Monday, May 11, 2009

Breakfast from the kerb

Pak Cik (Uncle) gets his stall ready by 7 am. He is meticulous laying out the pink table cloths. A large variety of dishes are available - from noodles, rice, chicken to kuih (Malay cakes).
His customers are mainly students from colleges, schools and people just driving past on their way to work, note his large red tub of warm freshly cooked rice.

Motor-cyclists will stop when they know the food is good. It's a Help-Yourself service.
Breakfast for most Malaysians isn't quite the same as in the West with cereal, fruit, toast or eggs. We kind of love our rice and noodles and we like it hot with lots of chilli. Just as many Westerners have breakfast on the run, we have adapted our lives to start each day fed and happy. We get our complete breakfast from the many stalls that "mushroom" from the kerb in the mornings. Under tress and umbrellas, entreprising housewives and the men too set up their "instant stall" early to catch the school, college and office crowd and "close shop" by mid morning to return home to take care of their families. These "instant stalls" do supplement family incomes as the owners can make between RM70 - RM 200 a morning.
Another stall under a shady tree by the kerb, note the car parked just next to the stall for easy transport of good and equipment.
Food is feshly cooked very early in the morning.Puan Normah sells "Nasi lemak" - rice in coconut milk, fried anchovies, boiled or fried egg, cucumber slices, roasted peanuts, chicken and "sambal ikan bilis" (anchovy chilli paste).
My breakfast all wrapped up in grease-proof paper.
All of this for RM 4.00 (US $1.11 cents), what a great way to start the day. I can't vouch for high work efficiency after breakfast, all the blood gets drained from my brain to digest this. Yawn...wake me up for lunch and don't tell the Bozz!

6 comments:

  1. Wow! That sounds and looks amazing. It'd almost be worth the plane ticket!

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  2. I wish you could sell the idea to the UK. I'd love a breakfast like that on the way to the office.

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  3. Yummo....mmmmm ....breakfast time...food glorious food.

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  4. I have nominated you for the Lovely Blog award on http://valswidiary.blogspot.com

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  5. Thanks so much valerie, this is my first and what a great start to my morning.

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