A stall under a shady tree near Berjaya Times Square is selling more than just noodles.
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KUALA LUMPUR: Most of us are quite happy with our nasi kandar, nasi lemak, char kuey teow, banana leaf rice and roti telur. But there are those adventurous souls who crave the exotic, the forbidden.
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| The illegal restaurant near Kinrara is situated near the main road but hidden behind other eating outlets. |
They go for crocodile meat in black pepper sauce, spicy fried tiger, KFC (Kepong fried cobra), monkey brains, python cooked with ginger, sweet and sour iguana, butter pangolin and other exotic -- and sometimes illegal -- dishes.
Madras Lane used to be the place to go for exotic meat, but the trade has spread throughout the Klang Valley.
It appears that there are a number of restaurants where such exotic dishes can be found. But while some dishes were merely strange and unfamiliar, many were illegal as they were made from endangered species.
Wild boar, deer, turtle, crocodile, monitor lizard, tortoise, pangolin, iguana, fruit bats, snake, squirrel, flying fox, pigeon , monkey and tiger were all on the menu.
Many restaurants that dish out the usual noodles, rice, and seafood bring out these meats for trusted, regular customers only.
This is the main reason the authorities find it a challenge to stamp out the sale of illegal meat. Often, the meat is hidden in a secret storage area so when the restaurant is raided no contraband is found.
Tucked away in Puchong Perdana is a popular Chinese restaurant known to have been selling a variety of illegal game meat for years. Snake, dog and squirrel were all the menu, and a blogger said he had tried tiger meat there, but it was subject to availability.
And at an unassuming shack under a tree near Berjaya Times Square, tortoise and turtle soups and snake dishes are sold to those in the know. In the day, mee soup, rice dishes and the usual staples are sold here, but as night falls, more unusual fare is dished out.
Enquiring at a stall nearby under the pretext of searching for unusual meats for a Caucasian friend to try, the lady manning the stall said that they are usually available in the evenings. The "healthy" Chinese soups contain anything from squirrel to turtle and snake.
The area around the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah airport is another hotspot for exotic dishes. And long before Puchong became a vibrant residential area, there were two shops near Kinrara known for dishing out monitor lizard, dog, wild boar and others.
It is no secret that exotic meat dishes are a lucrative business. Just last week it was reported that marine police arrested eight men and seized 16 pangolins off Sungai Sarang Buaya.
The group was believed to have been smuggling pangolins from Indonesia for several months. Its meat sells for about RM160 per kilo.
Just as exotic -- but at least legal -- pufferfish and geoduck are being found on a growing number of restaurant menus.
The pufferfish, or fugu, and its highly toxic internal organs come to us from Japan. Available at some Japanese restaurants in the Klang Valley, eating it has been likened to playing Russian roulette.
In the hands of an expert, it is safe to eat, and in Japan chefs must be licensed to prepare it. It takes years of training.
Unfortunately for a group of people in Johor Baru, the person preparing it at a pasar malam was not an expert, and they all died as a consequence. Ignorance kills.
Geoduck is the largest burrowing clam in the world. Because of its phallic shape, many consider it an aphrodisiac. In North America it is a multi-million-dollar industry, and it is becoming increasingly popular here.
But what all this wondrous gastronomy means for the endangered pangolin or turtle on your plate is that eventually, we will only know these animals from pictures and television documentaries. Think about it the next time you pick up your spoon.
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