No, I’m not Lisa. My name is Liza…
…with a zee and I am located at the end of Sungai Merah bazaar (2.327044,111.83921), opposite this primary school and church…
If anyone is wondering, no, this is not an English primary school. In the past, some schools were divided into two, one where the medium of instruction was English, and thus named, and the other Chinese until after the switch to Malay here sometime in the 80’s but despite that, they have retained the original name so even though you see the name of a school, tagged as English at the end like this, it is actually a Malay-medium school.
The other day, my missus and I dropped by this coffee shop that has been around for quite sometime now, just that we never bothered to go and check it out. I saw a lot of people eating the roti canai (RM1.20)…
…but I was kind of disappointed when it was served. It looked rather pale and the dhal dip was so diluted…
…not thick and rich the way I would love it. However, the sambal that came with it saved the day – I would not say it was all that great but with that and the dip, the roti canai was not too bad, after all, just that there are better ones around like the nice one round the corner from here that comes with a bowl of curry gravy.
We were early but though it was only mid-morning, the selections for their nasi campur (mixed rice) were ready. Everything looked good so we decided to have brunch there and save us the trouble of having to cook lunch once we got home. There were a few types of curry to choose from – chicken, beef, fish…and I chose the lamb…
…and yes, it was very good and the meat was very nice and tender.
The sambal egg…
…at these Malay places is my favourite so I just had to have one and I had the sotong (squids)…
…masak kicap (cooked with soy sauce) too. Both were good though the squids were a tad too salty and my missus, who had that too, was of the same opinion – they could have used less soy sauce or the sweet type instead.
I picked the very nicely-done ladies’ fingers…
…too and in fact, I took quite a lot of that – probably twice the amount of one regular serving if they do it for you at this type of stalls and just look at that…
– the salted egg yolk, so red and oily, truly a beauty and it was beckoning to me! Come! Come! Take me! Take me! So, how could I resist that, you tell me? LOL!!! Unfortunately, it was not as good as it appeared to be as it was rather salty and not really to my liking. There! I should have known better than to judge it solely based on appearance.
No, my missus had better self-control and did not give in to temptation so very easily so she just had the rice and the sotong and ladies’ fingers and she also had some kangkong, that was all, unlike what I ended up having on my plate…
When I asked them to calculate everything that both my missus and I had, including two glasses of kopi-o-peng (iced black coffee), I could not believe my ears when she told me it was only RM11.20 (excluding the roti canai). I have had a lot less at those nasi kandar shops in the peninsula and charged a whole lot more…like that time when I had to fork out RM11.00 for me alone at this place in Penang and I only had rice plus one quite big sotong and a small piece of fish, nothing else!
Hmmm…give and take a little here and there, at that price, I certainly would not mind coming back here again, that’s for sure!
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
Bargain price!
Got lamb, got sotong +++ some more got kopi-o-peng!
Where else can you get this price? 😉
We could not believe our ears when we heard the total – it could not be a mistake as the lady was using a calculator.
Great deal! I’ve been seeing sotong pop up in more cafes and fine dining restaurants lately. I wonder if they’re just discovered the ingredient or if there is something with a great supply.
Some years ago, I was asking why they did not appear at hotel buffets and I was shocked to be told by my West Malaysian colleagues that they were VERY expensive – around the same prices as prawns. They were dirt cheap here then…but not anymore. What with the “salad sotong”…and the equivalent in Japanese restaurants and all the rest. I think there is a much greater demand for it now.
I love that version of salted egg yolk. Very bright in colour and oily. Hehe. That was a reasonable price for two people. 👍🏻👍🏻
Not just reasonable, cheap! So very cheap!
I must be old fashioned – I use “zed” instead of “zee”.
Zee is American, I use zed too – British. 😀
I agree the dhal dip looks very diluted.. I prefer to see chunks of dhal or some pieces of tomatoes/green chillies inside.. But I usually order roti planta, and eat with sugar, and maybe fish curry sometimes.. Salted eggs! I just boiled 3 salted eggs and had that for dinner and white rice last week (shared with my hubby la of course), so nice, I’m not complaining 🙂
No, no tomato, no green chilies inside for me. Just very rich and thick dhal!!! Those things may affect the taste and to me, may not necessarily be for the better. 3 salted eggs!!! Ok, between you and your hubs, one and a half each so I guess it isn’t too bad. 😀
Great deal. Oh boy, the salty egg is too good to resist. Two types of egg in your plate, that’s a lot. Love the ladies fingers.
