Chef James Wozniuk can’t get enough stink beans. You’ll find the bitter, nutty bean in Southeast Asia, where it grows on trees and, with its high concentration of amino acids, puts off a smell reminiscent of methane gas. And you can bet you’ll find it in Wozniuk’s new Rutledge Avenue restaurant, Makan, in the Sambal Udang Petai, a shrimp dish that Wozniuk fondly refers to as “funky and spicy.”
Those big, bold flavors are representative of the Malaysian cuisine Wozniuk is dishing out at Makan. The restaurant pays homage to the cuisine of Southeast Asia, an area that Wozniuk has traveled frequently. His love for the cuisine inspired him to open the original Makan location, in D.C., in 2020.
Family ties led him to open Makan Charleston. “I grew up in Greenville,” said Wozniuk. “My sister went to MUSC, I have lots of friends here and my brother and his wife are down here. … They just had a baby, so [I wanted to be] closer to family and be closer to my niece to watch her grow up. It was a pretty easy decision.”
And while D.C. and Charleston are arguably vastly different cities, Wozniuk said that he was sure that the Lowcountry was ready for his Malaysian cuisine. He mentioned local restaurants like Xiao Bao, Beautiful South and King BBQ as spots that have paved the way for Asian cuisine in the Charleston area.
“There were a lot of people building the scene up with that style of food before us,” he said. “It gave us a little confidence boost knowing that people were definitely into it.”
Sip, share, savor
The Makan menu is divided into four approachable sections — kecil (smalls), mee (noodles), utama (mains) and kuih (dessert). Wozniuk said the menu will change seasonally and, hopefully, based on inspiration from his travels.
“In a perfect world, I go to Malaysia once a year,” he said, adding that he’ll visit the country for two to three weeks to see new dishes, “tighten all the flavors up” and “eat through everything.”
“This last trip, I went to three new cities. The amount of food that I ate through was very exciting,” he said. And while he’s looking forward to recreating those dishes, he’s trying to take things one step at a time and get his staff used to the current menu before switching things up again.
He said that in general, customers are eager to learn about the menu, too. He and his team can guide diners through dishes that may be more approachable if they’re new to Southeast Asian cuisine.
“Depending on how adventurous they’re feeling, I’d definitely start off with the satay,” Wozniuk recommended. Guests can choose from chicken or paneer (fresh cow’s milk cheese) satay, served with peanut sauce, cucumber and shallot.
Wozniuk said that the Ikan Asam Pedas, a fish curry with sour and spicy broth, okra and tomato reminds him a lot of the South. “People are likening it to a gumbo,” he said.
He said that the Rendang Daging, a dry beef curry served with coconut, lemongrass, nutmeg and lime leaf is “a staple.” “You’ll see it globally on top dishes around the world. … It’s dry in the sense that it doesn’t have a sauce or a gravy like a normal curry, it’s just a bit tighter, and all that flavor is cooked into the meat.”
Wozniuk has perfected his cuisine over the years and Makan D.C.’s accolades, including two Michelin Guide Bib Gourmands, speak to his success. A great deal of that success could be the result of experiencing Malaysian cuisine first hand.
“I have a lot of Malaysian cookbooks, but a lot of the food that you actually see when you’re there [in Malaysia], doesn’t make it into the cookbooks,” he said. “It’s just figuring out, ‘What is this? How did you do it?’ And that’s what I love.”
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