Azila grilling mackerel and tilapia wrapped in banana leaf ready for hungry visitors. — Photos: Low Lay Phon/The Star
WHEN craving grilled fish, many city folk head to the row of stalls along Jalan Bellamy, behind the Royal Museum in Kuala Lumpur.
The stalls located in front of the entrance of Taman Dusun Bandar have been at that location since the late 1980s.
Rozy Rosli, who took over the Seri Melaka stall from her mother in 2019, said the grilled fish vendors were initially operating separately, scattered along the roadside in the area before Kuala Lumpur City Hall built a permanent spot for them.
The 45-year-old’s stall is one of four selling grilled fish at the site.
The menus list seafood such as stingray, tilapia, mackerel, torpedo scad and toli shad (known for having many bones).
Part of the Jalan Bellamy area set aside for stalls selling grilled fish and seafood behind the old Istana in Kuala Lumpur.
Other popular sides include grilled calamari, cockles and chicken.
All the stalls use a similar cooking sauce based on a spicy formula of chilli powder, lemongrass and garlic.
The seafood or meat is dipped into the sauce before being wrapped in banana leaf and then cooked on a hot plate.
Best eaten fresh off the grill, the seafood is served with two sauces.
One is a thick soya sauce embellished with sliced chillies and onions while the other is a sourish tamarind gravy.
The way to enjoy the fish is to rip off a small chunk of the sweet, flaky white flesh and dip it into the sauces one after another.
Each of the stalls has its own charms.
Seri Menanti, for one, claims to be the first grilled fish vendor in the area.
Former auditor Azila Jaafar, 52, said it was her late father (a retired army sergeant) and late mother who started selling grilled fish along Jalan Bellamy.
Azila, an accounting graduate, joined her parents’ business in 2007 and has been running it ever since.
One of her regular customers, author Embon Abdullah, 86, has been coming here for the past 15 years.
Mackerel and tilapia (right) are just some of the offerings in Jalan Bellamy, Kuala Lumpur.
Kak Jat stall, meanwhile, hands out free fruits and fried banana fritters to diners.
At the end of the row, Mak Alang is where to go for the best view as it is beside Taman Dusun Bandar.
To keep diners entertained, a group of buskers perform here daily.
Each stall also does things slightly differently.
For example, Mak Alang cuts squid accordion style, while Seri Menanti leaves scales on its tilapia fish.
Azila said some of her regulars had asked if the stalls here would remain, in view of rising cost and competition.
“For now, it is more important for me to focus on the present so that I can respond to my customers quickly and efficiently.
“When it comes to the food business, service and maintaining food quality is important,” she said.
Each stall has its own days off but all are open on Wednesdays, Thursdays and the weekends, from 11am till 4pm.
