Serendipitous

Rozman Mashor

“Ihave a thing for origin stories, and should the resulting byproduct be a one that was not the goal aimed for when the endeavour initially began, well, that just makes the journey that much more interesting. Allow me to rewind and provide context as we delve slightly into one of the minds behind the formation of a culinary collective

of independent food

brands. Officially appearing on the Singapore food scene in 2014/2015, but inadvertently in the works since 2012 – The Black Hole Group – is an aptly named entity that traces its roots to a time when it’s director and co-founder, Kamal Mustafa, was in the early stages of operating a boutique hostel, and never considered venturing into this industry. “I didn’t know anything about the Food & Beverage industry,” Kamal begins, adding that, “Hospitality is actually my area of specialty.” This was prior to his co-founding an entity so analogous to its namesake that he can count himself as merely the first of many to be sucked into this new reality. Elaborating further, “I think it was about 15 years ago when travel was made cheaper in the region for people who usually can’t travel, and I believe that is when hostels began cropping up here. Just basic set ups you understand. A simple building not in a posh area, with a safe room for visitors to stay in and lock up for the night that they would pay $10 for. So, I thought to try and elevate this experience a little bit in Singapore with The Shophouse Boutique Hostel. Just because it’s a cheap room doesn’t mean it has to be ugly. It can be thematic, beautiful, and a fine experience.”

Speed Bump #1: Surprise

Surprise – Previously located on Arab Street in Kampong Glam prior to its evolution into an F&B management firm, Kamal describes how, “The building that I was in is a 5-storey hostel with a rooftop. All these rooms and beds, and on the 1st floor there was this agency called the URA (urban redevelopment authority) and they said that we could run the hostel but the 1st floor cannot be a hostel itself. It needs to be a restaurant, café, or a retail space. Okay … I didn’t see that coming.”

Speed Bump #2: Not in

Sync – “So for the first few months I took a tenant – an Egyptian Restaurant – and they ran the place downstairs but I felt like it didn’t really fit. The hostel was quite hip, had a Aussie vibe to it, but when you went downstairs suddenly there’s bright white lights, Egyptian furniture, back then there was even a shisha there too. So after 6 months I told the operator I didn’t think it was working out. His business is great but the style is a bit off from what I wanted, so I’m going to have to take the key back. He understood and was fine with this.”

Speed Bump #3: Only 2 weeks!

– “So back then I was running a very simple café on that first floor called Working Title, and as the name suggests, it was all rushed and last minute, because upon receiving back the key I had to start running an operation within 2 weeks because we’re paying rent and I didn’t want to lose income unnecessarily. So my team and I came up with a business plan to sell simple foods – coffee and pastries – and back then the coffee scene by hip independents was quite new, and our place was done up quite nicely. Not that I spent a lot of money on it though. We were quite resourceful by going to industrial areas to pick up old wood and pallets, and made it into furniture. So people like that in Singapore, and the media especially publications, picked that up, and we got featured quite a lot.

Golden Opportunity: We need to step our game

up – “My partner Calvin Seah and I realised we have to step up our game because people are actually coming and we need to take this very seriously. So we sent ourselves off for coffee courses, food courses, so we can understand the business better. At first the café was just for the hostel guests and its capacity was 62 people. We had guests from all over the world and it was all good vibes, but eventually it became obvious that our local guests wanted proper food, and Singaporeans can be quite a critical bunch, so we cannot mess about, we need to do this proper – and that is pretty much how it all took off.”

Halal Ever After: Six years later and currently armed with up to 12 brands presenting their halal fusion twists on Italian, Spanish, Mexican, British, Greek, and Indian cuisines; the gravity well of The Black Hole Group is one that continues to grow, attracting positive reviews and yet more and more people. To quote the group’s mission statement: “Fall in after us.

There’s more to come.”

Congratulations

ARKITEK TING FOR RECEIVING ASIA PACIFIC PROPERTY AWARDS FOR MIXED USE ARCHITECTURE AND MIXED USE DEVELOPMENT FOR ONERIVERSIDE, BRUNEI DARUSSALAM.

FROM

feature The Mountaineer

GETTING JALAPENO

BUSINESS

Rozman Mashor

Spice, spice baby! Who doesn’t like a good helping of heat to excite those taste buds during mealtimes? Geographically and culturally that is a rhetorical question to be sure, because while there are always exceptions to the rule, the sheer number of spice-lovers in this region of the world is off the charts. Heavily incorporated into our varying cuisines – Southeast Asians in general have rarely shied away from dragon breath inducing delicacies. Not wanting to be left out as they aid their government in boosting agricultural and food production capacity; Bruneians in recent times have gotten into the spice game, setting tongues both local and foreign on fire in the process with their own brands of hot sauces. A talented individual with many pursuits, the founder of the VolcoVenture line of Lanun Hot Sauces is a middle-aged lover of spice who has been pursuing this passion project over the past 3 decades. Given the food culture of the land of his birth, it is amusing that it was a stay over at a Bed & Breakfast in the United Kingdom that kick-started this journey. Upon noticing an unbranded hot sauce bottle on a counter in the countryside motel, Mohd Vol, investigates and learns from the proprietor about the chili pepper garden she maintains.

