Ismail offers a flashback to Malaysian heritage
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) As a young boy Ismail Ahmad spent most of his childhood helping moncler womens jackets his grandmother in the kitchen, learning heirloom recipes and traditional Malay styled culinary uk moncler outlet methods, skills that have helped build his successful career in Malaysia.
Malaysia’s chef Ismail Ahmad poses at his restaurant, Rebung, in Kuala Lumpur September 5, 2012. As a young boy Ismail spend most of his childhood helping his grandmother in the kitchen, learning heirloom recipes and traditional Malay styled culinary methods, skills that have helped build his moncler online store successful career in Malaysia. Picture taken September 5, 2012. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad
Hailing from a quiet village in Negeri Sembilan state, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from Kuala Lumpur, the 52 year old Ismail set up Rebung a restaurant known for its signature Malay dishes after a successful spate of hosting television cooking shows and touring as the country food ambassador.
Sprawling across three bungalow houses in the midst of the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur, Rebung, which marks its 10th anniversary next year and was set up with business partner Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, welcomes diners with its cozy wooden furniture, warm lighting and live karaoke sessions at night.
Rebung 50 odd item buffet spread, pegged between 40 50 ringgit ($13 $16), has earned Ismail fame for its Malay dishes that are hard to come moncler sale outlet by. Some of his customers are willing to take a moncler outlet store 4 hour road trip from Singapore just for lunch.
Q: How did your grandparents nurture your love for cooking?
A: moncler sale I was about 5 years old, I helped my grandmother in the kitchen plucking bean sprouts, cleaning dried anchovies, peeling onions, running off to the market to buy tamarind pieces. Later on I learned how to cook our heritage dishes.
grandfather taught me about when choosing seafood. I would follow him to the market on Saturdays to buy fish. He didn physically teach me, but he chat to the fishmonger and I would listen.
Q: How did growing up in a quiet village influence moncler sale outlet your cooking style?
A: daily food was best moncler jackets simple. Most dishes had chili, turmeric, lemon grass, and coconut cream. We also used a lot of leaves and herbs gathered from the jungle. Electricity came into my village only in the 1970s, before that we used generators. We had no fridge. So my grandmother would prolong the shelf life discount moncler jackets of food either by smoking, salting uk moncler sale or pickling it. Beef, mackerel will be smoked until it is dry. For pickles, we used a moncler outlet lot of bamboo shoots. These are ancient methods, but very clean. I still have the smoked beef in Rebung as a signature dish.
Q: Which are the family recipes inherited from your forefathers and how is it different compared to dishes from other Malaysian states?
A: Sembilan food uses easy ingredients, but it is not easy to make. We mostly use cheap moncler jackets mens chili padi (bird eye chili or Thai chili), fresh turmeric, lemon grass, coconut cream, tapioca with beef, duck, fish, and prawn. And it is mostly moncler outlet prices yellow. We use a lot of turmeric, which is rich in beta carotene. We hardly use fresh chilies we use dried chili and chili padi. If we use onions, it mostly shallots. We don use much garlic. We don usually blend the ingredients only sliced.
Malay heritage food is mostly fermented. We add in different type of herbs and leaves. The meat in Negeri Sembilan dishes are mostly smoked because in the original recipes, all meat was smoked for preservation purposes.
Q: What are Rebung specialty dishes?
A: have gulai lemak daging salai (smoked beef cooked in turmeric, fresh coconut and chili padi gravy), as well as durian pulut (durian pulp cooked with coconut and palm sugar served with sticky rice) and labu cheap moncler coats mens masak lemak (pumpkin with coconut cream and turmeric shoots).
also serves patin tempoyak a type of river catfish (iridescent cheapmoncler shark, its meat is called in the United States) moncler outlet sale cooked with fermented durian pulp, mixed turmeric, chili, crushed lemon grass, then boiled with tamarind pieces and salt.
Q: How do you maintain the cooked and tastes of the dishes at Rebung?
A: personally train my staff how to cook the dishes the exact way I do it. I also check all the cheap moncler jackets ingredients. I tell them that the journey of cooking is through experience. There no shortcut in heritage cooking. If you have to go and find an ingredient, you do it. If you have to cook moncler outlet online in a clay pot, you do it, because it affects the moncler outlet woodbury taste and texture of the dish. My grandmother used to make her own cooking oil from coconut. Everything adds value the charcoal fire, cheap moncler jackets womens the homemade oil.
at Rebung is homemade, except the ketchup and chili sauces. All the dips are ground and made from scratch. Less is more less ingredients, more in taste. It moncler sale online important to know the essence of the food. You shouldn modify it at all. If you cook it nicely, you can make a man happy for a day.
Q: moncler uk outlet What ingredients inspire you?
A: smell of chilies. Another is mali mali (bandicoot berry leaves), which is a kind of medicinal shrub used only in Negeri Sembilan for chicken rendang. It is really delicious and tastes nicer than tapioca shoots. You can find it in the jungle here, but people nowadays rarely recognize it.
Pahang Patin in Fermented Durian Gravy (Gulai Ikan Patin Pahang) Ingredients: 2 tbsp fermented durian (tempoyak) 3 fresh red chilies, finely pounded 6 bird eye chilies, finely pounded 4 cm (1.5 inch) knob of fresh turmeric, peeled and finely pounded 1 stalk lemon grass, bruised 450 ml (1.9 cups) water 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) pangasius sutchi catfish (swai) cut into 3 cm slices, washed with lime and rock salt, rinsed well. To get rid of the moncler usa muddy smell, clean fish with rock salt and tamarind pulp. To garnish: 1 tomato cut into cheap moncler sale wedges 1/2 cucumber cut lengthwise and diagonally sliced 1 red chili, 1 green chili, slit lengthwise with end in tact 1 turmeric leaf, torn into pieces Salt to taste Method: Mix fermented durian pounded with chilies and turmeric, lemon grass and water in a pot. Bring to boil over medium heat. Add fish, tomatoes, cucumber, red and green chilies, turmeric leaves, and simmer until cooked. Season with salt.