KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Her Nasi Ayam Paris is very popular among Malaysians in Paris and nowadays, Nurazimah Mohd Karim has many regular customers although the early days of her business were very challenging.
Nurazimah, 43, is a Malaysian married to a Frenchman, Nicolas Moulin and blessed with four children aged between one to 17 years old named Adam Daniel, Ida Aili, Jade Nur and Anna Syifa.
She has been residing in France since July 2001 and admitted that the decision was not easy as she never expected to have a ‘Mat Salleh’ as her life partner.
“I once asked my late mother, what if I was to marry a Caucasian. She did not believe it because at that time I had a Malay boyfriend.
“Time passed, I did not expect that I would end up marrying a Caucasian. We have been married for 18 years now. we met by coincidence when my husband had mistaken me for someone else while looking for cheap compact disc supplier in Malaysia,” she told Bernama here.
She admitted that when she first set foot on the European soil, she felt somewhat awkward with the lifestyle and culture, but eventually, she adapted well to the French environment.
“It is very challenging to raise kids with two cultures, I’m raising them without forgetting the slightest bit of Malay values and culture, especially our mother tongue,” she said, popular on Instagram’s social site using @light.km handle.
Sharing her story of the chicken rice business in the fashion city, Nurazimah said it started when her husband’s business was affected in 2013, causing their family’s economic situation to be unstable.
“For a start, I cooked chicken rice for the guests in our homestay. It received overwhelming response when the guests started to share on the social networking site and in December 2016, the idea came to me to start a chicken rice delivery,” she said. She also offered holiday packages including transportation services and homestay with her beloved husband in the fashion city.
According to Nurazimah, the first year of the chicken rice business was challenging as she is not a local and it was rather difficult to get fresh ingredients, but social sites like Facebook and Instagram was the promotion channel for her homemade chicken rice.
“The business was intended to make it easier for tourists who came to France, especially Muslims. Other than promoting through social media, I’m also not shy about distributing my business card if I meet tourists from Asia,” she said.
She said the chicken rice sold at a price of 10 euros (RM46) per pack was not only a hit among Malaysian tourists but also those from London, Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia.
On the preparation of the chicken rice, Nurazimah said the ingredients were easy to find although she had to drive for 40 minutes from her residence in Drevail City to the French capital.
“True to its name Nasi Ayam Paris, I bought the ingredients from the Asian Grocery here, except for my spiced fried chicken nasi lemak, the anchovy had to be imported from Malaysia because you can’t find it here,” she said, adding that the chicken rice and nasi lemak can be ordered via Whatsapp linked to her @nasiayamparis Instagram handle.
On her business future plan, the former bank employee is eager to expand their homestay and transport service business as well as opening a restaurant to facilitate tourists and those working in France to obtain halal food.
“I have a dream to open a Nasi Ayam Paris restaurant in Malaysia one day,” she said, ending the conversation. — Bernama
