“Be right back tau Baby,” i typed and threw a flat excuse into the instant messenger, “I nak tapau babi goreng for lunch.”
For my years had been prosperous, — told Tan Yee Hou while rubbing my super-sized tummy, his way of saying i’m putting on weight — i had never had economy rice in a polystyrene container for quite some time. And i was craving for a simple lunch, in a polystyrene container.
So off i went, to a small street we called ‘Lorong’ and often i had found a little happiness in this small street where hawkers fed the rats and the rats were bigger than the cats, and the cats were scared of the rats and of the hawkers and of the people who came to eat faster than the rats would at this place we called Lorong.
At this place we called Lorong, i walked to the last stall and got myself an economy rice with ladyfingers and to write this story in the language of the nation’s, economy rice would have been ‘Chap Fan’ and ‘Chap Fan’ would have been ‘Nasi Campur’ and ‘Nasi Campur’ would have been really cheap.
“How much?” i asked the old lady who owned this stall.
She looked at the ladyfingers, the small prawns, the potatoes, salted fish, scrambled eggs, slices of potatoes and a giant fried fish ball fu chok, counted in her head and told me the number, “Say kau pun.”
I counted, Yat, Yee, Sam, Say, in my head and Say is four and Kau is Ringgit and Pun is obviously not a number. I learnt this years ago, Yat, Yee, Sam, Say, Em, Lok, Chat, Pat, Kau, Sap. Kau is also 9, is also Ringgit, and Pun is obviously not a number.
Pun is half, in cantonese. Say Kau Pun is four ringgit and a half, so i took a ten ringgit note and paid the old lady who owned the shop and probably was one of the people who fed the rats until the rats were bigger than the cats.
She asked me if i had small change. I told her i only had 4 notes of ten ringgits and 4 notes of one ringgits.
She took 4 notes of my one ringgits and turned white into an angel, her wrinkles all gone and i was all smiling to know how economy rice, or chap fan, or nasi campur can be really-really cheap. I got a 50 cent discount for my lunch.
I went back to the office to have my lunch in a polystyrene container, and went online after that, and she had asked, “Lunch sedap tak Baby?”
“Sedap,” i replied.
“Babi goreng?”
Baby, babi tu i goreng you je. I makan nasi la tadi. Esok i makan babi ok. Semalam i dah makan babi, makan siu yoke, sedap tau Baby!
=P
Abang,
9 is more of gau, gau like how you say someone is gay ‘gau kei’; while ringgit is Kau, Kau like how you say pikat perempuan ‘kau lui’
oohhh ‘kau lui’
i like!
=P
Oh..KL murah jugak aa. 4.50 for lunch
yeah, murah juga cik rina hi
=)
Mr Tan: So.. Is that mean, “You are so gay” = “You are so gau kei?”
@Rina – Nopes. gau kei is the act of being gay, i.e. engaging in homosexual activities like how I feel up Abang Zuadrif.
You are so kei is more like it : )
Thanxx Mr Tan !!
P/s: Who’s Abang Zuadrif? Issit Firdauz half brother? o_O
like ‘stressed’ is ‘desserts’ spelled backwards — or ‘rome’(roma) is actually ‘love’(amor) spelled backwards — whatever this thing is, zuadrif is firdauz spelled backwards =)
Aaahh…..Oh Ok, my name is Anir (sounds pervert, enuff)