Fast-forward to today, and Mohd Vol shares how with assistance provided by DaRE (Darussalam Enterprise), he succeeded in commercialising his bottled products in 2018 for the market. Receiving a good reception for his sauces so far, he flashes me a grin as I start wiping away the sweat slowly trickling down the back of my head. “That is deliberate,” Mohd Vol says, sharing his preference for creating a delayed-delivery hot sauce rich in flavour. “This way you get to enjoy the flavour of the lemon grass or pineapple for the first few minutes before the spiciness catches up with the taste and hits you. Being able to do this depends on the type of pepper used. The Ghost Peppers used in my Oh My Ghost sauce is a different story,” he laughs.

Like everyone else getting in to this field, Mohd Vol, was once a grower of peppers as part of the process, but now focuses purely on production of the bottled sauces. “I decided to do this for a few reasons. I can now produce roughly

400-500 bottles monthly.

Storage space was becoming an issue, and because I have 20 different recipes right now in the back of my head, which I plan to make for the Lanun series in the future, I thought I could better help the agriculture industry by working purely on the production side.” With a desire to aid local farmers by developing supply chains with them for their fruit crops for his future recipes, Mohd Vol believes his main obstacle is educating the public. “There are no preservatives at all in my products, as well as those of other local producers, which to me makes them a healthier alternative to the many mass produced brands imported into Brunei”.

On the flip side of that coin, Mohd Vol enjoys the idea of penetrating the international market. “The thought of a Singaporean, or someone from Thailand, walking past a bottle of hot sauce with the label ‘Made in Brunei’ in their shops, and then buying it would be a reason to be proud. Not just for what you created, but for contributing to national development.

PRODUCTS INCLUDE:

Oh My Ghost Pineapple Sunrise Tom Tom Lemongrass

AVAILABLE AT:

· Hua Ho · Guan Hock Lee · Chill V Kopitiam •• IG & FB: @Volcoventure_bn

The Brothers

With an aversion to the limelight, the 3 brothers behind the hot sauce start up – Spicy Origins – prefer to remain behind the scenes. They enjoy watching the quality of their peppers speak for themselves in the form of belched gusts of rippling heat, and rivulets of sweat and tears running down one’s scalp and nape. Exaggeration much? Perhaps, but given that these spicy food addicts labeled one of their sauces Merana (Suffering), how about grabbing a bottle or two and putting them to the test first before giving an answer.

Dressed in smart attire as part of their day jobs, it is easy to judge these books by their covers and overlook the fact that these siblings were raised in a family setting with a

strong agricultural focus

and background. Several members of their immediate family and extended relatives own and farm plots of land supporting the growing of crops such as pumpkins, cucumbers, eggplants, avocados, durian and rambutan. It was not until one of the many barbecues hosted by the brothers’ and their family that an offer of support was made

one evening in 2019.

Remembering the moment with clarity, brother Aaron, recalls when a friend said since they were always making sauces @Izzathello

like these, he would be willing to promote it if the siblings were ever willing to sell it. “So it began as word of mouth, but things only began to get serious when we decided to start growing our own peppers. We wanted to test the waters. First it was 10, then 50, and then 100. We tried different varieties and were basically experimenting. During this time we realised that few people in Brunei were familiar with the stronger varieties, and we wanted to do something about that. It was all born out of curiosity and our belief that the level of spiciness in Brunei is not that high, or at least, for us anyway.”

Not long after their initial trial period the brothers Aldrin & Austin, attended a course in Miri hosted by HFE Agro, to which they attribute a lot of the knowledge they actively use today. “Not only were we lucky to have learned from Ahmad Shafiq, but we were also lucky enough to make it back just before Covid struck and borders were closed.” Some things were just meant to be.

Using habaneros and ghost peppers mostly, backed up by a

PRODUCTS INCLUDE:

Fiery Powder

Borneo Habanero

Dirty Trio

Merana

AVAILABLE AT:

· AgromeMarket (Bandar) · Pandan Fruit & Vegetables (Kuala Belait) •• IG: @SpicyOrigin FB: Spicy Origin

Spicy Origins Community

they founded for the purpose of testing new products and reviewing feedback, brother Aldrin armed with a wide smile begins to laugh as he shares that they have met individuals stating ‘Only crazy people are going to eat something like that’. Fortunately – as the siblings’ brand steadily continues to grow with its own dedicated following – it’s safe to say, crazy seems to be on the rise.

