Travelling with parents tale - Eat and food

Malaysia food (Pic source: Google.com)

Just like Singapore, Malaysia a multicultural country. Majority ethnic group here was Malay (59%), followed by Chinese (32%), and Indian (9%). Their national language was Malay language, but English was widely spoken. So when coming to Malaysia, you'd expect many different food available across every corner of the street.

My parents though, especially Mom, had a choosy tongue when it came to food. Despite having traveled to various countries around the world, Chinese food was still their number one preference followed by Indonesian and lastly Western food. Indian food was no no for Mom. She felt that certain taste of the curry was too strong.The most she could take was Roti Prata as she tasted it before in Singapore.   Therefore, I found it such a waste to have famous Indian restaurant located just next to our hotel, but they both didn't fancy the food.

On our previous visit, we stayed for a week at the same hotel. We had eaten at the same coffee shops nearby, over and over again; mainly choosing the local Chinese food. So after some time we were pretty bored with it. We could imagine the taste of it even inside our dream.

One evening, dad was attracted by the mutton soup smell from the next door Indian restaurant. He loved mutton soup very much, but in Indonesians style. Apparently Indian style used different types of spices. But he was still willing to try. But we ordered at the wrong place. We should have ordered it directly from the waiter who keyed in our order in a small palm device. Instead, we went to the display counter where they sold white and Briyani rice with various cooked chicken, beef, and mutton dishes with vegetables.

As I had endured days without tasting Indian food, I was very happy that finally I could order my favourite Briyani rice with fried chicken, plus cucumber onion pickles mixed with yoghurt. For dad, he ordered white rice with chicken curry and the same pickles. And mom? She was having no mood to eat Indian food. At first she refused to order. But after trying my fried chicken, she walked to the counter herself and ordered a plate of white rice with fried chicken. That's it.

Gained weight (Photo source: Google.com)

She was the reason why I gained so much weight from my last visit too. Everytime she did not like the food or could not finish her portion, Dad and I had to finish it as we both tried our best not to waste food. For her, she didn't care much.

Many times Dad and I had to exchange look over the food she could not finish. Especially those she ordered unnecessarily. E.g. Dad suggested her to share a portion with him. She would say she did not want to eat this but something else. At the end her food portion was big and she did not like it. She would just eat few bites and leave the rest untouched. Or morning time she ordered something. She would say she could not eat much early in the morning. But she did not make any effort to ask the seller to give less portion either. Haizzz...... 

This time we visited Malaysia again and stayed at the very same hotel. We reached the hotel quite late from the airport. We were all famished. As we walked towards the hotel's entrance door, many people had already seated outdoor. On their tables, many plates of satay (meat skewers) were seen. The fragrant smell of the satay being fanned on top of the charcoal had attracted Mom to immediately visit the restaurant once we checked in our room and put our luggage.

Delicious Indian food :D

Dad ordered 1 bowl of mutton bone soup (Sup Tulang) and 1 bowl of normal mutton soup. Mom ordered 10 pieces of Beef Satay. And me, I ordered my favourite Briyani rice with chicken curry, cucumber onion pickles with yoghurt, and fried bitter gourd.

My favourite dish ;)

I started eating first as my food was readily available. Their food came later as the satay needed to be grilled. Maybe Mom was too hungry. She said she wanted to try my chicken curry. Not only that. She also tasted both veg that I chose on my plate. Quite surprising for me. She said, "It's nice. This curry, I can eat. Sometimes other curry, I can't take it. Too strong." She smirked, as usual, her pattern in giving excuses, and continued, "Tomorrow morning we can eat here again. We can eat Prata." 

I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. Laugh because finally she could accept how delicious Indian food could be and cry because she should find out about it earlier so that we could have eaten it more often before. I still remembered vividly her desperation when she rejected to eat anything that night.

The quote (Pic source: Google.com)

So I replied her, "When people is hungry, I think everything will taste good." She was just smiling wide. Even this evening when I asked what should we have for dinner, she suggested the next door Indian restaurant almost immediately ^^"