It has been a long journey for Azalina Eusope from her low-caste childhood in Malaysia to culinary acclaim in the Bay Area. And now the chef-entrepreneur has celebrated the grand opening of her first permanent restaurant: Mahila.
In recent years, Eusope has attracted attention for her eponymous San Francisco food stall Azalina’s, whose fresh Malaysian fusion garnered features in publications like Bon Appetit and Afar. That buzz around Azalina’s has at last opened the door for a permanent, brick-and-mortar eatery.
The new restaurant is already receiving rave reviews. “The food was BOMB,” declares one diner. “Everything about this restaurant expresses Azalina’s history, womanhood, and heart & soul.”
Azalina Eusope Spent Years Running from Her Roots
Before her Bay Area success, Eusope was struck with an identity crisis tied back to her childhood in Malaysia. Born in a country that still harbors a caste system, Eusope and her low-caste Mamak tribal brethren were excluded from many opportunities. For four generations her family members have all worked as street vendors. They assumed there was no other option.
While her family took pride in its hard work and street hustle, Eusope wanted something more.
“Even though we made food for a living, we grew up in a harsh environment,” she recalls. “It was just hardship and poverty. We were made fun of – there were a lot of slurs being thrown at us – and that’s something that I didn’t want. I’ve been trying to get away as much as possible from it.”
When Eusope left her home at the age of 15 with no money and no experience, she had just one goal: to not end up a street food vendor. She spent her late teens and twenties working various entry-level restaurant jobs in Asia. Then she met an American man who would become her husband.
Eusope Finds Comfort Food in Her Native Cuisine
By 2014, however, Eusope still had not achieved any of her dreams. She fell into a serious depression. She had moved to San Francisco, to massive culture shock. Eusope didn’t even speak English. She was lonely. She felt homesick, but refused to give up and return to Malaysia.
Eusope dug deep within herself to find happiness. “I felt I had lost my identity, because I was living with a very superficial personality,” she recalls. “I was just trying to be someone else, which I was not.”
The cure for her anguish turned out to be quite simple: food. And not just any food, but her food: the Mamak food of her people, the food that she had been running away from her entire life.
One bite of spicy laksa, a taste of coconut pastry puff, or a simple spoonful of mint chicken curry, would instantly soothe her soul.
“The food that I grew up eating made me feel whole as a person, with a better understanding of who I am,” Eusope observes.
Azalina Eusope Taps Her Malaysian Roots to Find Success
Revitalized, Eusope had a clear goal: to introduce Malaysian food to the San Francisco area. Specifically, she wanted to educate Americans about her Mamak roots. She taught herself English by watching reruns of Friends and founded Azalina’s. The food company operated as a restaurant, catering business, street food vendor, cooking school, and food product distributor all at once.
The Bay Area embraced Azalina’s, and that support has now enabled Eusope to set up a permanent home in the city’s Noe Valley neighborhood. Tim Benson, Eusope’s husband and business partner, is amazed out how big her brand has grown. He points to the meaning behind the restaurant’s name Mahila, which is Mamak for “becoming a woman”.
Mahila refers not to adolescence but rather a maturing second stage in a woman’s life, when she becomes a leader of her community and family. As Eusope opens a new chapter in her career with her first formal restaurant, the Mamak moniker is most appropriate.
