When I was small, my mother would wake up without fail every morning at the break of dawn to prepare breakfast for the family – the most important meal of the day.
In those days, instant noodles were non-existent but sometimes, we might get to eat the mee kua or mee sanggul (egg noodles, coiled and dried) boiled till soft and tossed in lar, Ve-Tsin and soy sauce, or perhaps fried rice – the leftover from the day before. If it was somebody’s birthday, there would always be the Foochow longevity mee sua in ang chiew (red wine) chicken soup. Whatever it was, there would defintely be something to eat for breakfast even if it was just bread and butter and eggs.
The other day, I did not feel like having anything heavy for breakfast, so I ordered the “traditional” simple breakfast that would comprise what is called loti kiap (squeezed-together bread) in Hokkien or roti kahwin (married bread) in Malay with a glass of kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee)…
It is actually two pieces of toast with margarine and kaya, sandwiched together. Some would insist on them being toasted over some hot burning charcoal for that special authentic taste. Of course, the breakfast will never be complete unless you have the two half-boiled eggs with soy sauce and pepper…
Somehow this seems to be very popular among certain quarters these days, so much so that they even have this Kaya & Toast franchise shops in many of the big towns and cities, and if I’m not mistaken, you can also get this at some of the other places like Old Town. Of course, you will have to pay a lot more if you go and have this at one of those outlets…and come to think of it, it is not really that cheap at the ordinary kopi tiam (coffee shop) any longer. I had to fork out a total of RM3.90 for all that.
Well, time has changed and these days, one can have a lot more to enjoy when it comes to eating. For instance, my daughter was thrilled to see the imported meat pies from Australia that Gerrie gave me when I went to Kuching recently. There were the four’ntwenty ones…
…and the ones from Mrs Mac’s…
…I just took one and heated it up for her…
…and needless to say, she enjoyed it tremendously…
Just look at all that meat inside…
When I was a kid, the only time I heard of pies were in nursery rhymes and the only four and twenty that I knew were the blackbirds baked in one. I don’t recall ever seeing one, much less eat it! Time certainly has changed and tastes likewise – no longer as simple and affordable as before. My daughter would very much prefer these to our yummy local delights like kampua noodles and so on.
Well, she’ll be going over to Wellington, New Zealand next year for two years. Perhaps after that time, she’ll be sick of all these and crave for our simpler and more often than not, very much cheaper local delicacies. We’ll see…
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 