I had a chat with
William(Malaysian senior, local dentist) and he had told me that the local Chinese
in his hometown Tawau seldom visit Malay stall…. An issue which never came across
my mind, but yes indeed.
I recalled during
my childhood; my parent had only brought us to Chinese shop and the only non
Chinese shop we visit was a few Indian shop for roti canai(breakfast). My dad,
working in the field(means out of the office) had the chance of trying out
variety of shop during his working days. There were a few occasions, where my
dad had brought me and my brother around and we had ate in Malay/Indian shop, a
hell of an experience for me and one of the important reminder was not to drink
from the teapot placed on the table in an Malay restaurant -> the water is
meant for hand washing and not for drinking…
During my service
with the MMOH, I had had the chance to try out Malay food. At first was the ward’s
food (same with the patient’s food of coz minus the big chicken piece…) and
later I tried out hospital’s canteen food and later Malay stall outside the
hospital. My favorite are fried rice, Tomyam, and whatever cooked with curry
powder…
During the
process, I had noticed that I might be the only Chinese in the shop, later on,
there would be some occasion where I am the only 3 Chinese in the shop ( the
other were Ving and Yun).
Frankly, I had an
odd sensation initially; I was afraid that the shop owner would chase me out. I
had heard from my father that there were these hard core Muslims in the
northern state that refuse to make contact with non-Muslim. Fortunately, I am
over-worried and I was treated nicely… Ving is very fond of spicy food and most
of the times, we ended up with a load of dishes on the table….
Well, looking
forward for our trip back to Malaysia
No comments:
Post a Comment