While most people would throw out chicken intestines, Ab Rahman Mamat cooks up a special curry with it that has now become the rage for locals here.
69-year-old Pok Ya as he is known among his regular customers came up with his speciality, the ‘Gulai Darat Perut Ayam Kampung’ 35 years ago, and since then, people have been lining up as early as 7 a.m. at his shop in Kampung Chabang Empat Tok Mek Ngah here for it.
So popular is Pok Ya’s curry which is eaten with rice, that it is usually sold out within two hours of him opening his shop.
Most sellers, he said, would discard the intestines as the process of cleaning it is tedious and requires special skills.
“To get rid of the smell of the intestines, I scrap and boil it for 30 minutes before soaking in vinegar solution,” he told reporters at his shop here yesterday.
A father of five, Pok Ya started his food business 35 years ago and came up with the idea for the chicken intestine curry to avoid wastage.
He uses a special recipe to cook the curry, mixing in various types of spices and adding in ‘budu tempayan’ .
He cooks the curry one day ahead, starting at 5 p.m., as the process of preparing and cooking the dish takes time.
“In the beginning, I would use intestines from five chicken, but now it has reached more than 15 chicken a day.
With the help of his second son, Mohd Johari, 43, Pok Ya sells a packet of rice with the chicken intestines for RM3 each, while some customers prefer to buy just the curry priced at between RM3 to RM5 per packet. – BERNAMA
