The two-week mid-year school holidays here started on the 28th last with a couple of extra days, one that they had replaced on a Saturday and another, an occasional holiday. It did not matter one bit that it was a bit longer than what the schools in the peninsula had and even though we did not go anywhere, the days flew by so fast that it didn’t feel a thing. Before we knew it, we were down to the last day of the holidays last Sunday.
I told my girl that we would grab the chance to go out for lunch before school reopened as we would not be able to do that much on school days. Even on weekends, she would still be bogged down with all that work and would not be in the mood to go out and eat.
This is one of the regular restaurants that we frequent but throughout the two weeks, we did not manage to drop by here so that was where we went that day.
My girl did not feel like eating rice that day so we agreed to order a plate of fried kway teow (flat rice noodles)…
…to share. This is our local Foochow style, wet (with sauce/gravy), enough for three and because we asked for a big serving like this to share, it did not come cheap at all and I had to fork out a total of RM18.00 for that. The usual price for a plate here, single serving, is RM6.00 now while elsewhere, the standard prices are around RM4.00-4.50 but of course, do not be surprised if the meat and the green vegetables are not visible to the naked eye.
I posted this photograph on Facebook and mentioned in the caption that it is now RM6.00 a plate but no, nobody commented that it was so expensive. As a matter of fact, my brother in Auckland, New Zealand (like our late father before, he too loves the fried noodles at this restaurant) said that it was so cheap and looked really good compared to what they would get there for NZD18.50 and it wasn’t even nice!
We also ordered the kiam soh pai kut (salty & crusty pork ribs), RM18.00…
…which was a tad too salty to me but it was all right and for our vegetable dish, we had the midin, ching chao (plain fried wild jungle fern), RM12.00…
It was pretty obvious that the prices of the two dishes had shot up as well but that was not in the least surprising, considering that everything is so much more expensive now.
I bought some midin at RM13.00 a kilo not too long ago and a few days later, my missus paid RM16.00 a kilo for it. The lady boss said that it is now RM23.00 a kilo and the worst thing is it is not easily available. Gosh!!! Considering how lucrative the going price is, it is a wonder that those people have not bothered to come out in full force to pluck the ferns growing here, there and everywhere (for free) for sale. I am quite sure they will make quite a bundle!
Yes, the price of pork went up recently and yes, the prices of cooking oil and everything else too…and right now, there is a shortage of chicken and eggs so I shall just count my blessings and not complain.
Y2K CAFE (2.294220, 111.825753)…
…is located in the Tunku Osman area, round the corner from that block of shops where the branches of AmBank & RHB Bank are located with its back entrance facing the side (right, not the main one) entrance/exit of Methodist Secondary School.
...STILL CRAZY AFTER ALL THESE YEARS! 
The Foochow style fried kway teow looks good and so are the 2 dishes. I can finish that plate of midin all by myself. Here a small bundle cost RM5 and one bundle is never enough to buang gian.
Here, only the ethnic ladies at the jungle produce market (tamu) will sell in bundles, last time RM2 each…but when you get home and open, inside, all the rotten ones! In the end, we never buy from them. When I bought, RM13 a kilo, I only bought RM5.00 worth, already a lot…no need to buy so much, cannot keep, will turn black.
I wished we had midin over here. My brother had it once when he had to do a job in East Malaysia. He said it was very good.
It is, indeed! Very very nice. Hard to get these days, they prefer to supply to the restaurants so we may not get to see any at the wet markets.
I wonder if midin is the same as our local paku pakis. Here it is not easy to get paku pakis, not even in the wet market. People no longer surprised with the increase in price. I supposed we are too numbed to complain.
No, they are not the same. Paku is not so popular here, available mainly at the Malay stalls and shops – they cook kerabu or masak lemak with it.
Midin is super popular and super expensive, very crunchy and tasty, tastes different from paku – nicer…something like asparagus.
I guess since we have been talking about rising prices for so long, we are already numb – just let them rise, life goes on…
Midin at RM23 per kilo now? That’s just too hard to imagine!
But we don’t have midin in Johore.
Nor do we have jungle fern, so I can’t really comment whether it’s worth it or not.
But I remember my late grand ma’s stories about food shortage during the Japanese occupation.
People back then would eat anything they could dig out from ground.
Ubi kayu was their staple food back then.
These days, hardly anybody would eat that.
But if prices keep going up like that, I guess, we all have to go back to ubi kayu diet.
All those vast areas of jungle over there have been turned into massive oil palm plantations,
all the damage due to the abuse of weedkillers and pesticides,
little…or no undergrowth, no midin or paku growing anymore.
Even tapioca (ubi kayu) is scarce these days especially the nicer yellow ones, nobody’s planting them anymore.
I’ve blogged about the ones I bought – I enjoy boiling them and eating them just like that
or used to make bingkas/tapioca cakes.
Holidays always pass way too fast!
Exactly! In a blink of an eye!