AURIA'S MALAYSIAN KITCHEN

Auria's Malaysian Kitchen by Auria Abraham

Get To Know The Maker

Where are you from/where did you grow up?

I grew up in a tiny town in Malaysia called Seremban. I studied Film-Scoring at Berklee College of Music in Boston. When I graduated, I started working at a jingle house - a company that writes music for TV commercials and lived in Manhattan for six years. After 9/11, I decided to move to Brooklyn. After 22 years here, I really feel like Brooklyn is HOME.

Why did you start your business?

One really cold miserable day in February 2013, when I was really missing my tropical homeland, I made a jar of Hot Chili Sambal to try to alleviate the homesickness. It's flavored with fermented shrimp paste, a funky, some say stinky Southeast Asian ingredient. I didn't think anyone in my home would enjoy it except me but I was wrong. My husband polished off the entire jar in three days. That's when I realized I was going to make a LOT MORE SAMBAL.

How does your work connect to Brooklyn?

My husband and I own our home in Brooklyn. My daughter is a Brooklyn kid, through and through. When I started, I was vending Malaysian food at events such as the Atlantic Antic, Flatbush Frolic and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden Chili Peppers Festival. We are in the process of signing a lease on a space in Flatbush - once that is done, all our production, warehousing and fulfillment will come back to Brooklyn.