One and a half! I only took half a salted egg. Hehehehehe!!!!
I was once asked, why Salted Egg Yolk in Nasi Campur… isn’t salted egg yolk a chinese thing? I couldn’t answer >_<
Isn’t there chili in Chinese dishes too? And cincaluk dip with pork? And curry in curry fish head? And curry powder in Japanese as well as some western dishes too? Here, we have Chinese stalls selling nasi lemak and Malay ones selling kampua noodles, don’t see how that can be a problem. I think it is an absolutely silly question! Some people have such narrow single-track minds. No wonder our country is the way it is! Tsk! Tsk!
Yes, Liza….such as Liza Minelli. 🙂
Not Lisa Marie Presley.
I like sambal egg, if i see it in Malay stall, i will order it…
Me too!
Quite a good selection you had at the nasi campur stall. I won’t be able to resist the lamb curry and the salted egg. Don’t like the salted egg whites though hah..hah…
The opposite of my girl – she would only eat the white, salted egg or hard-boiled…and of course, I would happily help myself to what she did not want. Unfortunately, she has acquired the taste for the yolks now…so no more extra treats for me. 😦 LOL!!!
With so much, only RM11+. That is cheap considering it is Malay food. Love the lamb curry and sotong masak kicap. Now I am craving for Malay food!!
Come to think of it, I’m not sure I know of any places where they have really good Malay food in Kuching. Rumah Hijau, perhaps? At Rubber Road, I think.
The food looks good especially the ladies fingers and salted egg, I love those.. and the price is very reasonable too! Maybe they have forgotten how much you have put on the plate? haahaha… anyway, the price might be quite standard too… Nowadays for RM5, we cannot get quantities like this anymore… The roti canai might be pale in colour but it looks not so oily, suits me real fine but the curry, yes, it is very diluted…
No, we took what we wanted ourselves and then we went to our table, the lady came with a calculator to look at what we had taken and calculated. We even asked her if that included the drinks! Minus RM3.20 for that, only RM8.00 – maybe they charge RM1.00 1 item, rice free.
Aiyo….initially I thought someone mistaken you as a transvestite….muahahahahhaa…
Yeah, schools in the past are sorta have their own stream but sadly, nowadays all the same. Even the brothers have left the catholic schools.
The food really cheap, don’t think can find this price in SG…..muahahaha… However, I am not really a big fan of spicy malay food. Love the roti prata , though!
Not left – retired, died…and no young ones, no new ones joining so no more Brothers left to run the schools. They did not have their own stream – English was the medium of instruction then and other than those, there were Chinese schools – now Malay and Mandarin or Tamil. You want English, there are private schools and also international schools. We have Woodlands here – I think connected to the one in Singapore.
Of course, you cannot find anything at this price in Singapore or anywhere – this is so very cheap! Oh, you’re like your Auntie Claire, into non-spicy Chinese only? At least you like Japanese – looks like she goes only because of the children, not really a fan.
I tried the roti canai before..not bad.the malay food that u ordered looks good n price is reasonable.
You’ve been here? It was ok, not great – I know some elsewhere a whole lot nicer.
I thought you were gonna introduce someone when I saw your title post, though.
Ah, yes, my parents and I are pretty fussy with the dhal’s texture. No matter how tasty the chappati, dosa or roti canai, etc is, if the dhal has a liquid texture, it spoils the entire dish. I think the shop is trying to reduce its cost… if not, I can’t see why they’d give a liquid dip.
Or they do not know the secret to a good dhal dip…and that is how they always do it so they have been doing it all along. Or many people are not as fussy and do not mind at all since so many ordered the roti canai and seemed to enjoy it, that was what I noticed.
Cute blog post title and opening! I’ve been hungry for dhal lately. I actually posted about a veggie curry I did last night tho! Let me know what you think!
Jessie Colter, American country singer…but I only know this one song by her. Was quite a hit here.
nasi kandar here.. so expensive, after take knowing the price you would feel cannot I put them back. lol
Been there, done that – cutthroats, daylight robbers. Thankfully, we do not have those here.