Khirularziman Mahmud, known around Madison as ‘Chef Ken’, has already planned a menu for his brick-and-mortar restaurant, but it could take months to come to fruition.
Mahmud is the owner of Kerol’s Kitchen, a food cart and catering business. On a recent weekday, he leaned forward in a white chef’s coat after serving a delicious catering his lunch based on a typical Malaysian wedding reception.
At his restaurant, “you have to eat nasi lemak,” he said.
Malaysia’s unofficial national dish, nasi lemak, literally means ‘rich’ or ‘creamy’ rice, and for good reason. The centerpiece of the dish is rice cooked in coconut milk. It is traditionally served with peanuts, sliced cucumber, hard-boiled eggs and some kind of protein in a thick curry sauce.
“And pink milk,” said Mahmoud. “You’ll want this. It’s milk mixed with rose syrup. It’s so refreshing. And a Malaysian coffee topped with a thick foam sweetened with honey. There can be no Malaysian restaurant without this.” ”
One day, Mahmoud hopes to serve his cuisine in every major university town in the country.
chef
Mahmud remains a culinary nomad while scouring the city for a good place with affordable rent. Over the past 20 years, Mahmud has primarily cooked dishes from his hometown, delivering his Malaysian cuisine to avid diners who have heard about it by word of mouth.
“I’m very well known on campus,” he said. “There aren’t that many orders for September so far, but just wait a month. By then, all the Malaysian students at the university will run out of food they’ve brought. They’ll be homesick.” I start by looking around for the types of dishes that I am familiar with, and other students will send them to me.”
During an average week during the school year, Mahmud delivers dozens of takeout meals to eager, hungry students waiting in front of Memorial Union. He prepares a spicy curry layered with ginger, onions, red peppers and garlic and fragrant rice with saffron, cardamom, cloves, star anise and pandan leaves. Pandan is a tropical plant with a grassy flavor reminiscent of vanilla and coconut.
“I am like a community elder,” laughs Mahmoud. “They know me. They call me ‘Uncle’ and his wife ‘Auntie.’ “
After booking several small festivals, weddings, various catering jobs and cooking classes in private homes, Mahmud started expanding his business last year. Earlier this month, he served as Hood his vendor for the first time at a Taste of Madison.
Kerol’s Kitchen served 1,600 plates of beef rendang or chicken curry and 1,500 plates of Malaysian spring rolls. This is a dish he made with his wife. The spring rolls earned him first place in the Asian Cuisine Taste of Taste Award.
“It was great,” he said. “I don’t have a regular staff, so some of the Malaysian students I cook helped serve on weekends.”
Mahmood has a sale Wednesday night at the Boneyard Dog Park and Beer Garden on Madison’s east side, alongside several other food carts. There, he makes stir-fried rice and sautéed noodle dishes to order, along with award-winning spring rolls.
“I make everything fresh,” he said. “Nothing is frozen. I drive to Milwaukee once a week to get fresh herbs that I can’t buy here.”
Malaysian food requires patience
Mr. Mahmoud explained the origins of Malaysian cuisine and the philosophy behind it while introducing the dishes served at my luncheon. As a country with many immigrants from surrounding regions, Malaysian cuisine is influenced by the food cultures of Java, China, India, Indonesia and Thailand.
Due to the use of local ingredients in each region, the taste of the final product varies greatly. “Palm sugar grown and processed in each region is different,” says Mahmoud. “Tea is different. Malaysian tea leaves are much more fragrant. We use spices in different ways.
“Also, Malaysian food requires patience,” he added. “I learned it from my dad when I was a kid watching him cook. It taught me to brown it. The result is a deep, rich flavor.”
Mahmoud credits his parents with teaching him the basic tenets of cooking in his native culture. Although he was not formally trained as a chef, he spent years working in professional kitchens in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, doing everything from washing the dishes to preparing banquets for foreign dignitaries, including the late Queen Elizabeth II. I was doing everything.
Mahmoud went to Madison with his wife in the early 1990s. He devoted himself to raising her three sons when she began her doctorate in environmental science at her UW. Soon he started cooking for his friends, and friends of friends, and his reputation grew.
“It wasn’t always easy,” he said, shaking his head. I feel fine now. “
balanced introduction
The dinner that Mahmoud prepared for my family was a great introduction to Malaysian cuisine. Nasi hujan pana (saffron-flavored rice served with boiled egg), dagging masak hitam (black beef), shrimp curry with tomato and green beans, ayam masak mela (chicken with red pepper), timun akar ( Cucumber and fresh tomato salad, pineapple, carrots and jalapenos).
Following the instructions, each item was piled up a little on a plate and eaten together, allowing the flavors to mix and play with each other. It was a complex amalgamation of hand ground herbs. The food was beautifully balanced. The spicy chilies were assertive but not overpowering.
“When I do cooking classes, it’s usually for a group of female friends in one of the houses,” Mahmud said. “Sometimes they talk and gossip and don’t learn much.
“But I tell them to pay attention and your husband will love you. This is cooking from the heart.”
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