Plum sauce wiped out on supermarket shelves – Roti Mantou, next. The Khairul Aming effect is real.

EVERY Ramadan, it begins with a recipe. Then a post. Then, almost immediately — empty shelves.

Malaysia’s most influential food creator, Khairul Aming, is only days into his ninth annual Ramadan recipe series — this year expanded to “30 Hari 60 Resipi” (30 Days, 60 Recipes), two new dishes every single day.

The Plum Sauce Problem

It started with his Plum Sauce Chicken recipe for sahur, one of the first dishes posted in this year’s series.

Within days, Malaysians sharing their shopping experiences on Threads began posting what has become an uncomfortably familiar sight: photographs of bare supermarket shelves where plum sauce bottles once stood, alongside “Temporarily Out of Stock” notices.

One netizen posted a plea directly at Khairul Aming, appealing to him to release his ingredient list earlier — so followers could do their shopping in advance before the panic buying begins.

The suggestion was echoed by others in the comments.

On TikTok platform, one netizen posted: “Cikgu boleh ke senaraikan semua bahan untuk 30 hari terus? Penat la setiap hari keluar beli barang dapur,” one commenter joked — asking KA to just publish the full 30-day shopping list upfront so they wouldn’t have to keep running to the store every morning.

Meanwhile, a separate Threads post showed a Malaysian woman stretched as far as she physically could, straining to reach the very back — hoping, against the odds, to find a stray bottle of plum sauce on the supermarket shelf, that other shoppers had missed.

She had not. The shelf, like every other one, was empty.

A sympathetic commenter suggested she try her luck at Eco Shop, one of Malaysia’s popular budget retail chains, in case stocks there hadn’t been depleted yet.

The Effect Spreads

Plum sauce was only the beginning. Netizens quickly noted that green chillies, red chillies, and cili padi — all featured prominently in KA’s early recipes — had similarly vanished from shelves.

One particularly forward-thinking shopper shared that she had already rushed out to buy roti mantou mini — the key ingredient in KA’s Mantou Dipped in Buttermilk Sauce recipe, posted just the day before — specifically because she was afraid it would be sold out before she could get to it.

Her instinct was likely correct.

The Buttermilk Mantou post, for what it’s worth, had already amassed 3.1 million views on Instagram.

An Economy of One Recipe

The comments section offered its own flavour of tribute. One commenter called Khairul Aming a “penggerak ekonomi” — an economy driver — noting that even without any formal brand collaboration or paid partnership, a single mention of an ingredient in one of his posts is enough to clear it from supermarket shelves nationwide.

It is, in its own way, a staggering demonstration of trust and influence — the kind that cannot be bought.

The scale of his economic footprint was further underscored just this week, when Khairul Aming’s 12-hour TikTok Shop LIVE broadcast from Rembayung on 19 February 2026 broke TikTok Shop Malaysia’s all-time sales record, generating RM2.3 million in a single session.

No paid influencer deal. No celebrity co-host fee. Just KA, a camera, and a following that believes in him completely.

The irony, of course, is that Khairul Aming’s entire brand is built around making cooking accessible, affordable, and stress-free for everyday Malaysians.

That his recipes occasionally trigger a nationwide grocery scramble is a side effect no one planned for — and one that gets funnier, and more impressive, with every passing Ramadan.

If you’re heading to the supermarket this weekend — good luck. And maybe bring a step stool.

 The Sun Malaysia