This Kedahan ex-engineer used to run Ah Cheng Laksa out of his car, now it’s a franchise

What’s the best asam laksa you’ve ever had in the Klang Valley? I’m sure that as foodies, Malaysians would have a bunch of different responses.

But when The Star tried to find the answer back in 2014 for its “People’s Food Awards”, the answer had been Ah Cheng Laksa‘s first outlet in Summit USJ.

Go to the ‘About Us’ section from Ah Cheng Laksa’s website and it’ll inform you that the business started in 1960 out of a small town called Simpang Empat, located in Alor Setar, Kedah.

Indeed, its origins may lie in a small kopitiam stall opened 63 years ago by a couple who peddled asam laksa to make ends meet.

But it wasn’t until 2004 that it transformed into the Ah Cheng Laksa we now know it by, when a man by the name of Edmund Goh revived it.

An engineering background

An engineering school graduate, Edmund gave up a life of stability in the industry to pursue F&B entrepreneurship.

Born and raised in Alor Setar, Edmund’s first taste of the big KL city was during his university days. While studying at Universiti Malaya, a friend of his brought him to a pasar malam to try a famous asam laksa spot.

“When I tried the asam laksa, I wondered why it didn’t taste the same as the one from my childhood,” Edmund said in an interview with Kah Lai Toi, a Malaysian TV channel. “I thought, ‘Eh, isn’t my aunt’s asam laksa more delicious?’”

That’s when Edmund realised that if he could bring his aunt’s asam laksa to the KL market, it could prove to be quite successful.

He then called on four of his friends to make it a reality and each of them invested RM2,000 into the business.

With a capital of RM10,000, Edmund bought the necessary equipment with the intention to run Ah Cheng Laksa as a roadside stall.

Problem after problem

With all his plans in place, Edmund and his friends went to register the business—only to realise it was impossible to license it as a roadside stall.

“At the time, we thought, ‘Shoot, we haven’t even taken the first step and we’re already facing a huge obstacle’,” he recalled.

The entrepreneur wasn’t ready to give up, though, and decided to set up shop at a kopitiam in Taipan.

“Business honestly wasn’t great,” he admitted. “In a kopitiam, profits are quite low.”

So, the kopitiam model was scrapped and they reverted back to the roadside idea. However, the friend Edmund was working with found a job in Penang and thus had to leave.

“It meant that I had to run the roadside stall myself,” Edmund said. “I remember on my first day, I was driving a Proton Wira. All of my equipment was packed in the car. When I started setting up the tables, I felt embarrassed.”

“But what gave me confidence was on the first day, people from my hometown of Alor Setar coincidentally came.”

These people would turn into his loyal customers after finding that Edmund’s asam laksa reminded them of home.

As he was gaining momentum, Edmund invited those partners of his again, and told them that it was possible to run it as a roadside business, but that at first, they needed a lorry.

Sadly, three of his friends felt like they had already sunk RM2,000 into the business without seeing big results and as they were unwilling to invest more into Ah Cheng Laksa, they told Edmund to keep running the business out of his Proton Wira.  

“The only thing I could do was ask for money from my mum. I told my mum to lend me some money to buy a lorry, then lend me more money so I can return the RM8,000 to my friends.”

On his own, Edmund continued to run Ah Cheng Laksa until he realised that his business model could work in shopping malls too.

But as funding was an issue, he turned to his sister and asked for RM40,000 which he used to open the first Ah Cheng Laksa outlet in Sunway Pyramid.

Flavours of home

Given its Kedah origins, Ah Cheng Laksa focuses on offering flavours from northern Malaysian.

“What we want to bring out is the nostalgic kampung taste,” Edmund said. “Usually, when you go back to the north to eat asam laksa, it’d either be at the roadside or right outside someone’s house.”  

He continued, “I really wanted to bring this culture to KL.”

To do this, Edmund was adamant about sourcing his ingredients from the north, whether that be from Penang or even Thailand.

“This is the only way we can maintain the so-called flavours of Penang.”

To further maintain its quality, Ah Cheng Laksa uses a central kitchen model to prepare parts of the brand’s dishes.

Other than asam laksa, the brand also serves local delights such as pan mee soup, nasi lemak daging rendang, buttermilk chicken chop with rice, rojak, pisang goreng, and more.

Meanwhile, Ah Cheng Laksa also focuses on designing its outlets to replicate the homey stalls found in the north.

With this, Edmund hopes that customers will be able to taste the flavours of their childhood, or perhaps their hometowns.

Learning from his mistakes

With his perseverance, Edmund started to offer Ah Cheng Laksa as a franchise, but, due to his lack of experience, he didn’t properly vet franchisees at first and simply accepted any offers that came his way.

He learnt through his mistakes, though, and developed more standards and requirements for franchisees to better protect the Ah Cheng Laksa name.

Edmund expressed immense gratitude to his mother, saying, “I feel like, no one’s parents after financing your education all the way to university would be happy to hear that you want to suddenly shift to starting a roadside stall.”

“But although they are probably unwilling in their heart, they will support you with their actions.”

The entrepreneur also thanked those who said he couldn’t do it. “That’s the kind of person I am,” he explained. “When someone looks down on me, I have to show them otherwise.”

According to its website, Ah Cheng Laksa currently has outlets in KL, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan, with 11 in KL alone.

Hopefully, we might be able to see this brand expand to more parts of Malaysia, but it’s not certain that the branding may work in those areas, as the primary goal of Ah Cheng Laksa was to bring the flavours and memories of a small town to a big city.

• Learn more about Ah Cheng Laksa here.
• Read other articles we’ve written about F&B businesses in Malaysia here.

Featured Image Credit: Ah Cheng Laksa / Kah Loh Tai