Moving on ...: Makko

We first heard about Makko some ten years ago ... or thereabout. It was the rage of its time so getting a table on subsequent visits became the priority. Unfortunately, Lady Luck would not smile on us so Makko kept its distance. Well, until recently.

It was a weekday and we were early. The restaurant was quiet but not for long. We were soon surrounded by the ever ravenous noon crowd. The first item I spotted on the menu was Inche Kabin. But let me tell you about Inche Kabin.

Some ten to twenty years ago, we found ourselves at the pre-launch tasting in a restaurant owned by a retired police chief. (He had since been gunned down by burglars who broke into his house late one night several years ago.)

We were in snooty and affluent company so it was important to mind our "p"s and "q"s.

Inche Kabin

Doctors and surgeons were on the guest-list and they were cracking dumb lawyer jokes with a vengeance. At intervals, they spoke of their Sheffield days and Blackadder while we picked on our food and smiled politely.

The one thing in common they had was that all of them hailed from Penang. An active rally participant, Mr Hairy Face, (not his real name) was describing in vivid detail, the places he had explored and the eccentricities of its culture.

By and by, the topic returned to Penang. Mr Hairy Face pined for the Inche Kabin that he missed. What followed was a historical debate on the origin of Inche Kabin. There was much disagreement but they finally agreed that the dish was created some time after Captain Francis Light discovered Penang Island. The wives who accompanied their husbands to these shores wanted their meat cut into inches instead of the larger chunks which was customary at the time. That was how Inche Kabin got its "Inche". As for the "Kabin", I'm afraid it was lost on me.

So what is Inche Kabin?