Wednesday,
31 August 2016
BY
INTAN AMALINA MOHD ALI
THERE
are three secrets to Benggali bread, better known as Roti Benggali.
First,
pay close attention the next time you dunk your slice of the bread into your
coffee, curry, mutton soup, half-boiled eggs or anything else.
After
that necessary wait of a second or two for the bread to absorb the liquid,
observe how your slice holds firm.
Repeat
the experiment with most other kinds of bread and they will probably break
apart soggily.
This
is why.
Kicker:
S. Mohamed Ismail, who set up Ismailia Bakery on Transfer Road, Penang
Many
authentic recipes for the bread say that when the dough has risen to twice its
volume after yeast is added, you have to pound it to squeeze out some of the
carbon dioxide bubbles. This makes the dough dense again and it is why the
bread is fluffy and yet stays firm enough after being dipped into gravy.
How
much pounding to exert to make it fluffy yet dense is a trade secret, though.
The
second secret is its name. Benggali bread does not come from Bengal. In fact,
it has nothing to do with Bengal. It comes from Penang.
S.
Mohamed Ismail, an Indian Muslim from Madras, India, started a bakery in George
Town in 1928 to make this bread.
He
was said to have formed a joint venture with his friends to start it up. He
called it “panggali” bread.
In
Tamil, “panggali” means shareholder or kin.
Over
time, people forgot that it was “panggali” bread.
Somewhere
along the market penetration process, the vibrant and multiracial fabric of
pre-Independence society in Penang fell in love with this bread and they decided
to make life easier for everyone by simply calling it Benggali bread.
Here
is the final secret.
Mohamed
Ismail’s wife was S.M. Shaharom Bee, the youngest sister of S.M. Zainul Abidin
(1898-1969), who founded Umno with a few friends in 1946 when he was 48 years
old. He became the party’s permanent chairman in 1948.
Zainul
Abidin taught for 20 years at Penang Free School before becoming the headmaster
of Francis Light School. He taught Tunku Abdul Rahman Putra Al-Haj and former
Penang Chief Minister Tun Dr Lim Chong Eu too.
He
was a teacher, scoutmaster, headmaster, politician and writer.
He
became Penang’s Southwest Member of Parliament (Balik Pulau today) in 1955 in
the first Malayan Parliament elections after the Tunku invited him to contest.
The
Tunku offered him the post of Education Minister, but he declined because it
was said he did not want to leave Penang.
Being
brother-in-law to the owner of one of the most popular bakeries in town must
have been good in one way or another. Zainul Abidin was already 30 when
Benggali bread first hit the streets of Penang, but all trace of this
connection seems to have gone missing.
Could
loaves of freshly baked Benggali bread with mutton curry been the regular fare
in those long-ago Umno meetings during the struggle for Independence?
This
bread is still baked in that same colonial shop house in Transfer Road. Many
parts of the original architecture are still evident inside despite the
commercial ovens and stainless steel racks.
The
bread recipe remains largely intact, but the blood ties of Mohamed Ismail to
Benggali bread is long gone.
The
company name went from being British Malaya Bakery to Malaya Bakery to Ismalia
Bakery before it closed down for nearly 10 years.
In
2007, a new group of bakers reopened the same premises with the name Maliia
Bakery.
Its
chief executive officer M. Kumaresan Mariadas said that since the takeover
almost a decade ago, the current management has introduced a variety of
Benggali bread but their customers would always opt for the original version.
“Between
2012 to 2013, we introduced wholemeal, chocolate and charcoal Benggali bread
but the classic white one is still the most popular.
“Customers
occasionally try the other flavours but they always go back to the classic,” he
added.
He
said that outside of Penang, the company distributes to Kuala Lumpur, Selangor
and Negeri Sembilan.
Benggali
bread was sold on bicycles and carts in the old days, but Maliia Bakery now has
a fleet of 20 food trucks and numerous vendors on motorcycles throughout
Malaysia.
Posts
