Wedding Reception: Gulai Kawah

If you were to attend kenduri kahwin in Kelantan, you will notice some similarity in their food served for the guests. The type of beef stew they have rather called gulai kawah is a must. Without it, it won’t be apt to be called kenduri kahwin. You don't have the opportunity to eat gulai kawah everyday because it is mainly meant for kenduri. I, for one like the taste of it. Of course, I have my palate benchmarked the taste because I grew up there. Hence, I have lived my life for years with the western food but that taste still haunting me, though.

For those of you who have never tried it before I would suggest you to try it. They are now being commercialized and you don't have to wait for a wedding invitation from Kelantan to taste it. You can find it in Kelantanese restaurants in Kuala Lumpur. I can suggest one in Greenwood, right behind the bus stand, at the street parallel to the main road and the other one in Pantai Dalam (this one belongs to my childhood friend, not far from KTM Commuter station). If you are not sure of the restaurants while you are at those places, go closer and open up your ears, there you will hear the thick accent of Kelantanese dialect of the owners. And a few other places I saw the banner or signboard written “Gulai Kawah” on it but I cannot recall where those places are.

May be some of you, even the Kelantanese do not know, there are two types of gulai kawah can be prepared, one is the ordinary way of preparing it, just like preparing your chicken curry to go with the onions, rempah and what not being fried before the coconut milk comes in. The other type, which I like it better for its less-greasy finish is called gulai darat. Gulai darat is cooked without using the cooking oil. This way of cooking does not kill your appetite; your mouth keeps on watery for more, you can eat a lot until your stomach begging for not to be dumped some more. This is not good for people who are on diet.

What they do is they plunge the cubed meat into the kawah together with all the onion and rempah, followed by coconut milk in later stage. As simple as it sounds, but of course it will only bring about the taste with the specially formulated rempah that only known to the Kelantan people, called rempah gulai darat. Next time if you visit Kelantan, I would suggest you to go to Pasar Khadijah in Kota Bharu, go to the first floor and you can see those businesswomen behind sacks and sacks of rempah, ask for rempah gulai darat. The rempah itself does not come in a prepared mix. She would mix it up in front of you, she would take it from different sacks of rempah and only trained hand with specific knowledge of it know the proportions needed each time to scoop different rempah from different sack. Awhh, did I tell you that those ladies behind the sacks are good at customer relations? They always make sure you feel good with their small talks while buying it. I would suggest those entrepreneurs to get the elementary courses from them before engaging in bigger businesses.

The other secret of gulai darat is, here goes, budu. Yes, budu is the essential ingredient for the gulai darat. Without budu, there won’t be those special taste of it and again, only trained people with specific central control of the palate with tens of years of experience consuming it can tell the special taste of it. I got to know that for one kawah of gulai darat (One kawah can serve up to 250 people), 4 to 5 bottles of budu is needed. If my maths is right – cooking for a family of five, try to put 5 litres of budu – then you’ll be drunk with budu.