My Economy Rice Lunch yesterday....

Ubah Gaya Hidup (This is Malay for "Change your lifestyle") is the common phrase used by my Govt. to survive thru these hard times where petrol increased from RM1.90 to RM2.70, prices of food and electricity also increasing, rice increasing by almost RM1/kg and no sign of the salaries increasing. One must tighten own belt in order to make our salaries stretch to cover these costs increase. Even my dog feels it as last time she used to enjoy a whole strip of doggy bacon strip (about 5 inches long) and now she has to only settle for 1/3 of the strip each time she performs a trick.

Arwen



Hence, this was my lunch yesterday. 4 dishes plus rice for RM4.50. Not bad for the amount of food that I took from the economy rice stall at Sg. Wang's 4th floor foodcourt...

1. Rice + French Beans + Cabbage + Roast Pork + half a salted egg...




2. The veggies were still crunchy and fresh...my only qualms were the veggies was quite oily...



I am still bracing myself for the food price increase at Sg. Wang's food court...if I were to take the same combination of 2 veggies + 1 meat + 1 egg in other food courts, this would probably cost me around RM7.00 and above.

Cheap Lunches at Uda's Canteen

As I am working in the Sungei Wang / Bukit Bintang vicinity, there are plenty of food available here. I normally follow my Muslim Colleagues out for their version of Mixed Rice at the Uda Building on the 4th floor (Car Park Floor).

I will take the lift located near Kings and Kyros Kebabs on the B1 floor in Sg. Wang Plaza up to Level 3. From there, I will walk straight out past the Gentings Ticket Booth, past Reliance Travel Agency, past the hair wholesale shop into BB Plaza's area and up that escalator leading to the carpark. From there, I will exit out and walk towards the next entrance facing me. That will be the carpark entrance to the Uda Building. I will pass by their grocery store and enter to their canteen for yummy affordable meals.

As this is the Uda's canteen, I believe their food is partly subsidised. The reasons why I can eat there every working day are being that the food is yummy, reasonably priced and I absolutely adore tempeh*. (*Read more about Tempeh in my previous post)



This cost me RM5.00 as it has Rice, Ladies Fingers / Okras, Fish Cutlet, Tempeh, Salted Egg and Veggie with Prawns. A similar plate like this in another foodcourt located in this area would probably have costed me RM6 to RM10! The tempeh here is fried with taukwa and french beans in the dried chillies, tamarind and onion sambal.



This plate here costs RM3 only as they were all vegetables but cooked in different methods. This plate consists of Ulam, Pumpkin cooked with pucuk kayu (a malay veggie) in coconut milk, ladies fingers or okras cooked in a fish curry, tempeh, pergedil (mashed potato and mixed with fried onions, dusted with flour and then deep fried) and ulam (malay raw greens). The tempeh here is fried with taukwa in the dried chillies, tamarind and onion sambal. Guess how much this plate cost me??? I was so suprised when he told me it was RM3!!! So cheap!! That made the meal more satisfying.





Today's lunch...picture is overexposed bec I was seated under the flourescent lamp. RM5 for tempeh cooked with long beans and taukwa, deep fried sliced tempeh, Fish Curry Cutlet, Spinach and Ulam Pegaga (Pegaga is eaten for preventing ageing and is high in Vitamin C).

They are open Mon - Fridays from 11am till 4pm and closed on weekends and public holidays.


I do get cravings for different styles of cooked meals once in a while and will follow my Chinese Colleagues out. I will blog on my other usual lunch haunts in another post.