Fatty Crab Restaurant in New York

Not only is Fatty crab overly rated here in Malaysia, but it's also overly rated in New York!

i know many other places that serve a better and cheaper sweet and sour crab than Fatty Crab. But One thing i didn't quite get from this article is whether the Fatty Crab Restaurant is a franchise of the original in Malaysia? Or is it some Gwailo Ripp Off? Maybe Linli can shed some light on this!

------------------ the article from bernama)----------------------------------

Malaysia-Returned American Chef Starts Second Malaysian Restaurant In New York

By Manik Mehta

NEW YORK, March 16 (Bernama) -- He arrived as a trainee in a restaurant in Kuala Lumpur to learn the ropes of cooking Malaysian food and get a first-hand exposure to the intricacies of Malaysia's food culture.

On completion of his training, he returned to New York and started his own Malaysian restaurant, serving the hot, spicy food along with slight variations of Malaysian dishes to make them palatable to his growing customer base in the Big Apple.

Meet Zak Pelaccio, chef, restaurant-owner and entrepreneur, all rolled into one.

After setting up what he once described as a "small Southeast Asian joint" in the latter part of 2005 - the restaurant, which is located in the so-called meat-packing district of Manhattan, was christened "Fatty Crab" with a strong emphasis on Malaysian cuisine - Peleccio has now set up another restaurant in the upper west side of Manhattan on Broadway 77th Street.

The "Fatty Crab" restaurant, as he explained in an interview with Bernama in his new restaurant, was inspired by a restaurant of the same name just outside Kuala Lumpur where, he reminisced, he spent "lots of happy hours in his leisure time while working at the Seri Melayu, a large traditional restaurant".

SECOND FATTY CRAB

But as fate would have it, Pelaccio set up his restaurant in Manhattan which attracts New Yorkers eager to try the spicy Malaysian cuisine.

"I must confess I did not know at that time that this (Malaysian) cuisine would become so popular", he said.

"The popularity of the first Fatty Crab restaurant led me to believe that there was indeed room for a second Fatty Crab restaurant in another part of the city".

At a bash for the media, friends and customers on Saturday for the new restaurant, the guests mingled with each other and engaged in small talk, sampling Malaysian and other Southeast Asian food which they washed down with beer, wine and soft drinks.

"We are trying to offer as authentic a cuisine of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, as possible", he maintained.

THE ONLY AMERICAN

While there are a few Malaysian restaurants already existing in New York City - there are about 20, according to the Malaysian mission -- the curious thing about Pelaccio's venture is that he is the only mainstream American to run such a restaurant.

The other Malaysian restaurants are run, mainly, by Malaysians of Chinese origin, even though many of them provide an Americanized version of Malaysian food.

Zak said that his "life's passion" has been cooking and food. He has travelled widely in Europe and Asia, arriving eventually in Malaysia where he lived for a year.

He admits that his Malaysia sojourn gave him deep insights not only in the cuisine of Malaysia but the entire Southeast Asian region.

Indeed, upon his return from Malaysia, he was determined to showcase the Malaysian cuisine and prepare it for New Yorkers.

"The result was Fatty Crab", he says with an amused smile.

GENUINE MALAYSIAN ATMOSPHERE

Fatty Crab is not like any other Asian restaurants whose numbers are proliferating in the city.

The guests in the restaurant are led to traditional chairs from China, hand-made table tops, multi-coloured chop sticks, and plates and other unique paraphernalia.

To create a "genuine Malaysian atmosphere" for the guests, the restaurant offers chili Crab with white bread slices and Malaysian rotisserie chicken wings.

Both these are favourite dishes in the Fatty Crab restaurant in Malaysia. Other dishes are oyster omelette Ashraf, fatty tea sandwiches, Jalan Alor chicken wings, etc.

Asian and Malaysian guests are surprised -- as were the Malaysian chefs who have been cooking for the marathon Malaysian food fest at the United Nations and who were guests at Saturday's bash - that besides Zak, his chef de cuisine Corwin Kove and the entire kitchen staff of Fatty Crab are Americans who cook the spicy Malaysian food.

-- BERNAMA