(MY) exotic food

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Look at what's cooking here-New Straits Times

16 Mar 2007

 

 

ALOR GAJAH: If you are having a meal in Machap Baru, chances are the

waitress would suggest you try their exotic animal meat should you ask

for their speciality dishes.

 

Operating from 5pm to midnight, some restaurants in the Chinese new

village here have long gained a reputation among exotic meat lovers.

 

Meals of wild cats, monkeys, squirrels, deer, terrapins, boar and

sometimes even tigers are cooked with herbs and spices and sold at

affordable prices.

 

Wild cat meat cooked with ginger and soya sauce for four people, for

instance, will cost as low as RM8 while flying squirrel meat cooked

with dried chilli and cashew nuts can be enjoyed for as low as RM12.

 

 

A check at a restaurant in the village on Wednesday showed that dishes

of some highly protected animals were being offered.

 

They included the meat of flying fox, mountain goat as well as

porcupine and pangolin.

 

When asked for the source of their supply, a waitress said the animals

were obtained from nearby Orang Asli villages.

 

" The Orang Asli hunters know us. We are their regular customers. So

they hunt for these animals and sell them to us, " said the waitress.

 

A source who used to frequent a restaurant at the village, said a

waiter had suggested they have tiger's meat for dinner a few years ago

but when asked, the waitress said the meat was hard to come by now.

 

When contacted, state Wildlife and National Parks department director

Abdul Rahim Othman said they have received a lot of reports on the

sale of exotic meat dishes at the village.

 

" But the restaurant owners are smart. Each time we visit the

restaurants, we can't find anything, " he said, adding that monkeys,

wild cats and tigers were among the protected species in Peninsula r

Malaysia.

 

He said action would be taken against the owners if they were caught

selling the meat but so far it has been an uphill battle to prove that

they have been doing so.

 

" If they have them... they do not keep the meat in the restaurant but

elsewhere. It is only brought to the restaurant when someone places an

order. "