Day 2
I woke up early and started to gather all the food and cooking tools I would need. I didn’t know what to expect in Gary’s kitchen, but it had to be better than what I was working with. I loaded the other IKEA bag and headed downstairs at noon to meet Kee, someone from the factory who was picking me up. Kee had heard about the Seder last night and was eager to show-off his Jewish vocabulary, “Shabbos”
“Oh yes, Shabbos, very good”
“Pesach”
“Ha, yes, Pesach”
“We have Seder last year in Bangkok”
Wow, impressive, interesting and confusing.
We arrived at Gary’s auto parts re-manufacturing plant, I had seen pictures online, so I sort of knew what to expect. Regardless, it is still surprising to see the Lubavitch Rebbe and a giant menorah made of auto parts in the middle of an industrial zone outside of Kuala Lumpur. I went upstairs and was greeted by Gary, sitting at a table and eating some matzo with butter. We sat, ate matzo and talked for a while about the previous night’s Seder and Gary suggested I take it easy with the cooking. No need to work so hard, he could always order some food in. Little did Gary know that I had enough to feed 30 people. I learned that Gary had 2 other residences that he infrequently stayed at in the area and, in fact, Gary pretty much lived at the factory. I was surprised, but he assured me it was very nice, apparently there was even marble.
Gary had been looking around on the internet earlier in the day and came across a Malaysian website with recipes for Jewish food…gefilte fish included. He had been trying to contact the website owner to invite him to the Seder. Oh, and some stranger had emailed Gary, another Malaysian, who had come across the same article that had introduced us to Gary. He was shocked to see that someone celebrated Pesach in Malaysia and simply wanted to say “Have a nice holiday”. In response, he was invited to the Seder. As it turns out, Gary was not only a magnet for Jews in Kuala Lumpur, but really for anyone with an inkling of an interest in Judaism.
It was getting close to 1:30pm and I had yet to survey the kitchen and I really needed to get started if I was going to be finished before the guests arrived at 7. Jenny was summoned to show me the kitchens (ok great, more than one) and to my surprise, the “kitchens” were not really kitchens at all. They were like office kitchens: sink, fridge, counter. One had a combo microwave / convection oven. I didn’t think it was going to be possible, I had actually moved from my inadequate cooking space to a complete cooking void. Jenny could see my concern and suggested that we go look at the roof. The roof….ok, let’s see the roof.
We climbed the steps to find the employee mess hall.
Dozens of table, chairs, a giant industrial sink, 2 propane burners and a large grill. A sigh of relief, not a kitchen, but I could work with this. As long as I could keep from passing out in the 97degree heat. At least there was a roof and some fans circulating. As Jenny was about to head back the office, she wanted to make sure I was making eggs and onions again. I assured her we would have some.
A worker arrived and hooked a tank of propane to the grill and fired it up. Esther and Lilly appeared, they were going to be my assistants. And then I was introduced to Rama, an Indian woman who appeared to work in the mess hall. I heard there was a Thai woman who was the cook, but she wasn’t around. My guess is that Rama was the assistant.
So, we got to work. The ladies began chopping, peeling, dicing and cleaning every vegetable and fruit they could get their hands on. I cut the enormous brisket in 3, seasoned it and tossed it on the grill to give it a nice sear. I realized the grill was going to be perfect, adding some nice flavor to the meats. Rama fired up the propane burner and once the brisket was nicely seared, in it went, with water, potatoes, leeks, onions, a little garlic and some bay leaf. Suddenly the 97degree heat started to feel like 105.
Even though Esther was a vegetarian she was ok with making slits in the leg of lamb and filling them with garlic and rosemary. Once that was done, I placed the lamb on the grill, closed the lid and began tweaking with the burners to try to get to a 400 degree cooking temperature. Not an easy task, as 2 of the 4 burners were missing control knobs. Fortunately in a factory there are tools galore, so eventually I was able to get the burners where I needed them and continually checked in on the lamb.
Brisket was braising, lamb was roasting, on to everything else. Matzo farfel with mushrooms and leeks, roasted potatoes, eggs and onions, chopped liver, chicken soup with matzo balls, dessert. How was I possibly going to be able to make dessert on a grill? I’ll worry about that later.
