Friendly neighbourhood food vendor: Ahmad Kamil (right) talking to his customers at his stall in Adda Heights, Johor Baru — THOMAS YONG/The Star
JOHOR BARU: Street food vendor Ahmad Kamil Md Rizal has struck gold with his wife’s advice, turning his tacos venture into a hit among Malaysians and Singaporeans.
Over the past three months, the 31-year-old has been dishing out traditional Mexican tacos, inspired by his wife’s experiences in London.
“The idea came from my wife who studied in London. Tacos can be found there. In fact, it is quite popular across the globe.
“However, tacos is not that popular here and quite hard to find it except during food festivals or events. So my wife encouraged me to give it a go,” he said in an interview.
Prior to this culinary venture, Ahmad Kamil spent seven years working at his family-run restaurant, but the allure of entrepreneurship led him to the world of street food.
He said he and his wife Nursyahirah Hassan went to many food festivals held here and in the Klang Valley, trying to find tacos that they could savour. They even scoured the Internet for taco inspiration.
Preparing to serve them their orders. — THOMAS YONG/The Star
“Nursyahirah is the chief food tester. She would tell me what needs to be added and what ingredients were missing before we opened our stall in Adda Heights here.”
The secret to his tacos, he said, was in the sour cream as well as hot sauce, which is based on the gravy from the briskets that he slow cooks for 10 hours.
He added that he was pleasantly surprised with the positive feedback he received from his customers.
In fact, his food had gone viral on social media.
Ahmad Kamil said that his stall, which opens from Tuesday to Sunday between 1pm and 6pm, had been getting a good mix of Malaysian and Singaporean customers.
“On weekdays, we are able to sell an average of 200 boxes of tacos.
“Our sales would double during the weekends because our Singaporean customers will buy more,” he said, adding that each box, which contained three tacos, was priced between RM17 and RM19 depending on the meat.
Ahmad Kamil, who has three workers helping him at his stall, now aims to introduce new menus that will include nachos.
