|
|
|
Michael preparing the chu cheong fun.
|
1st December, 2008
KOTA KINABALU: In the past, there was nothing much for Michael Rumadson to brag about being a full-blooded Bumiputera (son of soil), a Dusun to be more specific, until he discovered a popular Cantonese cuisine, chu cheong fun (steamed rice flour rolls with various types of filling inside) while working in a Chinese restaurant in Kuala Lumpur, more than four years ago.
This was especially true, as not only that he had mastered the skill of making chu cheong fun from a Hong Kong-hailed master chef during his four-year stint there, he now even operates his own chu cheong fun stall in the popular hawker parade in Damai Plaza Phase 4, in Luyang near here.
He is also probably the first non-Chinese to operate a chu cheong fun stall side-by-side with the Chinese hawkers, at ease.
The 37-year-old ex-fish monger from Kampung Tonsom, Kota Marudu started operating his chu cheong fun stall there three months ago and business has been thriving and is enough to provide for his family of six i.e. his wife and five children back in the kampung.
He started his business with a capital of RM3,000 plus which he saved up while working as a cook in a Chinese restaurant in Donggongon, Penampang for one year plus.
“It’s better than working for the others as it allows me to make more income, depending on how hard I’m willing to work,” he told the New Sabah Times recently.
The youngest of seven siblings of a farmer, Michael also reckoned that there are many Dusuns, including his own brother, who know how to cook Chinese cuisines after having worked in the Chinese restaurant for some time but, not many are as “adventurous” as him to set up their own business.
Starting at 5pm, he normally sells between 70 to 100 servings of chu cheong fun per-day. He currently serves five types of chu cheong fun namely, the BBQ pork, prawn, shrimp, minced chicken and Chinese sausage filling.
Many of this writer’s friends who ever tried his chu cheong fun before testified that they were as good as those prepared by the Chinese, if not better.
“One could hardly tell that they (the chu cheong fun) were made by a non-Chinese if one didn’t bother to find out,” quipped one of them.
|