The CulinaryMad Scientist

PRODUCTS INCLUDE:

Exprmnt #8 (Red pepper) Exprmnt #6 (Green pepper) Exprmnt #9 (Pickled baby musk melon, mustard seed, turmeric, garlic, habanero peppers

AVAILABLE AT:

· Guan Hock Lee · Glow Café · The Healthy Habit · Cultivate Bistro · Agrome Market · The Beanery (Kuala Belait)

•• IG: @theborneotradingcompany Now, it might seem surprising that an intense pepperderived hot sauce could be anything but bad for our stomach lining (especially during mad dashes to a restroom), however, the opposite could not be more true. This is the case when it comes to the method of preparation, and while unfermented hot sauces are a good and popular choice, there is an increasing body of science backing up the benefits of fermented hot sauces on the human digestive system.

Think bacteria. Not the kind that makes you ill, but the kind that always has your back, well, technically your gut. From our friendly neighbourhood Lactobacillus (the gluten free probiotic that supports good gut health) to a milder and mellower heat but with greatly enhanced flavour, there is ample reason for stocking a fermented bottle of spicy goodness in the fridge.

A self-confessed culinary mad scientist with extensive experience fermenting hot sauces (as well as Kombucha, garlic, and baby musk melon pickles), the founder of The Borneo Trading Company is a welcome addition to Brunei’s F&B scene. Embracing the spirit of “experimentation as the greatest science” via lacto-fermentation, this process among the more poetic of us is often referred to as The Recipe of Time. A batch can be made in just a week. Some can be left for a year. In this case however, 3 months is ample time for flavours to fully develop and for the heat to subside to acceptable levels for the majority of people who want moderate heat but would also like to live till tomorrow to have yet more.

The first product from BTS is the aptly named Borneo Hot Sauce Exprmnt – and man is it good! Available as Exprmnt #6 (green peppers), Exprmnt #8 (red peppers), and Exprmnt #9 (pickled baby musk melon, mustard seed, turmeric, garlic, habanero peppers) this is the tip of the iceberg. With recipes still to be tested, these could either become seasonal offerings or a fixed staple in this growing line of sauces – such as the BruBasco that a few lucky individuals have been testing and reviewing.

An eco-conscious individual who “believes in the community we serve”, the founder desires to raise more awareness on sustainable food and

agriculture business

practices in Brunei, and what better way to do so than to lead by example? Having established produce supply chains with a number of farmers, suppliers, and producers from Brunei and Borneo for a variety of vegetable and fruit ingredients, the BTC’s formation is proving to be a boon, especially in light of efforts to also prevent food surplus wastage. Additionally: with plans in the pipeline to give 1% of proceeds to charities, as well as reimbursing customers a token amount whenever the cool looking glass bottles are returned for reuse; you the consumer have inadvertently been transformed into vessels for noble intent. At the end of the day, we all win.

The Bulbul

Birds

@SugarBun

Sabah is home to its fair share of natural wonders, but how many of you are aware that among these organic treasures is a unique chili pepper that the Dusuns call Momporok? Translated as The Bulbul Bird’s Chili, our small avian friends not only have a tolerance for spice as they gobble up the ripe, bright red peppers, but they have even contributed to the growth of different strains. Dispersing seeds across a wide area led to the Momporok strain taking root in the nutrient-rich volcanic soils of Kunak on the east coast.

Player 2 has entered the game! Seeking out locales where examples of symbiosis such as this can occur is how the

SugarBun Research &

Development team discovered the small chili plantations of the area. Spending more than 5 years collaborating with these farmers, researchers learnt that minimal intervention is needed in order to produce a harvest of peppers

spicier, more flavourful and

aromatic than other varieties. As traditional methods are favoured resulting in a slower grow time, these peppers are susceptible to seasonal changes of weather. The SugarBun group under the direction of

Datuk Joseph Ambrose Lee

pumped in a lot of resources to ensure successful harvests for long term supplies, thus boosting agricultural efforts as well as Sabah’s standing in the region. Now, what to do with these peppers?

Fast forward to 2021. It was a big deal for the Sabahan eatery when its SugarBun group launched its homegrown range of hot sauces in late May. Using Momporok as the primary ingredient, the Sabasco (Sabah Chili Company) line was born. Hailed as having the potential to “make an impression on the world,” the tangy, sweet and spicy sauce can be found in several selected outlets, and at its dedicated website. Promising consumers worldwide that “This Sabasco sauce will awaken For information on SugarBun’s future Brunei launch, contact: Email: pacoiabdullah12@ gmail.com Tel: +673-897-1430

every area of your taste buds”, Ambrose reiterates the ultimate goal of “being committed to bringing the iconic tastes of Borneo to the world.”

For SugarBun fans and hot sauce aficionados in Brunei, remember that patience is a virtue. So keep your eyes open, for good things come to the tongues of those who wait.