Warong Nordin....

Warong Nordin....my kinda warong,man!

We, Malaysians are really one helluva lucky lot when it comes to our food. I must admit that being a Malaysian Chinese, our cuisines and food fares are endless in variety and mind blowing at times. We can sample Malay food, Indian food, Sikh food, Sarawakian food, Sabahan food, Portuguese food, Gujarati food and a whole load of goodies from the world, actually. Each community in Malaysia has their own specialities of gastronomical good food and that is what makes Malaysians so unique indeed. Primarily, Malaysians live to eat and not the other way round.

If you are like me who enjoys good food, ( and of course, a rather precociously handsome tummy to show! ) the entire length of the Peninsular of Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak offers you that gastronomical food extravaganza that is truly unique only in Malaysia. Yeah, I am blessed and still am being blessed with the goodies from the land including the food from the indigenous people ( Orang Asli ) in our land too.

Today, I want to share about my favourite breakfast place and breakfast fare – roti canai. Roti canai is a type of Indian–influenced flatbread. However, the word “canai” in Malay means rolled out dough bread. To me, it doesn’t matter if it is rolled out, flattened out , spun, throw in air, spiral, round shaped, square shaped or made like a triangular cone tower, if it looks good, eat it! ( Borrowing the favourite tag line for Andrew Zimmern! )

 

Nordin busy with the roti canai making and his customers

Traditionally, roti canai is served with dhal ( lentil curry ) or any type of curry, such as mutton or chicken curry or in my case, Assam pedas ikan pari. However, the versatility of roti canai as the staple lends itself to many variations, either savoury or sweet, with a variety of toppings and fillings, which includes eggs, banana, sardines and onion. In Thailand, it is usually served sweet - typical fillings include condensed milk, peanut butter, jam and nutella, without the curry. I had this type of roti canai pisang topped with condensed milk while I was in Haadyai recently.

My favourite stall is Warong Nordin which is situated at Jalan Durian Daun, Melaka opposite the Malay graveyard. Yeah! Don't be afraid of the dead; they can bring you no harm but be afraid of the living for they are more dangerous! This place had been my favourite breakfast haunt for the past 4 years now. This warong or stall is run by the illustrious and industrious couple in Nordin & Leha. The stall is jammed pack in the morning with their regular customers including me and my buddy, Errol. I have watched this couple and their children working in the stall and I must say that every ounce of care is given to ensure every customer is satisfied with whatever food that comes out from the warong.

 

Dhal curry and assam pedas ...yummy

I remembered going to this stall when it was still in wooden structure with the same crowd of customers. I remembered ordering two (2) roti kosong and pulled tea a.k.a. teh tarik. It was the best roti canai fare for me. The flatbread was crispy, not burnt, not oily and yet retained it springy dough texture when pulled apart to be dipped into the sambal ( sweet, hot & spicy cooked paste condiments ) and dhal curry.  I remembered the taste and the niceness of  the flatbread. It stuck to my palate till today. At that time, roti kosong was 80sen, roti telor was RM 1.30 while teh tarik was RM 1.00. The warong serves prepared fried mee hoon, fried mee, curry mee, lontong ( compressed cylindrical /squarish rice cakes drenched with curry base vegetables or even meat served with sambal ) , nasi lemak and even traditional Malay kuih ( bite size dessert food or snacks )

As Nordin hits out and churned out lovely roti canai of epic proportions and quantities, Leha would prepare the drinks and I like the teh tarik very much. Over the years, I had to cut down on sugar and my teh tarik would be less sweet and just to my taste. I am blessed that each time I arrived at the stall , my “orders” would be in front of me even though I had not made my orders. Jaafar, one of their ever-smiling and jovial helpers told me that regular customer’s orders are already known by the couple. I guess, that is the trademark of good service and personal touch from the proprietors. Guess, old goat like me doesn’t stray much away from their orders each time they are at their regular place of makan, huh?

