Smiles…

It is such joy buying things from anyone who is so nice and friendly, all smiles…

…no matter how busy he or she may be and even more so when he or she is courteous enough to exchange a bit of small talk while one waits. This is something that those in the service industry and the ones in the food business should realise and learn.

Nothing puts me off than seeing those who choose to stay aloof, behaving  like theirs is the best in the world and they are not in any way obliged to be nice. Eating at such places, no matter how nice the food may be, one would not be comfortable or at ease especially some snooty individuals who make us feel like we owe it to them to eat their food and pay through our nose for it! The worst, of course, would be those temperamental ones who would snap at you should you dare to utter a word – I would not bother to patronise such places, that’s for sure, and would much rather settle for something less elsewhere. Never mind how good you are, I would not die from not eating your food and what I cannot understand is how people would go and queue (in the hot sun even) and wait and despite the verbal abuse they have received, they will still want to go back for more. Gee!!! I do think that is really foolish…and paying to be insulted some more is really the last straw. No, but no, thank you!

Anyway, back to this lady at the Bandong Ramadhan Bazaar here, she was so sweet and cordial that even though I had to wait quite long while she wrapped each individual order in brown paper one by one and her business was indeed very good, it did not matter at all, not even a bit. I dropped by her stall…

…located beside the gate to the surau there, at around 4 something that day but she had run out of the ayam sambal already by then. That was why, I was only able to buy her ayam berempah (chicken with herbs and spices)…

…and her ayam rendang…

…both of which cost RM5.00 only each for a whole lot of her very nice nasi kuning (yellow rice), two big chunks of chicken, the really yummy sambal tempeh…

…and I even asked for extra servings of her very spicy sambal cili and she willingly obliged, looking somewhat impressed. As we know, not everyone is into anything that is extra hot and spicy.

Both my missus and I enjoyed what I bought – she liked her rendang more but I preferred my berempah which I thought was so very fragrant…and tasted so good with the sambal tempeh and the extra hot sambal cili…and on top of that, they were so reasonably priced. I heard there was chicken rice at another stall going for RM7.00 and of course, I did not bother to go and give it a try!!!

Well, the good news is that after the Raya Festival, she will be running her business at one of the shops in that same commercial area – if I’m not mistaken, it will be called Rafidah Cafe or something. That, of course, means that I will not have to wait till next year before I can get to eat this again and when people are so nice and the food is so good, I sure would not mind dropping by there for more time and time again…

P.S.:
My sincere apologies to all those who have commented earlier on my regular midnight post today – I have had it removed.