Dapur Kelatae

How my Dapur Kelatae come into being?

It first started when I was cooking the 'favourite dish' of my husband, who misses his hometown food, under the guidance of my mother-in-law. You see, my husband is from Pasir Mas, Kelantan and ulam is an everyday food - practically a must have for lunch and dinner. Ulam is a dish of raw vegetables accompanied by fried fish dipped in budu (Kelantanese fermented fish sauce). I gathered a few friends on that particular day to sample my food. They enjoyed it and loved the food especially the 'healthy' side of it i.e. plenty of raw vegetables and suggested that I start a home catering business. It was there and then on the spot that I decided to do so and hence my Dapur Kelatae come into being. My Dapur Kelatae started home catering business in March 2003.

Why was my home catering business called Dapur Kelatae?

The word 'Dapur' means 'kitchen' in Bahasa Melayu and 'Kelatae' means from 'Kelantan'. Putting together the words means 'kitchen kelatan' and it sounded nicer with the word 'Dapur Kelatae' to add a tune to the name.

Signature dish of Dapur Kelatae

The signature dish is Nasi Kerabu or 'Khau Jump'. It is a famous dish of the chinese in Kelantan and it has siamese influence on the dish. Why do I say that it has siamese influence? My mother-in-law has some siamese background from her side of the family and being in Pasir Mas, it is very near to the border of Thailand.

The dish is served with 'green' rice (rice cooked in the juices of herbs), grinded fish & coconut, raw vegetable (long beans, cucumber, taugeh, just to name of few), fish sauce (or 'budu' in Bahasa Melayu) and pieces of fish keropok (fish crackers).

When is the date of my catering business?

It is normally on alternate Thursday of the week. I have a cleaner, Mrs Wong who comes in on that day and helps me out on my business. A huge 'thank-you' to her. My customers receive notices of the day of the business day and places their orders three days prior to the actual day of the business.

The Preparation Works

To make this dish, takes 2 mornings and 1 whole day for the preparation and half a day for the cooking, packaging and delivering of the 'Khau Jump'.

The 1st morning involves purchasing grated coconut. The coconut is gently stired in a saucepan over low fire until it becomes aromatic. Then it is grinded in the mortar with the pestle until the coconut becomes fine and then left to cool. It is then stored in an airtight container.

The 2nd morning involves purchasing of the required amount of fish. The fish is cleaned and steamed until it is cooked. When it is cooled, the bones are removed and then stored in the refrigerator. In the evening, after dinner, I fry the fish keropok and pack them in small plastic bags.

The 3rd whole day involves driving around certain parts of Miri, identifying and plucking the leaves of the herbs and purchasing of the raw vegetables required according to the numbers of orders received. I normally start driving around by 8 am. Thanks goodness, I have the two main herbs in my garden. The more herbs are plucked, the rice become more fragrant. This normally takes 2 and half hours. Upon returning home, the leaves are further sorted out and washed. If time permits, I then packed the budu sauce. Then its time to go to school to bring lunch to my son. Oh yes, my son has afternoon classes and co-curriculum activity which finishes at 4.30pm. I normally buy a 'take-away' lunch for him whenever I have business during that particular week.

After making sure that my son had his lunch and then I head home to continue with the preparation works.

I then fried the de-boned fish in a saucepan over a low fire until the fish is dried and fragrant. I normally do this a few times until I finish frying all the fish.

Then, its time to pick up my son from school and brings him home. He is an independent boy and does his homework all by himself. Preparation works for tonight's dinner begins and then cooked.

After dinner, the cleaned leaves are then grinded and strained for the juices. My dear husband does this for me. He can strained out more juices for me. I can't strain the juices as my hands are allegic to the juices. He looks forward to this part of the 'works' for me. A big plus from me!

Try to be eco-friendly, I packed the food in brown paper and the sauce in small plastic bags. I then organise the number of paper (its an A-3 size brown paper) and the carrier plastic bags (sometimes my clients recycle the carrier plastic bags).

Come Thursday, I wake up very early (normally around 3am) to prepare the day's activities. I cooked the rice a few times (I have one 2.3 litre rice cooker and one 1.5 litre rice cooker) depending on the number of orders for 'Khau Jump'. The rice has to be cool before I can packed the rest of the ingredients. If the rice is hot, the raw vegetables will be damp and soggy and the 'Khau Jump' will not taste good.

My cleaner comes in early too, for that particular day. She helps me with slicing the vegetables finely. I too, also cut some of the vegetables myself. She also looks forward to this as it brings excitement somehow or rather to her routine cleaning works.

Come 5am, I off to the 'Tamu Muhibah' to purchase some taugeh. To and fro the 'Tamu' takes 20 minutes or less (if there is not much traffic on the road).

At 6am, I started packing the food. Some of my clients like to have 'Khau Jump' for breakfast and some collect 'Khau Jump' on their way to work. My dear husband helps me to deliver those clients from his office. A life saver! He has it for lunch too.

My husband looks after my son for his breakfast and send him to school as well. I normally takes a quick breakfast around 8.30am and my coffee (a must, to keep me alert!). Then the packing continues.

All the packing will normally finish around 10.30am, then I am off to deliver the 'Khau Jump' after making sure that the number of packets are in order. My clients stretches along the route from Lutong to Centrepoint and Brighton (if my husband is travelling on that day). My clients have the 'Khau Jump' for lunch hence delivery before noon is a must! After delivery, I head home.

Having a quick vegetarian lunch (which I take-away from the vegetarian shop) with my cleaner, Mrs Wong and I am off to pick up my son from school.

It's quite a tiring day but am satified that I have customers who enjoys my food and my family also have it for dinner as well!