What if…

If it is something that is not so easily available here, like kacang ma chicken, for example, I certainly will think about cooking my own. Or if it is available but it is not so nice, for instance, popiah (spring rolls), then I will have no choice but to make it myself.

But if it is something that I can buy at some place here anytime and it is very nice, I definitely will think twice about having to sweat it out in the kitchen to cook my own version of it especially when it entails a whole lot of preparation and requires a multitude of ingredients.

Like the other day, a friend of mine shared a link with me on Facebook – a recipe for ayam masak merah. Now, that is one thing that I will not bother to cook myself as I can get it very easily at my regular Malay food stall at Bandong anytime…

For only RM10.00, I can get this much of the absolutely delightful dish that is not only very delicious but also wonderfully aromatic and spicy…

…and is substantial enough for two persons for two meals or more.

Of course, if I were my friend who is living overseas, I would not have much choice but to try and cook my own as what may be available at Malaysian restaurants would be quite expensive and there is no guarantee that it will be nice.

My daughter had this lamb curry at a very classy Malaysian restaurant in New Zealand…

…plus roti canai with banana filling served with ice cream for dessert…

…and that came up to NZ$25.00, which is well over RM50.00 in our currency and she said it was not as nice as the curry we would cook at home and the roti canai was hard and tough and nowhere near what she used to have in Sungai Petani (Kedah).

She was grumbling away about it  being so very expensive as well but I told her that it was perfectly all right and that at times, we need to pamper ourselves a little bit…especially after all the hard work and the stress of all the assignments, tests and examinations that she had been through.

Well, I do that sometimes – pamper myself. Do you?