Food pricing

I am not sure if anyone have this experience of eating in a Malay food stall / shop.

Me and my colleague (Mr. Onion) use to go for Malay food for lunch quite frequently as we both enjoy curries and spicy food.

As all Malay food shop, they have this large variety of dishes for you to choose and pick the amount that you think you can finish. After selecting your dishes, then the "waiter cum cost estimator" will come along to ask you for the drink that you want and then give you a bill for the food and drinks.

One thing I notice is that these food shop, they do not have a fixed pricing for the food they serve. Back in 1995, when I first started working for the very first time, I went to this stall near Central Market for lunch, I did not know the pricing as there were no price tags, I took some squids, some curry chicken and a bit of vegetable, the cashier charges me a hefty RM15!!! I was shocked!! Come on, back in 1995, I was only a temporary clerk working in a bank, how much am I earning? I can eat lunch for a week for RM15 at that time.

That was two lessons I learn and never forget. From then on, I told myself 2 things:
One - Never take seafood (squids, prawns or clams) and
Two - Do not go back to Central Market Food court for lunch... haha..

Now, whenever we go for that cuisine, I only take a piece of chicken, some vegetable and sometimes some scramble eggs or salted eggs. I even notice that when you take fish, it will easily cost you more than RM5 just for the fish. So I seldom take any fish.

This lesson was not learn until today by Mr. Onion. He loves squids. Whenever he sees squids, he will not miss it. Just today as we went to the shop, the moment he saw the squids, he quickly grab a spoonful of it. There were approximately 4 landed on his plate. He then proceed to take 2 pieces of chicken drumstick with thigh and a bit of chips.

When the waiter cum cost estimator came, he pass him a food bill of RM15 and Mr. Onion nearly fell off his chair. Then after finishing the food, as we went to the counter to ask the cashier how much was the squids, it is priced ridiculously at RM4 each. Then, the chicken is also at RM4 per piece. If you add up the total, Mr Onion took 4 squids = RM16, 2 pieces of chicken = RM8 and rice + some chips say RM2, the total would be RM26 for the rice already. But, he was lucky that the cost estimator only charges him RM15 in total.

Just imagine, small tiny squids is priced at RM4 per piece. The government is implementing price control for most of the raw food ingredients, but, did they even look into those cooked food pricing? Is there a price control on these items I wonder?

One more incident that shocked the customer also witness by me was there was once in a food shop, a customer with a family of 5 came over for dinner. The father ordered a curry fish head and some other food stuffs e.g. fried chicken, some vegetables etc. When the waiter came over to give him the bill, I think he nearly fainted when just the curry fish head itself cost him RM120!!! Mind you this is not an air conditioned, high end hotel restaurant. It is just a shop selling food / commonly known as 'mamak' shop with fan.

How did I know that? He was arguing with the waiter and spoke out aloud the price for the curry fish head. As if he wanted every customer sitting nearly to know that the price of the curry fish here there is ridiculous. I think if the curry fish head bones is soft enough, he will swallow it and also lick every single drop of the curry from the bowl.

Just imagine, the shop owner might just buy the fish head from the fish monger at RM20 or perhaps RM30. With some curry paste and coconut milk, a few ladies finger and some egg plant, he can sell it nearly 4 times the cost of the fish head.

I think that is the reason some "Nasi Lemak" seller here can afford to for for Europe tour yearly 15 to 20 days with the family of 10 without miss and some "roti canai" seller can drive a Benz S500. Their profit margins are easily above 50%.

Perhaps I should change my career now, putting away all my knowledge and education and start a food stall. Who knows, maybe one day I might just be driving a S500 myself too!!