A happy street food story

This is a happy story about customer recognition (of me, actually) at its most simple, and certainly best.

Ever since I came to live in Penang, Malaysia, a couple of years ago, I have enjoyed going to local street food places. After finding the kind of local food I really liked, which happenes to be Char Kway Teow, I settled into a routine on weekends when I would visit the same place almost every time. The local place I like has the joyful name of ‘Tasty Corner’. It is a short scooter ride from my house. I could walk but it is too freeking hot at midday most days!

The staff (and the chef) got to know me very well because I became a regular. On the few occasions when friends and family came to visit me, I always took them there. Then we had Sars-CoV-2, and lockdown, and closures, and more restrictions, and no dine in, then take away, then partial opening etc etc. Total global upheaval. Thanks CCP, the world hates you, just quietly.

Currently things have opened up once more, at least a little. We are able to dine in street side restaurants again with certain restrictions. Now on a regular basis I go back to my favourite Tasty Corner for my favourite Char Kway Teow. I always order exactly the same thing, as well as a tiger beer. I only need to sit down, and they bring both without me even asking. Of course I always give them a big smile and a huge thank you.

This is where it starts to get interesting. As the chef got to know me, meaning I became a regular, he began to add extra prawns to my dish. (Thanks for that!) But street food prawns most often still have the shells on, though not in this case, but they practically never de-vein them.

Now I am a little bit OCD (really, Nigel? We couldn’t tell!) so I always cut open the back of the small-ish prawns and pull out the vein that is full of sand and sh*t. I just can’t handle that taste. The locals don’t care and never remove that bit. It seems nobody is bothered except me. Anyone living in Australia would see this as a culinary basic. Not here.

Back to the story. Now the restrictions have lifted again, I loyally return every weekend to get my favourite dish and then meticulously cut open the back of each little prawn and pull out the sandy shitty bit. It is a very fiddly process. I have never looked up and I have never made a fuss of it, because frankly it’s not something you do when you only pay $2.00 for a fantastic street dish, $4.30 including a beer.

Then today something quite unexpected happened.

It’s Friday, and I’m sort of on annual leave. Sort of because I’ve been working every second freaking day, but that’s another story. I decided to go to my favourite place for lunch. I sat down and they did the usual, brought the dish and brought a beer. A little distracted, catching up on messages, I didn’t notice when they put the food in front of me.

And then suddenly it struck me.

The chef was looking over with a big grin. I looked down, and he had de-veined the prawns. He gave me a huge smile, I returned with a double thumbs up and a huge aerial applause. I guess they must’ve seen the fact that every time I came in I did the same thing. They must’ve thought I was a loony. But such a simple gesture made the dish immensely more enjoyable. I hope they do the same thing again the next time I go. But judging by the look on the face of the chef I think he realised it was a great thing to do. Ten out of ten my friend.