A Family That Cooks Together, Stays Together And Makes It A Business Together
Baba Low and Warung Mercik both act as a gathering spot for their communities.
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Parents have a much stronger influence on their children than kids would like to admit. Sure, it can sometimes be as quirky as picking up the way their parents eat roti canai (banjir kari ikan with dhal on the side), but sometimes it can shift the whole trajectory of their life– like a career.
We spoke to two F&B owners whose food business is tied firmly to their family roots.
Parents shape the world
When Victor Low’s parents retired from a long career of being civil servants, he didn’t realize their retirement hobby would shape his future too.
Victor’s parents retired in the 1990s when he was in Form 5. They toyed with the idea of opening a little mom & pop’s food stall. Coupled with the Peranakan pride movement that only started growing at that time, they set up a little food stall selling cendol in a small lot behind their house.
So from there, we had dessert and we decided to start selling a bit more things like the laksa, pie tee and other hot food.
Victor Low to TRP
(Credit: TRP)
The small outlet, simply called ’46 Stall’ after his house number, gradually gained popularity. After seeing the success of the food stall, Victor switched gears from being a merchant banker to starting his own Baba Low eatery in a small store in Bangsar.
We started selling the same things we did in Malacca such as laksa, mee siam, nasi lemak, as well as our famous cendol.
Victor Low to TRP
(Credit: TRP)
Now, Victor has been running Baba Low in Lorong Kurau for nearly 17 years, with his restaurant firmly cementing itself as a part of the Bangsar community and acting as a meeting point, a place for people to gather.
Similarly, Zulrushdi Ismail fondly remembers his father’s love and passion for cooking. Also a civil servant, Zulrushdi’s father would often be in charge of the cooking preparations whenever someone in his hometown had a wedding, thus allowing Zulrushdi to observe the way his father cooked joyful meals for large groups of people.
(Credit: TRP)
Zulrushdi too, found a higher calling in the F&B business. While at first he juggled both a white collar job at IBM and his own catering business, eventually he decided to focus only on Warung Mercik.
Sadly, his father passed on before having the chance to teach him how to cook. Still, Zulrushdi relies on the memory of his father’s cooking to recreate his dishes.
It’s a lot of R&D carried out and a lot of mixing different kinds of herbs to match the taste of my father’s cooking. But then again, it’s not all about matching his cooking. I enjoy exploring different kinds of cuisine and I will also try to incorporate them into my recipes.
Zulrushdi Ismail to TRP
But Zulrushdi built Warung Mercik with his own merit, offering customer favourites such as ayam merah, daging hitam, kurma kambing, kari ikan, roast whole lamb, and light barbeque.
(Credit: TRP)
Our food is mostly Northern cooking, so our specialty is the air asam from my hometown because it’s made out of tomato base with a little bit of spice. So the taste blends both spicy and sour flavours.
Zulrushdi Ismail to TRP
Problems? Aplenty.
Both Victor and Zulrushdi say that one of the biggest challenges they have faced is the shortage and rising costs of raw ingredients.
(Credit: TRP)
Traditional raw materials like gula melaka and belacan are getting harder to come by. Especially belacan, because it requires local fisheries to make and the coastlines have been reclaimed and destroyed, so it’s very hard to get. Also, the people that make these traditional ingredients also slowly disappear, or they lose interest and do other things.
Victor Low to TRP
Zulrushdi also laments the expenses required to keep his business running, citing that the cost of raw ingredients have gone up, together with the rising cost of hiring workers and the starting capital.
It also goes without saying that the various stages of lockdown had affected business. These eateries act as a gathering spot for communities and friends, so when everyone was stuck at home, business took a definite hit.
Keep the wheels turning
Baba Low and Warung Mercik survived through the pandemic with help from their regulars who stopped by to take-away their favourites, but they also credit Grab as a platform that helped them get orders to get through the lockdowns.
(Credit: TRP)
While the food delivery platform was invaluable during the pandemic, as Malaysia moves into our endemic phase, Grab is still proving to help small eateries grow their business.
We started seeing new faces. Some through word of mouth and some saying that they’ve ordered once from us through the (Grab) app, so I guess it’s safe to say that the exposure part worked.
Victor Low to TRP
(Credit: TRP)
Both eateries were featured in Grab’s Minggu Peniaga Kecil campaign, which is part of the GrabFood Small Business Programme to help small local F&B businesses to adapt to the new normal with growing demand for online services.
The recent Minggu Peniaga Kecil promotion in September benefited almost 39,000 small businesses.
(Credit: Grab)
For the month of October, you too can take part in making a difference to our local F&B businesses. Grab’s Peniaga Kecil promotion will run from 25th October – 7th November and you can enjoy up to 30% off on GrabFood with the code PENIAGAKECIL.
Check out our video below for a virtual chat with Victor Low of Baba Low and Zulrushdi Ismail of Warung Mercik.
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