SOME of Klang’s best street food are found in back lanes and at food courts where family-run hawker stalls have forged a gastronomic tradition for their affordably priced fare.
One such stall is Rojak Klang Gani, a place specialising in Indian rojak that has been around for 53 years.
Hungry customers who get down from their luxury cars, Indonesian migrants from Madura who walk from construction sites and even families that take the bus to town, have to wait patiently as its first-come, first-served here.
For RM5 a plate, one gets a mishmash of crisp fresh lettuce, fried tofu, a boiled egg cut into halves, cubed boiled potatoes, cucumber and fried kuih with sautéed onions, slices of cuttlefish and a little bowl of peanut gravy.
Nina Mohd Meeralavay, 59, who runs the stall with his elder brother Nagoor Ghani, 62, said all the ingredients that go into the making of the rojak is prepared upon receiving an order.
Nina Mohd Meeralavay started working with his father Meeralavay Kadershah at the age of 15.
“We serve it fresh. Our tofu and kuih are fried on the spot while the eggs are boiled at the stall.
“Other than serving it with crunchy and hot off the wok, the rich peanut gravy gives the rojak its lip-smacking goodness.
“Some customers ask for extra gravy as they love the nuttiness,” he said.
Nagoor said the ingredients for making the sauce was a family secret, that had been written on a goatskin parchment.
Everyday, both brothers, would put in the ingredients including 10kg of peanuts for the sauce as there needs to be plenty of the gravy to meet customers’ demand.
Nina Mohd, who has four children and five grandsons, said the original stall started by his father Meeralavay Kadershah and mother Fatimah Bevi in 1950, was located on the five-foot-way outside Capitol Cinema in north Klang, that has now become a furniture store.
“Old timers, who used to frequent the pushcart stall, still come to our stall in Emporium Makan food court at Jalan Raja Hassan.
“The stall has been around since 1968.
“Now, the second and third generation come to enjoy rojak after shopping at Shaw Centrepoint,” he said.
The stall opens from 5.30pm to 10pm (Mondy to Saturday) and is closed on Sunday.
