KUALA LUMPUR: Looks like Singaporean rapper Yung Raja has followed in the footsteps of fellow Def Jam South East Asia label mate Joe Flizzow by taking his first step into the F&B business.
While the local hip hop legend has his burgers, Yung Raja has opened a cafe called The Maha Co which serves a variety of fusion snacks including what he describes as the world's first "thosai taco".
According to Asia One, the 26-year-old artiste whose real name is Rajid Ahamed had a soft launch for the new eatery located at Fusionopolis in the Queenstown area of the Lion City late last year.
The Indian-Mexican fusion cafe features walls plastered with both Mexican and Bollywood posters, as well as a counter assembled from a dismantled food truck.
"We didn't want to just open up an F&B business to make some money or whatever. The goal was to create something organic, authentic, honest to who we are as people and who I am as an artist," he said.
Yung Raja and his longtime friend Ong Weiquan came up with the idea for The Maha Co about eight months ago after the two began pairing his mother's traditional thosai recipe with different types of fillings.
"Weiquan came over to my house and the first thing that we tried was peanut butter and nutella with banana in a thosai and I can I swear to you right now, I remember my mind getting blown to pieces," he said.
Aside from plain thosai with vegetable curry, the menu also includes crispy chicken with cucumber yoghurt, cheese and and tomato, guacamole and salsa, as well as croissants with creamy coconut ice-cream and mangoes.
Yung Raja added that the thosai batter was made from scratch using his mother's very own recipe that she had been using for decades.
With his parents hailing from South India, the artiste explained that he was happy to get their blessing on his fusion venture.
"I was so happy to know that that my parents were as excited as me, or even more excited, about the fact that they can pass down the family recipe to me for my business.
"My heart was filled with so much joy to know that my parents were so game," he said.