Everything was actually coming together and my assistants were working like machines. I had lowered the grill to 350 and after an hour the brisket was sliced and returned to the pot to braise for another 2 to 3 hours. A taste of the brisket revealed a nice smoky flavor from the grill, still too tough, but definitely headed in the right direction.
On to the chicken, did I forget to mention we were going to have chicken too? Lauren thought a good variety would be exciting and I was concerned that with a party of who knows how many…there could be some who didn’t eat lamb or brisket. We had just made tarragon chicken at Bayan Indah a few days earlier and I thought it would be a nice addition to the meal, minus the cream sauce. Lilly and Esther got busy stuffing tarragon, garlic, salt and pepper under the chicken skin and I removed a fabulously roasted leg of lamb from the grill.
I looked around. What do you get when you put a NY Jew, a Malaysian, a Burmese and an Indian on a hot roof? Apparently the makings of a great Seder meal.
With the apples cooking in a pot with some sugar and cinnamon, I began to focus on how to actually bake the “crisp” to make it, well, crisp. I did it in a pan at home, but it just didn’t seem possible under these circumstances. I decided that the grill was my best bet. Grilled apple crisp.
The cooking was pretty much completed, so I went down and took a shower in the plant. Fortunately I knew I would work up a sweat, so I had brought a change of clothes. I had no idea I’d be out in the Malaysian heat cooking, but a nice shower and some fresh clothes and I was like new. Lauren arrived at 6 and I gave her a quick tour of the “kitchens” and the roof. We went to sit with Gary and chat, that’s when he announced that I would be leading the Seder. I had done such a great job the night before, he insisted. I refused. I was exhausted. He declined my refusal and it was set.
Slowly the guests began to arrive, Andre was first. Then came Sidney, a professor from NY via North Carolina. There was Dan and Donna, a Malaysian father and daughter. As I later learned, Dan and Donna were actually Malaysian Jews from Penang, quite possibly the only Malaysian Jews left. It was exhilarating to be sharing Pesach with them, they had not been able to have a Seder before. It was sad to learn that they had to live their Jewish lives in secrecy. Being a Malaysian Jew simply was not acceptable here. Dan’s son had just had a baby boy and they decided it was time to leave the country for Australia. The rest of the family had left years earlier and they couldn’t bear bringing up another generation in secrecy. I have to imagine sharing in this event just reinforced their need to leave the country and be able to join a Jewish community in the open. Then there was Marge. She scared me right away. Turns out she was a Messianic missionary, no wonder she scared me. Michael and his wife are Chinese Malaysian (Michael was the one who sent the email to Gary earlier in the day). Anat and her husband and 2 kids (she’s Israeli, he is from Louisiana) arrived late, but in time for the Four Questions. There was the couple from England who were teaching at a boarding school out in the middle of nowhere. In the end, I think we were about 15, with food for 30 or more. This time only 4 had not been to a Seder before and, as we always like to do, we made sure everyone participated. There were some good questions from Dan about the differences between Sephardic and Ashkenazi Seder foods (how did he know about this??) and everyone was having a good time. The food started coming out before we were finished, but we hurried the Seder along because I could tell the smell of matzo ball soup was distracting everyone.
As we began to dig in, I surveyed the room. Nobody was talking, dishes were being passed, mouths were being stuffed and sounds of pleasure were being grunted. Michael had never tasted anything like the brisket before. Andre gave in to his urges and tried the chopped liver. He resisted the night before because of his gout, but today he ate more than a person should. Anat said the food reminded her of her grandmother’s cooking, and that was the best compliment I could have hoped to receive. It reminded me of my grandmother’s cooking and my mother’s cooking. Suddenly home didn’t seem so far away. I had my wife next to me, we had our local “Jewish” community surrounding us, and we felt proud that we brought Pesach to these Jewish transplants who may have not been able to fulfill the Seder obligation without us.
As we left the factory, I was stopped by a group of factory workers. They had been enjoying the food upstairs in the mess hall. It felt good to know that all these people got to enjoy some real, home style, New York, Jewish cooking. Malaysian cuisine is a mixing pot of Malay, Chinese and Indian heritage. Who knows, maybe a little Jewish has been added to the mix!
Eric,
Many many thanks for delicious food and wonderful Seder presentation.
You are real Rabbi and chef.
All the best
Regards,
Gary
