Before the sun rises…

I am up and about every morning way before the sun rises and on working days (weekdays), I would send my girl to work and come home at around 6.00 a.m. I bet a lot of folks would still be lost in dreamland at the time.

The problem is when one is up and about that early, there will not be a lot of things that he or she can stop to buy along the way for breakfast. Here, a few kampua mee stalls are open, just a few and one morning, I dropped by my neighbourhood fruit & vegetable sundry shop in the next lane. Yes, they were open but no, there was nothing available yet – usually, they would get some homecooked/made breakfast & teatime stuff delivered there for sale but no, they do not send them over that early…unfortunately.

On yet another morning, I decided to try my luck here…

…and yes, they were open and yes, I saw that they had some things laid out at the long table in front of the shop.

I asked about their curry puffs…

…and the young guy said it was chicken, only RM1.00 each. It sure looked like there was hardly any chicken in the filling, all potatoes but to give credit where credit is due, it was very much to my liking. The filling tasted great and the pastry was nice and crusty. I sure wouldn’t mind buying these again should I happen to drop by there next time.

On the other hand, the tee peang (Fuzhou oyster cake)…

…was, at best, quite all right – not the best in town and definitely not the worst either. For one thing, they were cold already – such things are usually nicer eaten piping hot from the wok. The ones with meat filling were really huge compared to all the others sold all over town.

They also had deep-fried stuffed kompia and from the look of it, they probably used that same filling for those too.

The kosong (empty) ones…

…were pretty much the same – I also thought the texture and the taste were all right, nice enough but not quite there.

I did not ask how much they cost but all in all, I paid RM6.00 for everything. Minus the RM2.00 for the curry puffs, they would leave RM4.00 for the tee peang. This probably means that they are only RM1.50 each for the ones with meat filling and 50 sen each for the kosong ones. Gee! That is so very cheap!!! To date, the cheapest I’ve encountered would be RM1.80 for the ones with meat filling and 70 sen for the kosong ones (and the latter are extremely small!)

The kampua mee stall at the coffee shop next door was still closed when I got there. As I was getting into my car, parked right in front, I saw the guy walking past. He had just arrived and was about to open his stall and start his business for the day. That was around 6.00 a.m. so I guess he would not be ready to roll till 6.30 a.m. at least, when the water has started boiling.

TOTO CAFE (2.311913, 111.846213) is among the shops right behind Delta Mall, Jalan Pedada – the block on your left if you are coming out of the mall via the back entrance, the second coffee shop in that block. This coffee shop with its very popular kampua noodles (now RM3.20 a bowl/plate) is in the same block, at the other end, opposite the Methodist church there.