Fancy some belacan in California

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak
My View - The Sun Daily
June 14, 2016

RAVELLING to the northern hemisphere during Ramadan in summer time can be daunting. I was in this situation last week having to speak at the World Summit of Educators in California. Not only because the time to break the fast was slightly longer, but the fact that there is no "pasar Ramadan" or Ramadan bazaar to fall back on making the berpuasa "ritual" somehow incomplete as it were, unlike back home. Perhaps this is yet another test to be endured – although fasting on long journeys can be waived and "replaced" after the month of Ramadan is over.

But divine intervention had some surprises. We were introduced to an exquisite Malaysian outlet named "Belacan Grill – The Malaysia Bistro", no less! Smack in the middle of Orange County, the word "belacan" is enough to make the mouth water even before you set eyes on the menu. What is more, after travelling on an empty stomach for several hours. Indeed we were not disappointed. The menu had many Malaysian favourites – in all of our multicultural splendour; sweet, sour and savoury. It lived up to its tagline: The art of blending exotic spices. Name it, it was there – except for a couple of items couched in western sounding names, for example the tepung pelita improvised as pandan "crème brule" dessert. But it took little to unmask it!

As we walked into the restaurant, words written on a nicely decorated whiteboard attracted our attention: "Love our fried banana. Try our roti banana. Indulge in bananas wrapped in buttery roti and coconut ice-cream with a caramel drizzle." Need we say more? To match, on the wall were a number of reviews that gave the Grill a thumbs-up including one from the Los Angeles Times. There are many more online!

With high expectations, we started our order with murtabak and ended with the exotic banana dishes. In between we had the curry mee, nasi lemak, and nasi goreng with crispy calamari and sambal belacan on the side. Next was the daging merah and daging kecap manis and of course steamed rice.

If these sounds too much for berbuka puasa that is because we wanted to sample as much as we could the authenticity of what was on the menu. The food was served by friendly staff and we were made to feel at home. We almost had the fish head curry – but fortunately good sense prevailed, and we had no doubt that the curry would meet expectations like the dishes that we had ordered and sampled. To top it all it was a halal restaurant with the familiar logo crafted on the door.

Welcoming us was Chef Kean Tan who hails from Slim River and his wife (whom he nicknamed as Puan Sri Belacan) from Tanjung Malim. Kean admitted that after his "dismal" performance in the rigidly examination-oriented Malaysian education system, his father decided to send him to Holland to work as a dishwasher.

This marked his entry into the sector where he has been working for some three decades. As he gathered experience and confidence, he developed a love for restaurants and picked up lessons and tips on how to operate one.

Little did he suspect that his dream would come true in Los Angeles 10 years ago. But that outlet had to be closed due to high rental and he moved to Orange County. The Grill holds the distinction of offering "only Malaysian cuisine" and rooms for special occasions.

With the rave and highly favourable comments that are directed at Kean Tan's success, it is still difficult to understand why as one California editorial review puts it: "Malaysian restaurants aren't easy to come by in the Orange County" – in fact practically everywhere outside Malaysia. At least in comparison with Thailand and Indonesia, or another country that has a penchant of "relabelling" Malaysian cuisine to its advantage.

So it was only natural that the after-dinner discussion drifted into why awareness of "belacan" (authentic Malaysian food) is still isolated and far between? Have we missed something that our neighbours seem to have taken to like ducks to water.

After all, as the Belacan Grill testifies over many years now, Malaysians too have other mouth-watering dishes to offer the world which up until now still remain undiscovered. For all its effort, kudos to the Belacan Grill as it ventures to introduce Malaysian gastronomic delights to the wider world.