JOHOR BARU: In keeping her Chinese grandmother’s tradition alive, a Ramadan bazaar trader has come up with her own version of barbecued dried meat using beef for Muslims to enjoy.

       Nuriffaizzah Mohammad, who runs a stall at the Plaza Angsana Ramadan bazaar, has been selling the barbecued pressed meat known as dendeng since 10 years ago.

       “My grandmother and mother are Chinese. They told us they used to give relatives and friends bak kwa – a Chinese New Year delicacy – which literally means dried meat in Hokkien.

       “This inspired me and my sister to come up with a halal version, so that we can continue her tradition of gift giving.

       “After three years of trial and error based on feedback from my grandmother and our non-Muslim friends, we managed to come up with our own pressed meat recipe.

       “Initially, we only made it as gifts for our families and friends during Ramadan as we wanted to keep our mother and grandmother’s tradition alive in the family.

       “It was a challenge for us as we made it purely based on visual reference and our friends’ description.

       “After trying ours, they said our version is sweeter due to our honey glaze but the smokey flavour is quite similar and encouraged us to sell it to people for them to enjoy,” she said in an interview.

       “It takes about two days to prepare each batch of the product, which includes mincing, marinating and pressing the meat into thin sheets, weighing between 500g and 800g.”

       The 36-year-old said their dendeng was different from typical ones, which were cut into bite-sized pieces and darker in colour.

       Throughout the year, the sisters and their mother operate a mixed rice food business at a shopping complex in Tampoi and only sell dendeng at their bazaar stall during the Ramadan month.

       “We take turns grilling the meat over fire at our stall where we can sell up to 500 pieces of them on weekdays and more on weekends.

       “Each piece is sold at RM14. We have not changed our price for the past five years despite the increase in raw materials.

       “Last year, we had more variety such as beef and chicken dendeng with rendang flavour and honey barbecue but this year, we are only offering beef honey barbecue to cope with the high demand.

       “Surprisingly, a good portion of our customers is non-Muslims, who are curious to try it as the look of it reminded them of the Chinese New Year festive snack,” she said.

       Nuriffaizzah said her customers were pleasantly surprised that she and her sister Siti Nur Mohammad speak fluent Mandarin, thanks to their Chinese education from kindergarten right up to secondary school at Foon Yew High School.