Of all the new takeaways to open nearby, I was not expecting a Malaysian. I spotted Pair A Dice while driving past one day, and made a mental note to look it up. One solo trip later, while H was away, then I dragged him there the following week to witness the miracle.

Not just a miracle because the food is delicious, nor because it is a 10 minute drive away, nor because they do proper nasi lemak, but because they make their own kuih!

My love of kuih dates back to 2008, and I have occasionally fed this via an online order from Sueperlicious. While I’m talking about online ordering, I would be remiss not to mention Makan Malaysia (who are based in nearby Reading) for great sambal.

During my first visit to Pair A Dice, while waiting for my food I noticed a sign with some kuih pictured on it. I asked about it, and was told they could whip me up some onde-onde in 10 minutes, or one could pre-order other desserts. I decided to save the excitement for when H was with me, and the next Saturday lunchtime, we turned up and ordered a nasi lemak, sambal aubergine, roti canai with lentil curry and some onde-onde. Drinkswise, I had a sirap bandung cincau (rose milk with grass jelly), and H had a cold milk coffee. The previous week I had a cendol (which was also not on their main menu, but I did spot a sign for it in the shop later).

Although it is a takeaway, there is a table where you can perch and eat your food, and we decided to do this for maximum freshness.

The roti canai was well-crumpled and delicious, albeit probably bought in, with a bright fresh lentil curry alongside. The nasi lemak was perfect, with fragrant coconut rice, the usual peanuts, dried anchovies, boiled egg and cucumber, and a sweet and spicy sambal.

Neither of us is a huge aubergine fan, but the sambal aubergine had been deep-fried into buttery oiliness, drowned in sambal, and went well with the rice.

While we were eating, one of the owners came out with a free taster of kuih talam, of which they also stacked some boxes for sale on the counter.

As a fan of seri muka (pandan custard layer on coconut sticky rice – this is something you can also request from them!), kuih talam is up my street. It comprises a sweet-salty coconut layer on top of pandan custard. If we hadn’t already ordered the onde-onde, I would have grabbed a box immediately.

As for the onde-onde? Amazing! The gula melaka inside was not fully liquid, but it was such a great taste and texture memory. It was a generous portion and we took most of them home to eat later (I’d already wolfed two before H got to take the photo below).

The whole lot came to just under £40, which I thought was pretty damn good. I absolutely will be returning, and am desperately hoping they find a big enough local audience to thrive.