Monday, October 8, 2007

Malaysia's Cili Padi Restaurant Opens in Bangkok

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Monday July 9, 10:19 AM


BANGKOK, July 9 Asia Pulse - Over one million Malaysians visit Thailand annually, yet there is not even one restaurant that can be considered serving truly Malaysian food, especially in capital Bangkok.
With such a big and promising market, several Malaysians have joined hands to open the "Cili Padi" restaurant here to cater for fellow Malaysians visiting Thailand or working in the capital and for expatriates from Indonesia, Singapore and Brunei.

Restaurant owner, Noriza Mohd Tahir, said she conceived the idea to open the restaurant from her many trips to Thailand to visit her brother who is working here.

"Every time we meet fellow Malaysians, they will be asking where they can get some home dishes after eating Thai food for several days. Normally, they will go to Nana Street where there are few Arab restaurants or to Phayathai for southern Thai dishes," she said.

After several months of planning, she will have a soft opening Monday for the restaurant, a joint venture with her nephew, Mohd Fahmi Sabri, and two Thai partners.

Noriza, who worked as a cook at a restaurant in Shah Alam, said she took up the challenge to venture into food business in Thailand as her two grown up children would be pursuing their studies.

"After much thought and blessing from my husband, who is working in a bank, I decided to come here. We are going to prepare most of the popular Malay dishes, as well as other food like roti canai and teh tarik," she said.

Her restaurant is conveniently located at Soi One, Narathiwat Road, near the business district of Silom and Sathorn, not far from the Chong Nongsi light rail transit station.

Mohd Fahmi said the reasonably-priced dishes include nasi lemak, laksa, rendang, satay, roti canai, sambal tumis, asam pedas, meehon goreng, bubur kacang and pulut hitam.

The audio engineering graduate said they are also planning for catering services and home and hotel deliveries, as well as special items like briyani rice on certain days.

(BERNAMA-OANA)

original article taken from: http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070709/4/34i4v.html