FAMOUS Mengkuang Titi bahulu (traditional muffin) maker Che Som Man, 63, is fighting against time to deliver orders for her aromatic bahulu to customers before Hari Raya.
She has hired more workers and stocked up some 200,000 bahulu so as not to disappoint her customers.
Her bahulu is not only in big demand during Raya. Orders for the muffin double during the Chinese New Year.
Che Som began selling her bahulu in a small way back in 1982. She was making about 30 pieces daily then.
“They were snapped up immediately when they were put up for sale at sundry shops.
“I expanded my business by buying two ovens to meet the demand especially during Hari Raya,” she said at her Mengkuang Titi home in Bukit Mertajam, Penang.
Watchful eye: Che Som supervising the workers.
She said she bought four more ovens as orders kept pouring in, adding that she had to abandon the slow traditional method of using coconut husks to bake the muffins.
“I would lose customers if I continue with the traditional method. I need ovens in order to deliver the bahulu on time, especially during Hari Raya,” she said.
Che Som said she made 20,000 pieces of the bahulu daily beginning from the second half of Ramadan.
She said she used four gunny sacks of sugar weighing 50kg each, eight gunny sacks of flour and over 2,000 chicken eggs daily.
Her bahulu comes in different shapes and sizes.
She also makes goldfish and fruit-shaped bahulu and other designs as required by her customers especially during wedding ceremonies.
Che Som said she was using five giant modified ovens now. Each can bake 144 pieces at any one time.
Her son Zahari Md Akhir, 30, said the family was planning to market the bahulu nationwide and also internationally.
Zahari said a Chinese businessman ordered 70,000 bahulu from him daily one month before every Chinese New Year.
Neat rows: Zahari and wife Norhana Mohd Noor helping to pack the bahulu in boxes.
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