I am going to tell you a little cockle story. Cockles as you might know are a popular shellfish in Eastern and western cooking and are eaten as a fresh snack or pickled, or sold in sealed packets immersed in vinegar. But have you heard of a cockle crisis.
This crisis does not speak about the shortage of cockles but the storage problem of a large stock of cockles. This story is of the couple Abdul Azis Arabia and wife Maria Abdul Rahman, who discovered the famous cockle satay two years back, when there cockle business was shrinking due to shrinkage in orders and there was no alternative to dispose the cockles. They had to do something for the sensitive cockles lest it caused damage.
Satay being the famous grilled dish in Southeast Asian countries, the Tanjong Karang residents decided to make satay as their rescue option. Maria cleaned the cockles and then boiled them for easy shelling; she along with eight co-workers dried the cockles in a clean environment, to save the cockles and its devourers from getting physically upset. The cockles were dried for a longer shelf life and then skewered on specially made slender and sharpened bamboo sticks. The skewering followed the packaging of satay, both of which is still done by Maria herself along with her children.
Maria sells these cockle satays in Kuala Selangor, Sabak Bernam and in different restaurants in the Tanjong Karang district. The satays are sold at 30sen along with the groundnut gravy. After this very unique discovery the situation has changed, now the orders pour in and Maria’s husband has to deliver the 400 sticks of satay twice a day. When asked about the secret behind her sales, she says that her satays sell because of the thick and sweet groundnut sauce. It did not take much time for the local businessmen to take up the cockle satay business, and she is not afraid of it, she believes on her recipe and is waiting for a Government aid to expand her business.
As she waits for that we congratulate her for her unique satay discovery.
