HUNGARIAN FOOD... IN BATU GAJAH
Couple has been selling popular street food — lángos — for four years
ATRIP to Hungary is not complete unless you indulge in a lángos — a deep-fried dough, made into a round and flat shape.
But fret not, now you don’t have to travel thousand of kilometres to the country as the famous Hungarian street food is available in Batu Gajah here, thanks to a couple.
Meet Elsuraya Mohamed, 48, and her Hungarian husband, Adam Abdullah, 35, formerly Barak Norbert, who have been running the business for four years.
Elsuraya said she stayed in Budapest, Hungary, after quitting her job at a consultant engineering firm in Petaling Jaya before she met Adam there and later, they decided to start their new life in Kampung Teluk Bakong Hulu, Bota Kanan, here.
“We got married in Budapest about four years ago and decided to return to Malaysia.
“Three days after we moved here, someone broke into my home and we lost everything, including our money.
“Our initial plan was to start another business but since that happened, we decided to sell lángos as it does not require a huge capital. Only several ingredients are needed to make lángos,” she said at her stall at Toh Puan Besar Hatijah Mosque here recently.
Adam said the name comes from “láng”, the Hungarian word for flame and when he was in his hometown, he had never tried making lángos dough and only leant the recipe from his mother, Katalin Barak, 59.
“Lángos is very popular in Hungary and takes less than 30 minutes to prepare.
“All I need is flour, sugar, salt, yeast and water.
“In Hungary, it is eaten fresh and warm, topped with sour cream and grated cheese, garlic and olive oil.
“But my wife has changed it so that local folk can choose whether to eat lángos with sambal ikan bilis, sekaya power and chocolate leleh,” he said, adding that each lángos was sold at RM2, except for the original lángos that goes with grated cheese, priced at RM4.
Adam, fondly known as Adam Mat Salleh, said he and his wife planned to make frozen lángos so that the product could go even further.
“We already have customers in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
“Our future plan is to make frozen lángos, but we need to experiment first to ensure it has a longer shelf life,” he said in fluent Bahasa Malaysia.
The couple is open to receiving orders.
Those interested can contact Elsuraya at 019-567 6689.
They also sell lángos at Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Seri Iskandar every Tuesday night, Kampung Gajah wet market every Tuesday morning, the night market at UiTM Tapah every Wednesday, and Toh Puan Besar Hatijah Mosque’s compound every Friday between noon and 3pm.