Breakfast…

Ash Wednesday was a day of fasting and abstinence and we still complied even though senior citizens like us would be excused from the fasting part. We still had to abstain from meat though, just twice a year now on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday but some say we would still have to continue to observe that every Friday throughout the season of Lent.

I slept a lot throughout the whole day – that way, I would not feel hungry and would not be looking for things to munch. I thought my missus would be cooking something light for lunch or dinner but when I got up at around 2, there was nothing to eat in the house. My girl said we could go and buy some fish burgers from the Sugar Bun outlet in our neighbourhood or we could go out for dinner later.

I told her we’d go out for dinner later and we could go here for the ikan keli I had once and she did like it a lot when she tried it. When we got there, we placed our orders but were subsequently told that they had run out of ikan keli. I was quite pissed off, to say the least. I simply cannot stand how those people conduct their businesses – ini tak ada, itu tak ada…and in the end, customers just go for something that is available, not necessarily something that they actually fancy.

I told my girl we could go some place else but she said it was not necessary and in the end, she asked for what I was having, the nasi penyet bawal hitam/black pomfret (RM17.00 X 2)…

I must say that the sheer look of it when it was served was somewhat disappointing. It did not matter one bit that it was VERY small, the size of the palm of my hand but it was fried till stone hard and dry. Obviously, they had used the very cheap, frozen till fossilised phak hong ones from the supermarket – some of the Chinese restaurants here do use those as well but they would advise me not to order as they would not be nice at all.

It was crispy – very hard and very crispy and dipping it in the two sambals provided…

…would probably save the day but they were EXTREMELY spicy, too spicy for me to handle so I just gave both of them to my missus and she was delighted and managed to finish all four, including her two as well. She loves anything and everything hot and spicy.

My girl did struggle a bit and managed to eat something from her platter but she also complained it was way too spicy and she did not manage to finish hers either. Only my missus managed to wipe out everything on her nasi sotong penyet platter (RM15.00)…

She obviously enjoyed the sambals so much.

There were these bits of cabbage, raw and cucumber by the side and a teeny weeny piece of tempe and fried tofu…

– I gave the latter two to my girl and left the rest untouched.

To me, the only saving grace was this little bowl of complimentary chicken soup…

The clear soup was mild and refreshing, much nicer than those they give you elsewhere at the Chinese shops and stalls.

The total, inclusive of drinks, came up to RM62.30, more or less the usual amount I would have to pay for a delightful meal from the authentic North Indian chef at the Indian/Indonesian restaurant here everytime we dropped by. If I had known it was going to be this bad here, we certainly would have made our way there instead for a vegetarian dinner. Well, seeing that this is how they go about doing things here, if this is the best they can do, I can say in no uncertain terms that we would not be coming back here again for a long long time, thank you very much.

MAT LAKSA (2.308351, 111.820696)…

…is located at No. 67 & 69, Jalan Kuda 2, Kampung Nangka, right across from Cabe Ijo in the next block, both facing the main entrance of Bisonte Grocer & Deli.