It's been nearly a year since I sat reading the morning paper, coffee in hand, when the "minor" news brief caught my eye: A fire at Malay Satay Hut had caused an estimated $500,000 damage to the building that housed it. I was dumbstruck. Could it have only been a few weeks since I'd sat at this famously funky café in the crook of a Little Saigon strip mall, chatting with owner/chef Sam Yoo while dipping warm, flaky folds of rôti canai into a cup of curry? Would I ever garlic-scent my breath with his incredible satays and sambal squid again?

Yes, thank God, though it took 250 days before Seattle's Malaysian food mecca reopened. Not that I was counting. In the meantime, Sam and his wife Jessy opened a far-larger, far-flashier and seemingly no-less-popular hut on the Eastside, giving fanatics and novices alike reason to report to Redmond to sip sweet, frothy avocado shakes and get their fix of this magnificent melting-pot cuisine. The tiny original has morphed into a gussied-up, tiki-fied version of its Redmond sib — but I'm pleased to announce that the food's as interesting, exotic and impressive as ever, and I stand among the legions who can't get enough.

With hard work and a talent for maximizing flavors, Sam Yoo has made his Malay Satay Hut a mecca for Malaysia's many culinary delights.

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