Tucky Restaurant @ Sitiawan...

We tried out Tucky Restaurant, just after Gandhi school, on the way to Kg Sitiawan... the place with supposedly the best 'kampuan' in town now. That's the general perception.

The restaurant was full of people even though it was only 7.30 a.m. People in Sitiawan arise early to go to work. In Alor Setar, the early birds at the stalls and restaurants are usually those retirees on their way back from their tai-chi, line dancing, aerobics thingy. Here, it's full of people on their way to work.

Noticed too that the restaurant operators worked super fast. The proprietor's son for example was multi-tasking - clearing tables, serving, collecting bills, putting the filling into the wantan... time is money, one can see. He seemed to be literally gliding from one table to another with the tray of bowls of mee in his hand. Kinda dizzying to watch him work. Empty tables were filled within the minute, with another line of people outside doing the take-away. Business is really roaring.

The mee?? Portions are big. The taste is okay but I can name some other comparable ones in Kg Koh as well. Kampuan is served in bowls here with another smaller bowl of clear wantan soup. We met Alfred and his Other Half as we were leaving the shop, still full and with a seemingly endless trail of patrons.

And the early to rise thingy... we took a drive down the main road. It was only 8.00 a.m. Many shops (all kinds), clinics, restaurants were already opened..... In Alor Setar it would be hard to find a hardware shop opened at that hour. Yet I saw a couple along the same road and sundry shops such at this one....that's my dad's friend.

But I feel this will slowly change some more in time to come. Sitiawan is a town built on rubber. I can still remember vividly, men and women cycling at the break of dawn, coming back from the rubber plantations. And their work would not be done yet still... the Fuchows of earlier gen were a very hard working lot, used to hardship, hard work, long hours... still can see that in the remnants of that generation and the generation after.

This is the old market in Kg Koh; a pale shadow of its former glory. The road beside it leads to Pasir Panjang. My friends and I used to cycle there for fun. The market has shifted to a new location along the road to Simpang Dua; near New Village. Mom used to cycle to this market every morning. Before 8 she'd be out of the house, after cleaning the house, and be back just after 9. In our teenage years, her coming back from the market was something my brothers and I would look forward to, for she would buy back for us our breakfast made up of kampuan and loo-mien on Saturdays and during school breaks.