Confucius said “if you wish to move a mountain, begin by moving stones today! Every little step counts. So, we did.
Our journey with the objective to serve fresh, non-frozen produce from farm to table and locally sourced from farmers and growers surrounding Perak began one and a half years ago. Ipoh is blessed to be surrounded by beautiful natural limestone formations and healthy soils which is fantastic for growing greens. The fact is utilized well by the many small farmers found around town. Besides vegetables, the neighbouring towns like Taiping and Menglembu, just to name a few are also active in livestock industry for breeding chicken and ducks thus completing the loop of the available local products produced for consumer market. If that is not enough, of course Cameron Highland is only 70km away which, also makes Ipoh the right spot for sourcing fresh produces for the food and beverage industry.
The abundance product availability in a rather small radius makes it possible for us and consumer to trace where the products actually comes from, sustainable as we get to know who produces them, support the local industry and most importantly be sure of the quality as well as the freshness. No need to freeze anything here. Sadly, today almost all food comes in frozen plastic bags or cans ready to heat up. It is true not all frozen are bad and it is rather convenient, however, what do we know about the origin of the frozen food. Where does it came from, who planted it, how’s the meat conditions, how long it’s been frozen, how many times it has been defrosted and frozen again and what worse - is it real? These concerns for the unknown is real for sure!
For the past one and a half years, we had stood firm on our objective. We took pride in sourcing for the best locally produced products, incorporating it in our menu and serving them to our customers. Though we are not at 100% yet, but our aim is to strongly continue until we can achieve it one day.
In our kitchen, we took pride in the efforts spent prepping the ingredients and utilizing different cooking techniques not only out of respect to the wonderful produce but also to build the layers of flavour. Lots of love, dedication and respect goes into preparing for every single dish. When you savour Galanggal’s Duck Confit dish for example, the flavours are built using variety of cooking methods which includes six hours of slow cooking the duck gently before it is ready to be assembled onto your plate.
We are not Italians but we do knead our own pasta. Our pasta is made fresh weekly so you may experience fresh pasta every time you dine with us. All of the accompanying sauces are also made using fresh ingredients from the variety of vegetables and herbs grown by our farmer friends. The same labour of love goes to any of the other fusion dish we serve at Galanggal Cafe. It is true that we don’t have Italian, Moroccan or Japanese blood running in our veins but the passion for cooking good food and years of experiences guided us through.
We all know the proof of a good cooking is by eating it, we welcome all of you to try and experience Galanggal Cafe's delicious flavours and rest assured “Nothing frozen except for Ice Cubes” came through our door.
Our pledge is and always to continue serving delightful dishes using fresh locally sourced produce by supporting and purchasing from our dedicated farmers. Hopefully by doing so our little effort will in turn help to regenerate back the circulation of our local economy. The best part about supporting local is we can all do it together with a full tummy no less.
We look forward to seeing you in Galanggal Cafe.
