Fife-born TV food presenter Nick Kwek traces his roots in Malaysia

His celebratory words mark the end of our emotional, weeks-long, food-filled adventure in East Malaysia, and my first trip back to my father George’s homeland in almost 20 years.

We’re here shooting the next television episode of BBC travel series, Discovering The World’s Table – and I can’t quite believe it. Here’s me, a boy from Fife, floating around paradise, surrounded by a film crew, some 7,000 miles from home. And what’s more bonkers is that my dad’s here! And we’re on camera waxing lyrical about our favourite subject: food. Talk about surreal. This isn’t a ‘pinch me’ moment, it’s more of a ‘slap my face’ kinda deal.

I grew up in my parent’s pan-Asian takeaway in Leslie. The Rickshaw was joined onto our family home – and some of my earliest memories are watching my dad cook late into the night, and him teaching me tricks from the trade: How to hold a chopper, how to shell and devein prawns, how to make spring rolls and cook curry sauce from scratch. From an early age my heat tolerance was pushed to its limit as dad served up spicy ‘panas’ dishes (Malay for hot), mystery meat on the bone and I was taught that often throwaway bits were the best bits. I was raised on chicken feet, pigs trotters and duck tongues. Stuff I used to turn my nose up at, but I now adore. Seriously, give them a try!

Watching my dad masterfully cook these different, magically tasty dishes inspired my love of food and passion for travel – the exotic flavours and ingredients were a gateway to my heritage, but they also made me hungry for adventure.

And when we weren’t in the kitchen, we’d be sat in front of the box together, bowls of soybean noodles in hand, watching food travelogues that he’d tape on VHS from Rick Stein or Keith Floyd and later Anthony Bourdain. My dad would point at the screen and say, “Son, why don’t you try and do that someday?”. Now whenever I show him one of our episodes, he still turns to me and says the same thing.

So now travelling in Malaysia together, specifically Sabah where my dad was born, to document the culture that formed many of my memories from childhood, whilst shining a spotlight on the nation’s culinary prowess and pedigree was something heart-tinglingly remarkable.

It was also hot. Mercilessly roasting, in fact, and far more humid than I remember. I knew I’d sweat but not two minutes into filming! It probably didn’t help that I was travelling from a Scottish winter, mind you. “A day without sweat is not a day in Sabah”, so the local saying goes.

Because of the tropical climate, the island grows superb produce and wondrous fruits like the hairy red skinned rambutan, mangosteen and the purple-fleshed dragon fruit. The shades were so otherworldly and vibrant, they were cartoon-like. My director Ben Barfoot couldn’t believe what he was seeing – beaming through the camera lens was this explosion of colour. Prying open the thick dark mangosteen peel to reveal its soft white flesh to the camera, I was transported back to my Auntie Ming’s fruit farm near Sandakan, where we’d used to eat them straight from the tree. In a bite, I felt strangely at home.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Malaysia’s national dishes are also some of my favourites - like the gloriously creamy spicy curry laksa, or the blobby fatty fried noodles known as char kway teow. The lemongrass-heavy dry curry rendang is another showstopper. Meals here are rich, bold, flavourful and impressive. Then there is the heavenly roti canai, and the freshest seafood you could imagine. Giant crispy butter prawns with kaffir lime leaves are divine, and the pungent spicy sambal – lipsmackingly addictive.

With so much to choose from, for the programme we entrusted our family friend Emily Chin to guide us. We haven't seen one another since we were kids. Over the years she's been working with indigenous communities, and on our first day, we go spearfishing with the Bajau Laut – a unique group of nomads who live at sea, sometimes their entire lives, never setting foot on dry land. They move with the waves, following the fish wherever they go. The sea is their pantry, but I never could have guessed what we ended up cooking – you’ll have to tune in to find out!

Just a few minutes outside of the city, you immediately encounter Sabah’s wild beauty. We venture inland to the foothills of Mount Kinabalu, which is even more blisteringly sunny away from the sea breeze, and learn the secrets of indigenous rice wine, known as ‘tapai’ – which is made using special family yeast passed down through generations. The incredibly charming community leader Mami Ita shows me how to keep the hangover demons at bay with a drinking ritual – which weirdly actually worked! Either that, or I just wasn’t drinking enough – hard to imagine, I know. She actually invited me to spend Christmas with her and her family. Maybe she had too much wine.

The tribal drink is now poured in high end bars and restaurants in town – and one of the country’s rising stars Chef Linn Yong expertly fixed me a delicious cocktail at Limau and Linen. Combining the wine with pineapple juice, coconut syrup and orange bitters, she named the libation after her Auntie Poh.

Linn’s family is also from Sandakan and is part of the same Chinese-Malay minority community as my dad’s side of the family. Coincidentally my dad knew her grandfather, proprietor of one of the biggest hotels in town back in the day. She takes elements and cooking techniques from her heritage and blends with modern global influences.

I roll up my sleeves and get stuck into cooking alongside Linn and that's when my dad gatecrashes the party, watching on as I fluff my lines. (If it wasn’t hot enough in the kitchen, it is now.) He’s joining us and a few pals for dinner, to close the show.

We craft a fragrant mixed seafood and rice pie, cooked in the same clay pot used to make rice wine. It’s a bit of a cross between a traditional steamed Chinese rice pot dish and a middle eastern plov, topped with a puff pastry lid, sealing moisture inside. I joke that I’ve travelled from the land of the Scotch pie to the other side of the world, to make a pie.

Dad can’t resist getting involved and is soon cutting about in the kitchen – old habits die hard. And that’s when it hits me. Not only how hugely lucky I am but how extra special this whole experience is – to be in Malaysia cooking alongside my dad, my hero, whilst filming a TV show for the BBC. It was a personal milestone unlocked, a once fantastical dream that came true.

In each programme we explore a place’s heritage and culture through its cuisine, but in this extraordinary film we discover reconnection, my homecoming.

Discovering The World’s Table: Bountiful Borneo broadcasts Saturday 1 February on BBC News and BBC iPlayer.