Tighten up…

With the escalating prices of virtually everything these days, it would be best if we could tighten our belts in whichever way possible. The Malay expression for that is ikat perut or tie up your tummy. I guess that means eating less and thus save some of the money spent on food. Well, it sure would help a lot if one goes to those classy upscale places less and save them for special occasions and another way would be to know where things are relatively cheaper.

There is this lady who runs a little stall at Bandong here at the corner of the street right in front of the primary school…

*Archive photo*

…but she closes very early, maybe around 7 or 8.00 a.m. so I never had the chance to go and see what she has in store.

I think I did blog about it once though I cannot seem to locate which post it was now but she sells her very nice nasi lemak sambal…

…at only RM5.00 for one big tub unlike elsewhere where they sell theirs in those little ones they use for homemade kaya at that same price or more…and once, I was talking about how some people would go and buy from her and sell at double the price, RM10.00, at the nearby market.

My sister bought one for me to try and that morning, when I was in the vicinity myself at around 8.00 a.m., I saw that she was still around. Of course, I stopped to check out her stall but she did not have much left – four tubs of the sambal, two in a plastic bag so my guess was that those were reserved by someone who had yet to go and collect.

There were a few pieces of vadai…

…left and she was selling them at 4 for RM1.00. Elsewhere, it is always 3 for RM1.oo and hers were much bigger than most. My girl thought that they lacked the fragrance of the spices used in making those and I would agree with her but despite that, I would say that they tasted pretty good. Some can be very hard but these were just right.

There were a few of the RM1.00 packets of fried bihun…

…left and I bought that so I could heat it up the following morning for breakfast.

The packet was double the size of the usual that one would find at such stalls here, also selling for RM1.00 each – theirs are always very small and the mee or bihun inside looks really oily, so much so that I would never want to buy at all.

This one was very good and I fried an egg…

…to go with it. I really wonder how they can cook this no-ingredient bihun and still get it to taste so nice. I am very sure they use chili sauce and I could detect a hint of kunyit (turmeric) and perhaps a bit of serai (lemon grass) too…but for just RM1.00, I would much sooner go and buy instead of trying to fry my own.

Incidentally, I received this…

…from somewhereinsingapore yesterday afternoon. Thank you so much, Sharon – it certainly is so sweet and thoughtful of you. Too bad you didn’t write your address so I can’t send one back to you. As a matter of fact, I did not send any at all, not even one…unlike what I did for Christmas – and I did extend my New Year greetings then. I have the cards – the ones for Chinese New Year from the Mouth and Foot Artists, lots of them and honestly, I’ve been wanting to sit down and write and mail them all this while but somehow or other, I never got down to it. I guess as they say, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak so it looks like I will just have to save them for Chinese New Year next year. Hehehehehe!!!!