radish and sambal. The little parcel is so rich the chef recommends sharing one between two people.

Wagyu rendang
Made with Wagyu beef cheek from Victoria. “It’s quite marbled, quite fatty,” Nguyen says. After being caramelised the Wagyu is braised overnight in coconut milk, curry paste and various spices. Like we said, it’s super rich.

Dough
Nguyen uses a low-gluten flour, in the name of a fluffier finish. Think Chinese pork bun meets French dinner roll. He also adds in unctuous beef fat before piling in the filling and steaming and deep-frying the final product.

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Plate
Sydney-based Japanese ceramicist Ion Fukazawa provides about 70 per cent of the crockery at Sunda, including this plate. The designer is influenced by traditional Japanese and Bornean ceramic techniques.

Pickled radish
Radishes are sliced paper-thin on a mandoline and then lightly pickled overnight with white and apple cider vinegars, sugar, salt and water. This cold garnish “cuts through the richness of the rendang pie and adds much-needed freshness”.

Sambal
A hallmark of Indonesian cuisine, this bright-red chilli sauce is also popular in surrounding nations. It’s served cold and involves chilli, lemongrass, coconut flakes and garlic, which are fermented for around two weeks for a pungent, intense flavour.

This story originally appeared in Melbourne Print Issue 26.