Home Sweet Home Malay Cooking

Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Home Sweet Home Malay Cooking

Daging salai masak lemak

Siput sedut masak lemak

Wide variety of dishes and kuih

Omok Restaurant in SS15 Offers Good Negeri Sembilan spread

OMOK Restaurant looks like a typical Malay restaurant from the main road of SS15/5A but there's a “secret home-cooked recipe” simmering in its kitchen.

Some of the Negeri Sembilan specialties served in this modest restaurant probably cannot be found anywhere else in this neighbourhood, which explains why its owner and operator Norin Halim is constantly on her feet planning, cooking and serving fresh and delictable dishes.

“Many of my regular customers who come here miss their home-cooked dishes.”

“They come here because their tummy feels at home with our cooking,” Norin joked. This remark which is laced with humor and modesty obviously does not fully describe the tasty dishes Norin serves daily.

“Don't bug your grandmother to cook for you. Come over and we will probably have what you miss from the back home,” she added.

Her house specialty which she prepares daily is her Daging Salai Masak Lemak (barbequed beef cooked in thick coconut-based curry).

“I prepare this every day because if I don't, my customers who come in to dine will be disappointed. We barbeque the meat ourselves over charcoal fire and then cook the curry to go with it,” she added.

The traditional Minangkabau cuisine of Negeri Sembilan incorporates many of the aromatic herbs, roots and other ingredients used in Malay cooking, such as lemon grasss, ginger, garlic, shallots, kaffir limes, fresh or dried chillies and rich, creamy santan.

Kak Norin, as she is fondly called, prepares a whole array of cuisine from kuih (apam beras, kuih lapis, seri muka, bingka ubi, ubi rebus) to main and side dishes like sambal tempoyak (fermented durian sambal), sambal tempoyak sayur, and keladi asam pedas (hot and sour yams).

If you do walk in, don't miss the telur itik masak lemak cili padi (duck egg cooked with coconut milk and hot chilies) , siput sedut masak lemak and the ketam masak lemak cili padi.

For dessert, she serves bubur kacang, bubur chacha and pulut hitam among others.

And if you happen to want to have some of these dishes served at home or at your functions, there's good news for you. Norin also operates an outdoor catering service for events and also weddings.

Omok is open daily from 7.30am to 7pm. It is closed on Sundays and public holidays.

For more information, call Norin at 012-3316530 or better still, drop over at her restaurant at 39, Jalan SS15/5A, Subang Jaya.