Somewhere in an old part of PJ. (1)

Time:7.20pm

After a long day. An old Chinese coffee shop, but in modern times. It probably has been around since the 1970s. An old Chinese coffee shop in the old era would probably have telltale signs like dark brown colour wooden tables with marble tops. The chairs would be dark brown wooden chairs would round seats.

Most of the stalls were closed indicating that this coffee shop catered mainly for the lunch crowd. This shop was mostly empty of customers. At this time of the evening, people will usually buy and tapau (2) food home.

Jeannie had rice with bittergaud and siew yoke (3).

Laura and I had sin chau mai fun noodles. It was prepared in an unusual way, something new to us. The noodles were sort of a pale white in colour, not the usual orangish colour. It came with a generous serving of char siu(4). I am not sure if I spelt “sin chau mai fun” correctly. I spelt it according to what it sounds like.

The condiment that came with each of our meals was chili padi in soy sauce. Chili padi or chili peppers (term loosely used) is a small chili, usually green in colour. It is usually cut in tiny pieces and fried with these noodles, mainly to give an additional flavour to the noodles. If you are unlucky and happen to bite one or more pieces of this cut chili padi (you will usually find quite a few pieces in each serving); and if you are one who cannot eat chili; be prepared to gulp down plenty of water or fluids. Big red or green chilis pales in the degree of hotness when compared to these tiny firecrackers.

For drinks, Jeannie had a can of Nescafe C (not really sure what the “C” is), and I had a can of Nescafe Ais. The “Ais” had a food element that made the drink seem ice cold. Of course, it helped that the drink was refrigerated, too.

We bought the can drinks earlier on, while waiting for Laura at her office. The middle-aged lady who ran the coffee shop said that we could not bring in drinks from outside, meaning that we could not bring drinks purchased elsewhere. We had to purchase drinks from her shop.

However, she smiled and said, “Never mind. It is ok”. We thought we’d buy drinks from her but she was very nice and said it was o. k. Not to worry.

The meals was delicious.

We left about an hour later, after thanking the person who served us our meal orders.

NOTES:
“Makan” is Bahasa Malaysia for eat or food
1. Know to many people as PJ; it is the short name of Petaling Jaya. Petaling Jaya is a city in the state of Selangor, Malaysia.
2. Tapau is the Chinese word for “take away”. Another phrase used by the locals here is “take back” which also means to take away food.
3. “Siew Yoke” is Chinese for roasted pork with crispy skin.
4. “Char Siu” is Chinese for barbecued pork marinated in a sauce that sort of gives it a sweetish taste.