If you pass quickly by Lavand, an elegant little corner shop on the ground floor of Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur, you might mistake it for the storefront of a chocolatier. But if you stop and look, you will discover within its sparkling glass cases tray upon tray of the delectable Mediterranean dessert known as baklava.
Lavand is the purveyor of fine baklava, as far removed from the soggy, cloying dumplings that are sometimes sold as baklava as a Rolls Royce is from a – well, I will stop there, lest I offend some car maker or owner, but you get the idea. As the first baklava shop in Malaysia, Lavand is not only breaking new ground, but also setting a standard that can best be described as golden – like the honey that sweetens this Arabian Nights fantasy of a pastry. The shop imports premium baklava from Lebanon. Now, Lavand make their own and Lavand’s baklava is remarkably fresh and long lasting. The filo crusts are crispy and delicate, the nutty fillings are aromatic with spices and rose water.
Sheerin Zalani, the owner of Lavand. The woman behind the shop, Sheerin Zalani, is determined to match the quality of the product with the highest level of customer service. “I worked very hard to train the staff myself,” she says. “I wanted them to be knowledgeable about the product. And we absolutely guarantee our baklava. If you keep it for three months or whatever, and it loses its flavour, I’ll take it back.”
According to Sheerin, good baklava can be kept for six to eight months in the refrigerator without losing its taste.
The second partner in the trio that established Lavand is Sheerin’s husband, Fazel, whom she credits with the original idea for the shop.
He often went to Lebanon, where he has family, and brought back baklava for the people in his office. They loved it so much that he eventually asked Sheerin: “Why don’t you open a baklava shop?”
Baklava changed their lives in another way, as well. Back when Fazel was courting Sheerin, he didn’t feel that his prospective father-in-law was exactly warming to him.
At Fazel’s urging, Sheerin tells the story: “One day, he showed up with a gift of baklava for my father, and that did it! He was always welcome at our house after that.”
Baklava is not merely a delicious, father-in-law-melting confection, but also an intensely romantic one, with an ancient history and a reputation for inspiring – um, warm feelings, shall we say? It was first recorded some 2,700 years ago in Assyria, where the basic pastry-with-walnuts-and-honey (both of the latter are reputed to be aphrodisiacs) was born.
It comes to KL by way of Greece, where it acquired its leaf-thin filo pastry; Armenia, which added cinnamon (said to stimulate female desire) and cloves (ditto for both genders) to the mix; and Arabia, where it was blessed with rose water and cardamom (said to arouse male passion).
No comments:
Post a Comment