That morning, I made up my mind to go out and have some char pek koi at the coffee shop near my house – my girl loves the one there.
When I got there, I had a change of heart. After all, I had char pek koi twice already, once when my girl fried it and another time when I finished off what was left in the packet of white rice cakes. I placed my order and sat down to be served.
There was social distancing in the shop all right…
The tables were placed very far apart and there were two chairs only at each table except for the bigger tables where there were four chairs. There were very few customers, a far cry from before COVID-19 when every morning, without fail, the people would be spilling onto the road. My neighbour spoke to me over the fence one day and he said that the kampua lady told him that they would be lucky if they could make RM30-40 a day from the few dropping by and those buying takeaways to eat at home.
So what do we have now? The Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO). A rose by any other name! Whatever they choose to call it, things will take a long long time to recover and one thing’s for sure, it will never be the same again! There was a file and a pen on the table in front and a sanitiser spray on the chair beside it but I did not see a temperature gun. Anyway, nobody was bothered to go through the SOP – I do think what is most important is to keep one’s distance from any other living soul around- avoid crowded places and wear a mask.
Soon, my order arrived (RM8.00)…
– my Foochow fried noodles, the moon version, special with all the liver and innards, char siew, strips of meat, fish cake slices, fried tofu and oh me oh my, it was as good as it looked.
I can’t remember the last time I had it here and anywhere else for that matter but this time around it had gone up by RM2.00 from RM6.00 in 2018., that time when the special was already RM8.00 at the other places that I used to go to. I must say that I enjoyed it so much after having been deprived of this local Foochow delight for so so long – three months, at least!
Incidentally, I did tapao the char pek koi (RM4.00)…
…for the ladies at home. My girl said it was nice but not as nice as the other times she had it. Of course, there is a difference between eating it there and tapao-ing and eating it at home and of course, the one I cooked was nicer – I had a whole lot of prawns in mine, none in this one here.
AH KAU CAFE (2.316346, 111.839861) is located along Jalan Ruby, off Jalan Lim Han Swee, in the same block as Kim Tak Mini Supermarket, to the extreme left.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
RM8 seems a bit expensive to me. But perhaps the Pandemic is forcing everyone to struggle…some at the expense of others.
It’s RM8 for the special everywhere else, just RM6 here – maybe I was charged wrongly then. So much liver and innards and char siew and meat and everything else, I do not think it is expensive at all. I wonder how much the “specials” are in Melaka if you think that is expensive. Here, you can always opt for the regular, RM4.00 only, with bits of meat and veg barely visible to the naked eye.
Hair salons are imposing surcharges of between RM5-RM10. I sure do not mind paying. 3 months, no income and if theirs is a rented place and they have employees to pay, that will accumulate to quite a lot. Many will be forced to close down, that’s for sure.
Oh my, the Foochow fried noodles is calling me. Of course, any dishes/food from the wok to the table will taste absolutely better than tapoa home. Having say that, I still prefer to tapoa and eat at the comfort of my home.
Yes, enjoy with peace of mind. I will only go to the ones with very very few people. Generally, all very few at the moment, may be a bit more mid-morning but nothing like the crowds everywhere before. Times are hard.
bette midler’s classic is certainly suited for these troubled times. ooo, i like liver, so i’ll order that foochow favourite (which i’ve not seen before) 😀
Not sure where you can get it there but now that travelling within the country between the states is allowed, you can always hop over to try this and a whole lot of other delights here. Otherwise, you will just have to look…from a distance. LOL!!!
Your order of Foochow fried noodles look so very good with those slices of liver yum! The coffee shops here also space out the tables and today I passed by one with only two tables occupied.
So sad. Just went to one of our favourites to tapao a few dishes for dinner – last time, you did not book, forget it! Full house every day. Today, nobody. I did see somebody ordering a few dishes to take home…and a group of 3 came in just as I was leaving. The lady boss looked so sad. I asked if things have started picking up and she said, “Far from it!” These are hard times!!!
Funny way food photos influence our cravings, isn’t it?
Especially those very nicely taken photographs, looking like the ones in those commercially-produced recipe books. They’re having 3D photos on Facebook now!
I would go for the fried noodles minus the fish cake slices.
Oh? There was just one or two. I like fish cake slices, the good ones – some are just msg-flavoured flour, those sold at the frozen sections in the supermarkets, the fish balls too.