Ronggeng Rendang on TV9 features a Japanese who wants to cook rendang

Today I watched Ronggeng Rendang, a special Hari Raya programme produced by Primeworks Studios and airing on TV9. The programme featured a Japanese who wants to cook rendang.

The Japanese featured in Ronggeng Rendang was Masaya Saito aged 26 and came from Yokohama, Japan. He has been married and studies in Universiti Malaya in Business studies. He was selected after being questioned by the programme's production team. The production team searched for foreign university students who can cook rendang. The production team believes that rendang is one of the best dishes in the world. Masaya is actually an exchange student and knows about the Malay culture through the exchange. His favourite food is tempura.

The production team sent Masaya to a village in Beranang and met with his foster family who is an expert in rendang. He was there for three days with Pak Kama. Throughout the period he learnt how to cook one of the types of rendang which is called rendang ayam. He also managed to find the ingredients needed to cook rendang ayam with the help of some locals. He even went to a feast and also a dinner with Pak Kama's big family to experience a typical Malay life. Masaya was friendly with the locals. Pak Kama knows that Masaya is a Buddhist so Pak Kama bought him to a temple at Bukit Broga after a day of his experience cooking rendang.

On the third day Masaya cooked the rendang ayam. After he cooked the rendang, he met the locals and wants them to sample his own cooked rendang ayam. The locals say that his cooked rendang was delicious. At night, he called his wife at Kuala Lumpur and talked about his experience at the village and cooking rendang.

The next day, Masaya went to The Royal Chulan Hotel where he will present his own rendang ayam to the royalty. First, he cooked some rendang ayam with his experience when he was at the village. Some chefs at the hotel made some help and tasted his rendang. Later, he went back with his very own version of rendang ayam where he changed the usual rice used to eat the rendang with Japanese rice. He managed to mix Japanese and Malay elements in his rendang. He wore a yukata that was borrowed from the Japanese Embassy. Then he presented his very own rendang to a royalty which is the Raja Puan Mahkota Perak. She finds that his cooked rendang was delicious and rated it four stars. The Raja Puan Mahkota Perak found out that Masaya wears a yukata to symbolise that he is a Japanese and she believes that he has some spirit of patriotisme. Masaya was thrilled to have the experience and wants to use his experience in the future.

In short, this programme was very entertaining and also informative. In fact this programme is light in nature rather than being serious. The production team has made a good job in making this. I believe that this programme will strengthen the bilateral ties between Malaysia and Japan.

(Small revision on August 10)