MALAYSIA-RETURNED AMERICAN CHEF STARTS SECOND MALAYSIAN RESTAURANT IN NEW YORK

MANIK MEHTA


NEW YORK, March 16 (Bernama) -- He arrived as a trainee in a restaurant in
Kuala Lumpur to learn the ropes of cooking Malaysian food and get a first-hand
exposure to the intricacies of Malaysia's food culture.

On completion of his training, he returned to New York and started his own
Malaysian restaurant, serving the hot, spicy food along with slight variations
of Malaysian dishes to make them palatable to his growing customer base in the
Big Apple.

Meet Zak Pelaccio, chef, restaurant-owner and entrepreneur, all rolled into
one.

After setting up what he once described as a "small Southeast Asian joint"
in the latter part of 2005 - the restaurant, which is located in the so-called
meat-packing district of Manhattan, was christened "Fatty Crab" with a strong
emphasis on Malaysian cuisine - Peleccio has now set up another restaurant in
the upper west side of Manhattan on Broadway 77th Street.

The "Fatty Crab" restaurant, as he explained in an interview with Bernama in
his new restaurant, was inspired by a restaurant of the same name just outside
Kuala Lumpur where, he reminisced, he spent "lots of happy hours in his leisure
time while working at the Seri Melayu, a large traditional restaurant".

SECOND FATTY CRAB

But as fate would have it, Pelaccio set up his restaurant in Manhattan which
attracts New Yorkers eager to try the spicy Malaysian cuisine.

"I must confess I did not know at that time that this (Malaysian) cuisine
would become so popular", he said.

"The popularity of the first Fatty Crab restaurant led me to believe that
there was indeed room for a second Fatty Crab restaurant in another part of the
city".

At a bash for the media, friends and customers on Saturday for the new
restaurant, the guests mingled with each other and engaged in small talk,
sampling Malaysian and other Southeast Asian food which they washed down with
beer, wine and soft drinks.

"We are trying to offer as authentic a cuisine of Southeast Asia, including
Malaysia, as possible", he maintained.

THE ONLY AMERICAN

While there are a few Malaysian restaurants already existing in New York
City - there are about 20, according to the Malaysian mission -- the curious
thing about Pelaccio's venture is that he is the only mainstream American to run
such a restaurant.

The other Malaysian restaurants are run, mainly, by Malaysians of Chinese
origin, even though many of them provide an Americanized version of Malaysian
food.

Zak said that his "life's passion" has been cooking and food. He has
travelled widely in Europe and Asia, arriving eventually in Malaysia where he
lived for a year.

He admits that his Malaysia sojourn gave him deep insights not only in the
cuisine of Malaysia but the entire Southeast Asian region.

Indeed, upon his return from Malaysia, he was determined to showcase the
Malaysian cuisine and prepare it for New Yorkers.

"The result was Fatty Crab", he says with an amused smile.

GENUINE MALAYSIAN ATMOSPHERE

Fatty Crab is not like any other Asian restaurants whose numbers are
proliferating in the city.

The guests in the restaurant are led to traditional chairs from China,
hand-made table tops, multi-coloured chop sticks, and plates and other unique
paraphernalia.

To create a "genuine Malaysian atmosphere" for the guests, the restaurant
offers chili Crab with white bread slices and Malaysian rotisserie chicken
wings.

Both these are favourite dishes in the Fatty Crab restaurant in Malaysia.
Other dishes are oyster omelette Ashraf, fatty tea sandwiches, Jalan Alor
chicken wings, etc.

Asian and Malaysian guests are surprised -- as were the Malaysian chefs who
have been cooking for the marathon Malaysian food fest at the United Nations and
who were guests at Saturday's bash - that besides Zak, his chef de cuisine
Corwin Kove and the entire kitchen staff of Fatty Crab are Americans who cook
the spicy Malaysian food.

-- BERNAMA