Jaafar...jovial, happy go lucky worker and cynically funny dude

Recently, during one of the working Saturdays when I ate my breakfast there at the warong, I had the opportunity to speak to Nordin on some matters in regards to their business. As Nordin was on one of his rare breaks as he had sold out his roti canai, I began to ask him about the business. I was told that Nordin would wake up as early as 3.00am each day to do the preparation for the flatbread dough. All this was done by hand and he would get the recipe right which was handed down in generations to ensure the customers get great roti canai each time. Nordin did informed me that the cost of ingredients had increased tremendously and he was unable to sustain the increase in cost which is affecting him a lot. When I spoke to him, I could see that he was genuinely concerned for his customers in terms of rising cost. In one of the moment, he told me that one of his success was the lower and middle income customers who had patronised his stall ever since he first started. From the labourers to the rich who had come to patronise his stall, he was concerned of the lower income and middle income group of people struggling to make ends meet, hence, the low prices of his food and drinks. I applaud this man’s concern and his conscience in affordable prices. However, to my surprise, it was the customers themselves who had asked him to raise the prices if he was unable to sustain the rising cost. I guess, every one understands the situation we are all in while some may not sound that enthusiastic of the increase in price. BTW, there is nothing extravagant about Nordin & Leha lifestyle too as they still own the first model old beat up Proton Saga and they live modestly as I have been to their home during Raya celebrations. Really down to earth couple.

I guess, only in 2017, he had increased his prices as he was not able to sustain the high cost of raw ingredients like lentils, curry, spices, flour, eggs, onions, chillies and the rest of the raw materials. It is notably easy for us to get angry with stall owners like Nordin for increasing their prices in food and drinks but at the same time, we have to give him the opportunity to earn a decent living and feed his family just like what we are all dong every day of our lives. I must say that a good majority of his customers are all for him to increase his price including me when he asked his customers about it as he explained to them as he served them their food. That to me is a gentleman’s conduct. Being an avid people watcher, I did not notice any missing customers, actually. In fact, his customers grew in numbers and soon, my family members joined in his list of customers too.  

Anyway, I still like my roti tampal ( an egg pasted on the outside of the roti ) and roti kosong accompanied by my milk tea nowadays. It is so refreshingly good in the morning and it starts your day just right. Some of my colleagues have joined me in the mornings for breakfast at this place while there are days I would packed these roti canai telor and roti canai kosong for my colleagues in the office.

 

Roti tampal & roti kosong together....my kinda food!

I guess, watching Nordin, I realised that the art of making good roti canai is a dying skill. As I looked at Nordin at the peak of his work, I realised too that this was a skill that was acquired with much passion and respect. A good chef once told me that you have got to have the skill, the passion and the respect of ingredients to churn out good food. I must admit that the good roti canai is the embodiment of this man’s hands skill at making it. I have no complaints of his roti canai. Nowadays , Nordin doesn't open his stall that frequently citing old age and pain to the hands. He usually takes Monday off while the rest of the days are business days as usual unless he falls sick or his hands tires out. 

I guess, there is no one else in his family who is going to take over his business when he retires as the tired hands of Nordin slapped, mould, spun and stretch the roti before landing the roti on the big flat oiled pan.

As I sat down and slumped back after another satisfied breakfast, I could only expressed my satisfaction by giving Nordin and Jaafar the thumbs up sign. There were smiles all around as I joked with Jaafar and Nordin. This has been our usual banter with one another in the mornings. 

As the crowd of customers thinned, as plates and cups are cleaned up, I saw Nordin sitting at one corner of the shop drawing a puff from the newly lit up cigarette pushed to the centre of his mouth. I could see Nordin’s determined and lines etched face shows the anxiety of what tomorrow will bring to ensure a continuity of survival and hope. The usual anxiety of every stall owner, I guess…..as the construction of a new stall located next to his shop is under way.

As I passed Nordin that day, I said “Lawan tetap lawan, kawan.”. He looked up after pulling his gaze away from the construction site of the new stall and laughed aloud. At least, the strain on his face was gone while the anxiety was gone for a moment. A relief etched on his face as I turned to walk away heading towards my trusty car to go to work for the day. Who knows what tomorrow will bring but at least, the first part of the morning had been bright, cheery and fulfilling, don't you think so?

Smile brings cheer to the heart but laughter is still the best medicine for the heart, right?