Aspiring entrepreneur Rozairie Ramlie is wowing foodies in Kuching with his Flip and Fold Grill birria tacos.
The 22-year-old and his partner Farukh Khan have their own stall, which is located at Kompia House in Taman Matang Jaya.
Selling at RM7 per piece, the birria taco is filled with tender and juicy shredded meat, cheese, coriander, and onions. It also comes with a special dipping sauce.
“I have always been interested in becoming an entrepreneur, but I did not know which path I would want to take.
“When Farukh prompted the idea to start a food business together, I was thrilled and excited,” he said.
Started off with stuffed burritos
Amid pursuing his bachelor’s degree, Rozairie co-founded the food business with Farukh last year.
“The enterprise started when Farukh asked me to join him in a venture to start a Mexican food business during our semester break last year.
“We started off with chicken and beef burritos, which received encouraging responses from members of the public.
“We would collect orders from Monday to Friday and on Saturday at the break of dawn, we are already in the kitchen preparing the burrito wraps from scratch before moving onto the filling,” he said.
From the overwhelming response for their burritos, Rozairie said that this showed that there are demands for Mexican food among people in Kuching and even in Samarahan.
He admitted that they were initially hesitant to venture into Mexican food as they took into consideration the preference to the local taste buds.
“In fact, we experimented a lot with the recipes before we started posting on social media to advertise and take orders,” he said.
From burritos to tacos
Due to the lengthy processes involved in making their burritos, Rozairie said the duo decided to switch to birria tacos instead.
In revealing this, he pointed out that birria tacos is something new in the Kuching food market which is a potential they were keen to explore.
Based on their experience with making the burrito wraps from scratch, the duo decided to order ready-made taco wraps from suppliers in Kuala Lumpur.
“High quality ingredients honestly play crucial roles in contributing to the taste of our birria tacos.
“We are currently using local chilies as one of the ingredients. It is important for us to support and incorporate local produce.
“We are definitely looking forward to exploring other Mexican dishes by using local produce,” he added.
Despite how pricey the imported essential ingredients are, he assured that Flip and Fold Grill wants to offer affordable Mexican dishes to its customers.
“It is important for us to use high-quality ingredients because we found that it does affect the taste of our menu.
“Even though this admittedly incurs some cost on our part, we strive to offer our menu at affordable prices,” he said.
Of challenges and social media
Stating that promoting unfamiliar food products to local consumers in Kuching as one of the main challenges faced, Rozairie admitted that the initial introduction of Flip and Fold Grill’s birria tacos received lukewarm response.
“It cannot be denied that almost everyone is on social media, thus we decided to use Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to share pictures and videos of our birria tacos.
“We wanted to build a strong relationship with our customers so we would reshare and give shoutouts to those who tagged us in their posts,” he said.
As part of the efforts to promote and raise awareness of their food business, Rozairie said that they also approached local social media influencers.
“This is one of the ways to attract and entice people to try our birria tacos — through posts by local influencers who have a large number of followings on social media,” he added.
On the challenges of coming up with the menu, he said that it took time for large batches of fillings of the birria taco to be spot on.
“For the experiment process, we would produce the fillings in small batches. We found out that to produce big batches, some adjustments need to be done.
“This took quite some time to perfect and involved great patience on our part. Thankfully, we discovered the perfected method, and it has been used ever since,” he said.
Future goals and undertakings
Rozairie said that the wish for their Mexican food business to turn into a franchise with stalls available across popular areas particularly in Kuching.
“This dream is big, but we hope that we can get as many people as possible to try our food.
“Both of us aspire to become successful in this, especially when Mexican food is new when it comes to food business in Kuching.
“Nonetheless, we will continue to work hard and pool in as many loyal customers as possible to support our business,” he said.
On his advice for those who are interested to venture into the food business, he encourages them to go for it even if they have doubts or fears.
In saying this, he pointed out that it is important to prepare and have a solid business plan, goals, as well as missions which will be the enterprise’s backbone.
“Do not be afraid to reach out and ask questions, especially to those who are successful, knowledgeable, and experienced.
“They can become a role model as well as point of reference and guidance,” he said.
