Over a year ago, I professed my failure at having recorded any photographic evidence of eating char kway teow and nasi lemak while in Malaysia.

Now I feel I can make it up to you a little by mentioning the fact we had both dishes at Uncle Lim’s Kitchen in Croydon recently, and they were pretty darned good.

I came across Uncle Lim’s Kitchen while doing some random food research for places to eat near where my brother lives in Purley. After nearly opting for dosas elsewhere, the lure of Malaysian food proved too strong, and we pointed the sat nav to the Whitgift Centre.

After some stressful times we ended up in a car park in another shopping centre entirely, but the Whitgift turned out to be very close by, and we eventually managed to locate the café.

It was simple open-fronted place, with a large counter of ready-prepared food. This was to support the range of meal deals they offered, where you could select various combos of meat, veg, seafood, rice and noodles with drinks for reasonable prices.

I honed in on the small menu, however, and we ordered two classics, H opting for a spicy char kway teow, and me for the nasi lemak. H also accompanied his with a teh tarik, but there was no hot or cold Milo or Horlicks alas, so I settled for an Appletiser.

The food looked great when it arrived after a suitable interval, and we both tucked in.

The combo of peanuts, crispy anchovies, cucumber, hard boiled egg, coconut rice and chicken curry sounds unusual but is excellent, and you can spice it up with a little of the sambal if you choose. If I had to dig around for a complaint, I would have preferred the chicken on the bone, but it is a minor thing really.

The char kway teow was wonderful, and tasted exactly like we remembered from the stalls back in Malaysia. I kept stealing sneaky forkfuls off H’s plate, as it was a perfect recreation. The slickly gelatinous noodles were spicy and savoury with beansprouts, spring onions and prawns. Yum!

I neglected to note the exact prices, but it was around £7 a dish, and absolutely worth it.