Too much…

Sometimes when I’ve been feasting on all the good food, there will come a time when I’ll feel that I have had too much…that enough is enough, and I will yearn for some plain and simple fare. This happens without fail during Chinese New Year by the 2nd or 3rd day, and I’ll cook some plain porridge to eat with salted egg or salted fish.

When I was in Penang, I took a stroll one evening down the road directly opposite the hotel where I was staying. After about 100 metres, I came to a crossroads and I noticed quite a crowd at the coffee shop in the block of shophouses on the right after the junction. Needless to say, I went over to see what the attraction was and by george, they were having Teochew porridge…at 4.00 p.m.

I surveyed the array of condiments that they had – salted eggs, salted veg…all the braised innards and I told myself that was what I wanted for dinner that night. Unfortunately, that was not meant to be as when my daughter and I went back to the shop at nightfall, most of the things were finished and we had to go some place else to eat some other things for dinner. Gee! Those Penangites certainly had very odd eating times!

It was not until when I was in KL that I spotted a place selling Teochew porridge – one of those shops selling chap fan (mixed rice) across the road from Low Yat Plaza. I had the pork in soy sauce with one hard-boiled egg…

…and the pig’s blood…

It had been ages since I last had that. The Chinese believe that it cleanses the system and barbers in the past would eat it once a month to get rid of those tiny bits of hair that they had breathed in or swallowed and were trapped in their system. I don’t know how true that is…but that was what I was told when I was young and that was the reason why we had to eat it way back then.

There weren’t any salted vegetables and I thought that was already enough for one person to finish, but I just had to order the salted egg as well…and that was a delightful lunch indeed!!! Yum! Yum!

Well, everyone knows that in the past, people had Teochew porridge for breakfast, though maybe with simpler condiments…and Malaysians would eat nasi lemak for breakfast as well. However, these days, people will eat these at any time of day, even for lunch and dinner…like the time when my ex-students, Walter and Dudley (and Dudley’s brother) dropped by to see me…

…and we went to Pappa Rich…

…and everybody had their nasi lemak which was actually pretty good…

They also have this in the cafe…

I first saw it at Salsas in Penang. You press the button and the cashier at the counter will be alerted and at the same time, the watches that the waiters are wearing will start vibrating…

…and the table number calling will be shown on the watch, so the waiter(s) can get moving in a jiffy. Come to think of it, at some places, maybe the waiters or waitresses would need more than a vibration – an electric shock perhaps, to get them moving! LMAO!!!

Well, I think we have had too much already, haven’t we? I’m talking about my posts on my Penang and KL trip. I bet everybody’s so bored by now – one after another, day after day. Don’t despair, folks…for the good news is this is going to be the last one. My normal posts will resume tomorrow. So don’t forget to drop by, eh?