Tanjong Jara Resort’s menu master has the main ingredients for happiness, writes Kerry-Ann Augustin
THE unforgiving storm from the night before still stains Dungun’s skies. It’s 8am and the sleepy East Coast town is blanketed by a single shade of grey. Fishing boats docked at the small port bob delicately on the surprisingly calm waters and a flock of birds glide across the backdrop of hills that frame the district.
But the quiet calmness is in stark contrast to the buzz coming from the building across the road from the port. The Dungun market is where local farmers and fishermen lay out their best produce and freshest catch, competing both in prices and vocal volumes to sell their offerings.
Kick starting her day there at the crack of dawn every morning is Norbaya Mohamad. Better known as Chef Ann, she is Tanjong Jara Resort’s renowned Menu Master and head chef of one of its three restaurants, Di Atas Sungei.
For years, she has been taking guests from the resort to the market where she takes great pride in explaining the different kind of ingredients used in traditional Malay cooking. It’s all part and parcel of the resort’s ‘Unmistakably Malay’ concept, and on a personal level for Chef Ann, experiencing the little joys of her hometown.
“Are you ready for the market? It’s slippery in there you know!” Chef Ann says with a mischievous smile plastered on her face. Mischief must be her middle name. She is known to guests and locals alike for her eccentricity, her unwavering optimistic energy, hearty laughter, uninhabited display of comical poses and facial expressions as well as her infinite love for cats.
She’s not even the least bit bashful about admitting that she lives with many feline companions at home. We pass a stray kitten lying down, enjoying the cool of the concrete floors before she bends to caress the head of the cat gently. In the middle of the market, it’s quite a sight watching Chef Ann talking to the cat like it understood her. “I just love cats. Chef Ann the cat lover!” she adds, chuckling.
LOCAL FLAVOURS
The uneven, potholed floors are indeed a tough trek for anyone unaccustomed to markets. There are pockets of water, sitting still from both the rain and the containers cradling ice and offerings from the South China Sea. Variations of fish, crabs and prawns are in abundance, piled on top one another and the pungent scent of the sea wafts throughout the large but narrow halls. Chef Ann is dressed for the mess. She sports fuss-free short hair and is decked in her white collared shirt, black baggy pants and a sturdy pair of black shoes, something she stresses is important when walking in markets.
Her name is embroidered on her shirt, but as she walks in to the market, it’s obvious there’s no need for that. Chef Ann is a local legend. Traders greet her affectionately with warm smiles and big hellos. She jokes with market- goers with ease, extending her hands out to the traders behind the catch of the day, who allow her to casually pick up a fish or two. “We’ve always eaten fish here in the East Coast,” she says of Terengganu, a place she has called home for most of her life.
She holds up a fish as well as a packet of fish serunding, pointing out the state’s staple food. “It’s very common to have that element of fish in our food here because Dungun is, after all, a coastal town,” she explains, noting that Tanjong Jara Resort guests are often surprised by the variety and freshness of seafood available at the market.
Chef Ann honed her craft in Cherating’s Club Med before returning to Dungun to head Tanjong Jara Resort’s kitchen. “I loved my childhood here, living near the sea. I still love the beach and how warm it makes you feel,” she recalls.
She didn’t learn to cook at home, but fell in love with the art of cooking at age 17, after secondary school. “I took cooking up by myself. I loved cooking because it meant I had a chance to share food with people. It became a hobby.”
For the past 17 years, she has been back in what she deems as paradise. “Tanjong Jara Resort called me in 1998 with an opportunity to work back in Dungun and I didn’t think twice,” she says with a smile.
MENU MASTER
Chef Ann and I are at the market to shop for fish, meats and produce for tonight’s dinner. “We buy our ingredients locally, every day. So what you have at the restaurant is fresh, and of the best quality.”
The restaurant, which sits above a river, runs on a very unique concept. Unlike any other place, there are no menus. “We want our guests to explore our local cuisine in a different way,” she says. “So instead of giving them a menu where they might be afraid to try something different or unfamiliar, we tell them what ingredients we have in our kitchen and what kind of dishes we can make out of it. It’s a great way to explain not just the dish, but the kind of ingredients or the heritage of the ingredients that make the dish — the flavours from galangal for example or the sweetness from the roselle flower,” she continues, adding that knowing what we eat connects us to the food itself.
“It works well, especially for guests who are either not so adventurous, food wise, or stay for longer durations. I realised that when I come out of the kitchen and talk to the guests, explain the flavours and how things are cooked, they feel more comfortable with trying something new.”
MOOD FOR FOOD
As the setting sun turns the sand along Tanjong Jara Resort into gold dust, Chef Ann has changed into her chef’s uniform — a pristine white top with black buttons, neatly adjusted like her coif. A group of us savour the last few moments of twilight from Di Atas Sungei, where our conversations are accompanied by melodic gamelan music playing in the background. Her boisterous vocals pierce the hypnotic sound of gongs as she introduces herself enthusiastically. I ask what the secret is to keeping so upbeat throughout the day. “I eat well and sleep well,” she replies, grinning.
She’s at total ease recommending dishes, steamed whole fish, butter prawns, traditional kangkung belacan and her personal signature dish and star of the kitchen, Chicken Roselle. To cleanse the palette with some sweetness, she has whipped up a warm, moist chocolate brownie with vanilla ice-cream.
She’s so thrilled to be cooking for us that it is immediately apparent what makes her the big, bright soul she is: Cooking and making people happy. Enthusiastically, she confides: “When people taste and appreciate the dishes, that’s what motivates me to improve my cooking. And on my off days, I’ll cook for my nieces and nephews or my siblings. I just love cooking!”
SMILING CHEF
On the way back to Kuala Lumpur, I recalled a particular moment while in the Dungun market with Chef Ann. As she was explaining the ingredients to me, an elderly woman nearby lost her footing and fell to the ground. Without a moment of hesitation, Chef Ann stopped our conversation and rushed to the woman’s aid, helping her up, handing her a tissue and calming her down. Within minutes, she returned, continuing our tour of the market — picking up fruit, mucking around pretending they were earrings, sharing a laugh or two with some vendors and keeping her smile and humour ever so constant.
The most important ingredient Chef Ann showed me that morning had nothing to do with food. It was her happy, passionate heart, which she uses to carve smiles on the faces around her, stir warmth in every person she spoke to and definitely, cook her food with love.
BEEF RENDANG
Serves 6
Recipe by Chef Ann
Ingredients
250ml coconut milk from two old coconuts
1 turmeric leaf, torn and knotted
1 stalk lemon grass, bruised
1-2 pieces asam gelugor fruit (or juice from two limes as an alternative)
120g red chilli, finely sliced
1kg beef, fat and sinew removed cut into 3cm cubes.
Spices for mix
45g galangal, chopped
12 g fresh turmeric, chopped
12 g ginger chopped
200 g red chilies chopped
4 shallots, diced
Pinch of salt.
Method
1. Mix and pound all the spices together.
2. Simmer the coconut milk for three minutes with turmeric leaf, kaffir lime leaves, lemon grass, asam gelugur or lime juice, sliced chilies and ground spices till the milk thickens and becomes oily.
3. Reduce heat, add the beef and cook for about 10 minutes until tender.
4. Stir occasionally until the spices dry and turn brown.
5. Serve with white rice.