Klang Valley Streets: Spoilt for choice

Faizi ni our super senior. pkp 1st batch. Aku makan kat sini 2 minggu lepas, nasi beriyani johor best... He was with Shell and then Projet before handling his in law business full time.

faizi - the owner's in law

one of the specialities - ikan bakar

By : RUSLINA YUSOFF SOURCE: NST Online When a fighter pilot decides to ground himself, there has to be a good reason. RUSLINA YUSOFF finds out why. FOR someone whose life was spent up in the air, fighter pilot Abdul Razak Ibrahim had something more down-to-earth on his mind:his wife’s cooking. A skilled cook, Poziah Mahdi had a home-based business, selling local kuih. Business was picking up and Abdul Razak had to make a choice. He decided, 20 years ago, to ground himself, and he’s never looked back, because business soared. So much so that today, Abdul Razak and his family own two restaurants and a laundrette. As fate would have it, Poziah died two years ago at the age of 47 and business is now largely handled by their daughter Norli Azira and her husband Faizi Mohd Zin, an IT consultant. Restoran Azira, which Abdul Razak named after his daughter, is located in Section 10 and is a favourite haunt for families. What makes it noteworthy? You can find every kampung delicacy that you’ve yearned for somewhere in the spread of dishes laid out at the restaurant. Norli Azira puts the success of their food business to the variety that they offer. “At any one time, we have more than 70 different dishes for lunch,” she said. Fast-moving dishes are asam pedas Johor, ikan bakar (the aromatic spicy fried chicken), masak lemak nangka, the pecal, which is served with peanut sauce, and the healthy ulam,” says Norli Azira, 26, a graduate in business administration. “All our dishes are cooked using family recipes,” she says. For instance, the grilled fish (terubuk, pari, mackeral or cencaru) comes either stuffed or marinated in special spices before they are wrapped in banana leaves and grilled over a slow fire. Those who want something different can choose from hawker-stall food like Hainanese chicken rice, laksa Penang, or the Bakso (mee curry, mee and mee hoon soup), all are sold in kiosks inside the restaurant. Breakfast-time also sees a big spread of dishes. Besides the usual nasi lemak, lontong and roti jala, the real crowd-puller is Restoran Azira’s offering of hard-to-find local pancakes such as the lempeng pisang and tapioca, aten with sambal tumis, asam pedas or curry. There’s a choice of 20 or more assortment of local kuihs. There’s also rice porridge. No Malay meal is complete without the pengat or bubur — the restaurant offers seven types of bubur, including bubur gandum, pulut hitam and bubur kacang. For tea-time, there’s another round of local delicacies in addition to the fried snacks such as perennial favourites pisang and ubi goreng. Business has been so good that Abdul Razak and his family opened another shop in Section 8 in the early 1990s. “The concept is that you can come here and expect to have something different every day,” says Norli, adding that they have five main cooks who have been with them for more than 10 years. In the beginning, Norli Azira says, the family sold the local delicacies in and around Section 2 as well as at the PKNS complex in Shah Alam city centre. In 1984, when they were able to buy the shophouse in Section 10, business took off. They expanded again, by renting the adjacent lot, to accommodate more diners. Having invested more than RM300,000 in the business, Norli Azira is determined to manage and sustain the business. “We depend a lot on the skills of our staff whom we have trained on the job. We appreciate them and have built a good relationship with them,” says the mother of three young children, whose home is on the first floor of the restaurant Her late mother loved nasi briyani so much she decided to open up a separate restaurant exclusively for nasi briyani Johor served with spicy, succulent beef, chicken and lamb. The new restaurant is just a few doors away. For variety, mee rebus, lempeng, nasi lemak and laksa Johore are also available. Norli Azira says that her main challenge is to maintain rapport with customers and try to maintain their prices despite rising cost of raw materials. Competition is healthy so they can’t remain complacent. Nowadays, food is not their only concern: they are also into the laundrette business bought over from a friend next door. Isn’t that a totally different business altogether? As far as Norli is concerned, it’s “still a service and consumer-oriented business.” Restoran Azira is open from 7am to 10pm daily.For more information, call 019-220 8855. Address: No 5 Jalan Cheongsam 10/11, Seksyen 10, Shah Alam.