Source from (The Star Online): http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/SME/2013/06/29/Dessert-for-all-occasions-Kuih-business-continues-to-thrive-with-a-dollop-of-nostalgia-Sweet-tooth-t.aspx
Published: July 01, 2013
Some of them sold traditional Malaysian delicacies like Nonya kuih, and they carried with them the common red and black Nonya kuih baskets or containers for food storage. Today, these items and food continue to evoke nostalgic memories of the “good old days”.
But Nyonya kuih still remains one of the more favoured Malaysian desserts as it is eaten all year round, especially during special occasions and cultural festivities.
Because of this, kuih businesses seem to be thriving where consumers can’t just stop at purchasing one item because of their colourful variety in presentation and taste.
The modern Nyonya
Local kuih and pastries manufacturer, Lulu’s Nyonya Kuih, has the sugar, spice and everything nice to make each of their kuih right.
Interestingly the business wasn’t named after a girl called Lulu as customers might initially presume. The name comprises the surnames of owners and sibling team — Tony and Nancy Lu.
You may be familiar with or have seen one of the nine Lulu’s Nyonya Kuih push-carts in various shopping centres in the Klang Valley or Johor Baru. Each of these represent the company’s retail business and are decked with a colourful assortment of various kuihs that range from steamed, baked and fried goods.
Operating under the company, Lulu Nyonya Goodies Sdn Bhd, the business was founded in the early 1990s and fully incorporated in 2002.
At that time, Tony and Nancy were inspired to jump-start Lulu’s thanks to their grandmother who was a traditional Nonya and always wore a Nyonya kebaya.
“Honestly, the kebayas she wore were just about all we knew about Nonya culture, so I went on to research everything about it, especially its food.
“We then became the pioneers of establishing Nonya kuih retail outlets in shopping centres, with our first pushcart that was set up in Midvalley in 2002. At that time, we noticed that the trend in the retailing of traditional products was slowly evolving. Shops and vendors were improving their modes of presentation and retail servicing to create a whole new experience for their customer,” says Tony.
In the early days, traditional kuih were only sold in wet markets and Tony knew that the hygiene in the preparation and food freshness was questionable.
“Then I saw a niche opportunity to implement this type of business in a shopping centre. I progressively set up our manufacturing factory and went through the process of establishing clean production lines,” explains Tony.
The factory in Taman Shamelin in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur literally runs on a full-time basis at 24 hours, seven days a week every day of the year. With 30 employees in the production line, they produce some 10,000 items each day starting with the steamed goods (kuih) early in the morning, followed by pastries and cakes.
The factory houses a walk-in chiller, a blast chiller and a cold room. “The walk in chiller is a room where one section is set to the same temperature as your typical home refrigerator and the other area is set at -16°C. A blast chiller freezes something instantly post-production to preserve the freshness of the ingredients and to cool down the temperature almost instantly after production,” explains Tony.
As all of Lulu’s food items are handmade, he reveals that it presents the business with both a problem and a plus point. “The problem would be that kuih has always been a challenge to make with hands and this consumes more time than having them produced solely by machines. The benefit for us is that our the process of hand-making kuih allows for better quality control,” says Tony, adding that the company has obtained halal certification from the Malaysian Department of Islamic Development and is ISO 20000 certified.
The brother and sister team generally work well together as Tony is the strategist who develops the standard operating procedures for every division of the business while Nancy handles the research and development, customer feedback, visual merchandising and staff management.
Quality control
The business started selling their products using a traditional food push-cart and Tony has recently upgraded it to a proper stand-alone island kiosk starting in Midvalley Megamall.
“Renting a push-cart is RM6,000 a month and the kiosk is RM8,000 monthly with the latter presenting a more modern and inviting appearance. We did some calculations and can sell about 30% more of our products with the extra space from the kiosk, so we’ll slowly be moving on from the push-carts to the kiosks in the rest of our locations within the next one to two years,” says Tony.
The rich and full-bodied taste of the food is essentially what Lulu’s owners are fastidious about. The owners say that there is no artificial colouring, preservatives, additives or flavouring.
“The green colour on the Kuih Talam is the result of grinding pandan leaves while the flavour comes from fresh coconuts. Our workers grind and juice the coconuts every day so they are always fresh. The blue colours in the blue rice (pulut tai tai) are from the Bunga Telang (Blue pea flower),” says Tony.
However, a short shelf life is ultimately the downside to this preservatives-free method. The kuih that are still left un-purchased are disposed of at the end of the day, but the baked items can still be sold for three days to one week.
Initially, the Lulu’s started selling less than 20 types of kuih. Now they have more than 50 types of delicacies that include kuih with some of the more popular types are Kuih Talam, Onde Onde, Kuih Lapis, Angku, Serimuka; pastries like pineapple tarts, kuih kapir, layered cake, pandan chiffon cake, butter cake and cookies.
Each kuih item is priced between RM1 to RM1.20, cakes and pastries start from RM3.
Although Lulu’s expansion plans are in their early days, Tony and Nancy like the idea of moving up the value chain by introducing dine-in café concepts as well as to export their products.
“We’re looking at the Middle East, the UK and Australia because although the markets are small, there is a demand for Malaysian food in those countries.
“We hope to invest in machines that will allow us to preserve the texture and taste of our food when they are frozen for export but we have yet to lay out any solid strategies yet” he says.
The Nyonya culture has several elements that are part of its beauty, colour and vibrancy.
The people are known as the Peranakan Chinese and Baba-Nyonya as they are descendants of 15th and 16th century Chinese immigrants who settled in Malaysia (then known as Malaya), Singapore and Indonesia.
Women are called Nyonya and men are known as Baba. These people have assimilated into the local communities and culture which would greatly influence the food that they’ve become famous for over the centuries.
Today, their sweet delights like savoury and sweet kuih and pastries still remain popular among the diverse races in Malaysia and surrounding Asean countries.
This type of food is usually made from glutinous rice, coconut and extracts from pandan leaves.
Kuih is handmade are more often steamed, thus giving it a slightly sticky texture and a richer flavour compared to Western desserts.
The most common and popular type of kuih is the Kuih Talam which has a white top and a green bottom. The top is mixed with rice flour and coconut milk while the lower green part is from extracted pandan leaf.
The other favourites are Angku Kuih that’s filled with yellow beans, red bean or lotus paste, Bingka Telur which is made from tapioca, Kuih Lapis (multi-layered kuih), Kuih Serimuka which is like Kuih Talam but the lower part is glutinuous rice and baked pineapple tarts.
There are similar versions to kuih in other South-East Asian countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia. Each country uses similar ingredients but because of a different cultural heritage, they have a different taste and appearance from traditional Nyonya kuih.
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