KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — It does resemble a bird’s nest with its cluster of soft brownish strands, which explains its name — kerabu sarang (nest salad) or in the local lingo of Kelantan, where it originates, kerabu sare.
For many Kelantanese, it’s a must-have as their breaking of fast fare during Ramadan and that is the one time each year when you can get the unique dish at food bazaars. While it may be named such, it’s actually a type of seaweed served dry, flavoured with ayam percik sauce and sambal ikan.
At other times, it’s an elusive find. “The Pasar Siti Khadijah in Kota Baru is your best bet, but even then, you have to ask around and be in the know,” says Hisham Saleh, former Head of Social Media at Malaysia Airlines Berhad, of his hometown specialty.
“When I needed to buy some, I asked my sister to help. She brought me to this one stall which did not openly display it but when asked, the pakcik brought it out from under the table!”
Hisham makes sure he stocks up enough as kerabu sare is on the menu of his supper club, Dapur Mekwa Grub Club, which served its first dinner this January.
The four-course meal is built around traditional Kelantanese recipes, many of which Hisham picked up from helping his mother since he was young, that he’s given the fine dining treatment to.
“When I was with the airline, I met some UK-based supper club owners on a food tour of Malaysia. They asked me why there weren’t any supper clubs here serving local and traditional food.
“I cooked them a meal and they told me I had the talent for it, they even invited me to London to experience what the supper club scene is like over there,” says Hisham.
He and his partner, Chong Chih Jen (CJ), are used to hosting dinner parties for friends so Dapur Mekwa is somewhat an extension of that. CJ takes care of reservations and other logistics while Hisham handles the cooking.
It took him a year and a half to perfect his repertoire. “Local food is mostly street food,” Hisham explains. “The question I asked myself was, how do I turn it into fine dining?”
He poured his time into research and development, even studying the history and origins of Kelantanese food. He found that there were elements from the ancient Champa kingdom, now Vietnam, so he also looked into marrying those flavours while retaining the Kelantanese dishes as the base.
“These are usually served and eaten all at the same time, in typical local fashion, but I modified them into course meals. The ingredients in each course is connected to the next, to ensure balance and so that the meal flows like the plot of a story.”
That’s important to Hisham as he conceptualised Dapur Mekwa to be more than just a dining event but a social experience enriched with culture and heritage.
Part of his inspiration came from his father, who was a Tok Selampit, a traditional storyteller. “I wanted to introduce that along with the culinary enjoyment, to enrich the connection for and among our guests.”
For their debut menu, he chose a royal theme, featuring princesses of yore such as Puteri Gunung Ledang and Puteri Sadong. At the table, each place setting included a card that told the stories of these legendary female figures.
Together with the food, they became part of the storytelling. “I like to think of it as a theatre production; the dining table is the stage and when the menu changes, we will build a new script for it.”
Diners are assured of authentic and familiar flavours of Kelantanese cooking, but presented in a fresh way. The meal begins with Sup Udang Paduka Jembal, inspired by a dish that Hisham imagines Puteri Sadong was made to cook after she was kidnapped by Raja Patani in Thailand.
It’s basically gulai udang, a popular and common dish in Kelantan, paired with tom yam and blended into a thick bisque not unlike a Western cream soup, except it uses coconut milk instead. Appetising in appearance and taste, it leads nicely into the appetiser of Mak Yong Salad with Kerabu Snapper.
Like the dance, this signature dish of Dapur Mekwa’s was created to deliver an exotic, colourful and explosive experience. No less than 16 ingredients, including ceviche-style pieces of snapper, make up this vibrant kerabu that’s refreshing, rich in textures, and packs a good dose of heat at the same time!
The main course follows, a generous serving of Ayam Percik Bonda with Inderapura Rice, with the famous kerabu sare as an accompaniment along with keropok ikan and fried ikan bulu ayam, a small salted fish.
The portion is intentionally big as it takes its cue from the Main Puteri tradition, a mythical healing technique that involves presenting grand food offerings to ask for blessings. It also draws on Ulek Mayang, a ritualistic dance and song to invoke spirits of the seas, and which requires a “surf and turf” dish. “The chicken and rice are produce of the land, while the rest are from the sea,” Hisham explains.
For the ayam percik, Hisham uses his mother’s recipe, which calls for the chicken to be brined overnight in salt and then marinated with ginger and garlic, then roasted in the oven. The kerabu sare requires even more laborious preparation: The raw seaweed needs to be washed and dried repeatedly for several days to remove its pungent smell, then blanched before it’s flavoured with the percik sauce and sambal ikan (a mixture of shredded fish, onions and kerisik or toasted grated coconut).
The meal ends with Lompat Tikam with Gula Melaka, a striking dessert of pink glutinous rice sitting atop a bright green pudding, swimming in a pool of fresh coconut milk and drizzled with gula Melaka syrup. It’s a delightful combination of flavours as the rice is savoury and a tad sweet, the santan has hints of salt while the pudding is a touch bitter. The latter is quite delicate and not easy to make. “You have to be very patient and watch over it closely as the mixture cooks. Maybe that’s why it’s called lompat tikam, it’s akin to taking a leap of faith to ‘tikam’ your luck and hope that you get it right!”
Practically every component of every dish is made from scratch as Hisham wants to ensure diners get the freshest, homecooked food. The cooking takes up the most time and overall, Hisham and CJ take about 24 hours to prep for every meal.
Hence, Dapur Mekwa only opens for dinners on Saturdays. “We don’t see this as a business or a job, but an event. And we want it to be exclusive, not mass.”
Throughout Ramadan, Dapur Mekwa is open only for private groups (minimum 8 persons). To book, contact them via their Facebook or Instagram pages (@dapurmekwa) or through Eventbrite. It is priced at RM89.99 per person.
