IPOH, June 14 — Rendang Tok Mak Minah has always been a famous dish during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri here, and this year the demand for the traditional dish has increased tenfold.
Megat Syahrin Megat Aris, 32, the assistant manager of Royale Rendang, the company which produces the dish, said the staff cook about 5,000kg of meat everyday since the start of Ramadan.
“On a normal day we will cook around 500kg of meat, but for this festive season the amount multiplied for 10 times,” he told Malay Mail when met at his shop in Kampung Pasir Putih.
“We have orders coming in from different states and also they were new customers who walk-in to our shop,” said Megat Syahrin, adding that one kilogram of Rendang Tok sells for RM60.
Megat also said he had to hire extra workers to cook and packet the dish in order to meet the demand.
“We have four permanent workers in our shop, but for this Raya we rope in additional 15 workers to assist in the process of cooking and packaging the rendang,” he said.
Megat said the uniqueness of Rendang Tok is that the dish was formerly served for the royals and kings.
“However, as the time change, the dish became famous among people and we still use the same traditional recipe to make the dish,” he said.
Megat said the recipe was introduced by his adopted late parent Nafsiah Yeop Abdullah or also known as Mak Nik.
Unlike other rendang, Megat said that Rendang Tok is made from buffalo meat.
“Most of the people think that buffalo meat has a hard texture compared to beef, but if the meat is cooked properly, it will taste better and also tender,” he said.
Megat added that the meats are cooked for five hours and the dish have to be continuously stirred in order to prevent them from burning.
“It is important to slow cook the dish so that the meat will cook evenly and all the spices will coat and pervade the meat,” he said.
Apart from rendang, Royale Rendang also offers other traditional Malay dishes such as serunding daging, serunding ayam, acar buah, dodol, lemang and ketupat palas.
Royale Rendang also exports the Rendang Tok to Dubai, Mexico, Indonesia and Singapore.
