Melting Cheese Naan of Culture

Making of the Cheese Naan

Christchurch, New Zealand July 2014

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Kuala Lumpur is home to 1.5 million people. All of them have to eat. Lucky for them, their history, their cultural diversity and the fact that this country is one of the most ecological diverse places on the planet, enables them to have access to the most fascinating cuisine in the planet.

There are plenty of choices to choose from. We have the Chinese cuisine, brought mostly by the chinese wave in the middle of the 20^th century, which is already a “subject” of it’s own. The Malay food which was already here before the English and Portuguese came in pursuit of land and ports of control and as of consequence the local food was enhanced by the introduction of western favorites such as cheese and beef. And as if that was not enough, the Indian immigration, along with it’s rich and colorful culture of food brought into the mix the now famous Malay favorites Roti Chanai and the Chicken Tika just to mention a few. In addition to the concept of the 24 hour street food restaurant called mamak.

Mamak

Off all of those choices rich with history and cultural importance there is one that rises above them all according to the locals. I do not have statistical fact to support my statement, but I do have experiential evidence of families, children and even a recently wedded couple all dressed in their most elegant attire sitting in the plastic chair around the aluminum table enjoying what it is said to be The Best Cheese Naan in all Kuala Lumpur.

It is here in the 11 & 13 Jelan Medan Tuanuk where it all happens. The RSMY restaurant where our friend Bakri brought us for the first time to the Kuala Lumpuir Classic. The fusion food is obvious here as their menu offers a variety of dishes like Nasi Lemak, Laksa soup, Tandori Chicken, Sup Tulang and so on. However, it is the Cheese Naan that rules in this place.

Enjoying the Cheese Naan

It is the romantic way in which every Cheese Naan consumer grabs a piece of the recently baked Naan and defies gravity by lifting as high as possible to see how the melted cheese falls like a waterfall of flavor into their plate that you know there is truly love to this dish. It is only after witnessing this act of love over and over that you are convinced that this Indian/Pakistani cultural gift with a hint of the western is truly a gem that brings so much joy to the Malay people and to the world that is lucky enough to taste it. Hence the reflexion: How good are cultural fusions?

They are Ready

I tried to visit it as often as I could while I was in Kuala Lumpur, there where always people there eating 24/7. The restaurant never closed but unarguably the busiest time to visit it was in the late afternoon and all through the night when the masters of the stone oven and the Naan lady worked their shifts to make this extraordinary bread. You were able to see a sample from all the ethnic groups living in the country: Malay, Chinese, Indian as well as the foreigner all enjoying the Naan in the same way. Some choose to side dish their Naan with a soup, Chicken Tandori or Nasi Lemak but regardless of their personal preference the Naan was always present.

The Man

I enjoyed watching how they made the Naan. Make a ball of dough by hand. Throw the ball of dough to the baker. The baker receives the ball of dough and puts a substantial amount of cheese inside it. He then flattens the the dough to mold it to a circular shape and then proceeds to put it on the wall of the already heated stone oven. Curiously enough it is made very similar as the Georgian khachapuri but with a different taste.

More Cheese Please!

Habemus Cheese Naan

After a couple of minutes it is done and the baker serves it into the plate and cuts it into several pieces, pizza style and habemus Cheese Naan!

Straight out of the Oven

We all have to eat and drink and that is perhaps one of the few undisputed arguments of our equality as humans. And as we have discovered maybe food is always better when we can mix ideas, ingredients or technology even if they come from far away places, indeed that has been the only way we have been able to enlarge our variety of food. So, if food is a great example of how mixing ideas and cultures have made our enjoyment better on the things that we need (biologically speaking), why is it so hard to apply this same principle to other cultural products that biologically we don’t need as much to survive such as religion, ideologies or political systems? It really makes me wonder.

In the meantime I will celebrate the melting pot of culture here in Malaysia with my Cheese Naan.

My Cheese Naan