I woke up early on Saturday and started my morning exercise routine at around 6.45am. After that I dropped by Kepong Baru wet market to have breakfast and also to buy some food stuff for the week. It has been a while since I last ate at Loy Kee Restaurant. So, I sat down and ordered my food right away. I decided to go for Curry Mee. When the waiter served the curry mee, he said, “RM2” (USD0.70) and I responded ‘Haaahh?”. Then I asked him again in Cantonese dialect, “How Much?”. He gave me back my RM5 and showed a peace sign with his fingers! Still couldn’t believe it, I proceeded to give him RM2 loose change. There are a few pieces of char siew and a piece of tofu pok in the curry mee. The gravy is thick and flavourful. For RM2, there is nothing to complain about! The serving is rather generous too! I thought of ordering a take away of Wanton mee for my son since the noodles are so cheap but when I wanted to order they told me that RM2 noodles are for dine in only! Ha ha ha! Actually I didn’t realize there is a sign at the entrance of the restaurant stating that they are having a promotion, RM2 for certain type of noodles, Monday to Saturday, from 6am to 10am only. I only saw this sign when I was leaving the restaurant. My morning coffee cost RM1.20 and Lemon Honey cold drink cost RM1.60. So, the total cost of this breakfast is only RM4.80! 
It was already 3pm when my business partner and I finished our appointment in Setia Alam. We decided to check out the food stalls in Jalan Meru and found Soon Hock Claypot Bak Kut Teh in a row of shop lot, visible from the Jalan Meru main road. It seems that soon Hock Claypot Bak Kut Teh just moved to this new location and hence the owner hangs up large red banner that you couldn’t miss! This stall shares the same location as a Chinese Restaurant. The owner was preparing to close and we were his last customer. LOL! The friendly and accommodating owner told us not to worry and we can take our time to savour the food. We sat down and quickly ordered one bak kut teh and one hot pepper intestine soup. Nice aroma of the herbs in the Bak Kut Teh permeates the air when it was served. The soup is very tasty, thick and sweet. We asked for pai kuat(ribs) and lean meat. They were very tender and the meat actually soaked up all the nice herbal soup. There are fook chok (fried bean curd sheet) and tau pok in it as well. The hot pepper soup was still boiling when it arrived at our table. You can see all the bubbles in the photo I took. There are kam cham (dry lily flower) flower in the peppery intestine soup which I have not eaten for quite some time. The hot peppery soup sure makes us sweat right after we finished our first bowl. It was a sunny day and drinking this soup made us sweat profusely! LOL! The total bill for 2 person plus rice and 2 glasses of water came up to be RM18.50 (USD 5.60). I am dropping by again to try out the dry Bak Kut Teh! 
Nothing beats eating home made bread hot out from the oven. I have experimented with many types of flavour for bread but found that I still like Butter Bread more. Here is my recipe for home made Butter Bread. It is actually very easy to make you own bread. You just have to give the dough time to proof. 
The prayers altar, decorated sugar cane and my home made mi ku (tortoise bun). I decided to make these mi ku when I couldn't get soft tortoise buns in Kuala Lumpur like those from Penang.
Having grown up in a Chinese Baba and Nyonya (Straits born) family, I always looked forward to the 9th day of Chinese New Year. As a young lad growing up in Butterworth, I have many fond memories of the days we made offerings and prayers to The Jade Emperor of Heaven (Pai Thnee Kong). I really missed the taste of my grandma and mom’s home made bee koh (glutinous rice with coconut milk), huat kuih (rice flour cake with Toddy which is palm wine made from coconut flowers), ang ku (a type of nyonya kuih, glutinous rice flour with green beans filling) and mi ku (steamed tortoise buns). During that time, celebrating the 9th day of Chinese New Year was a grand family affair and it involves every family members. Everyone in our neighbourhood would be praying as well and I had a great time playing fireworks with my childhood friends. After the prayers, my mom would be chopping away the whole roast pig to share with our neighbours and we would have feast of roast pork meat as late supper (or maybe early breakfast because the prayers would only start at midnight).
Ahhhhh, the good old days!
Now, since my mom and dad are already in their eighties, I am taking over the reign from them in offering prayers to the Jade Emperor of Heaven and carry on this colourful family tradition. Before the prayers start, I drove my kids around my neighbourhood to show them how others celebrate this festival. Some houses are packed with guest and relatives; just like having a midnight party! LOL!
My kids and wife helped out in preparing food and paraphernalia for the prayers. All of them, especially my daughter was every excited to participate in the prayers. As the clock struck twelve midnight, I woke up my little 3 year old boy so that he can join in to pray as well. He was equally excited as well to see the prayers altar and the decorated sugar cane which is a must have for the Hokkiens.
Ok, got to go now…..to enjoy my roast pork with mi ku! LOL!
