5. How freshness affect taste?17th June 2018.

From a simple conversation with a noodle stall operator I come to know about this.

The owner operates a CURRY MEE stall, I asked him why he no longer provide cockle (kerang) in his mee. His said the supplier give him spoiled Cockle, his customer complaint so he no longer give cockle to his customer as he cannot guaranteed the freshness.

I thought he can always buy from the market, boiled, peel off the shell and remove the dirty and serve it fresh to his customer. He said better buy the “ready peel cockle” as less work is involved. Now I understand. The same applies to Chow Keow Tew noodles. So one of the benchmark for these noodles, is that the stall operator must buy cockles from the market, boiled, peel off the shell and remove the dirty and serve it fresh to his customer. It is difficult to gauge the amount of cockles needed in 1 day. Thus, sometimes you will get overnight or multi night cockles (refrigerated), well that affect quality. Well, that why sometimes it’s nice sometimes it not nice. The same applies to prawns.

Let me go to the extreme side, well if you want good tasty food, must spend a lot of time making your own ingredient. E.g. A noodle operator made their own noodle before serving it to their customer, Nasi lemak operator make their own sambal. Most operator will find out which is the best sambal supplier, best tasting sauces and get it from their supplier and start cooking. Where got time to make their own SAMBAL or Special sauces. Maybe some specialized shop do it.

How about PAU and Bread? Every coffee shop got PAU in a machine correct? How many days the pau are there? Well, some people make $$ by dedicating their effort in opening up, pau shops selling fresh pau. There is one in Sri Kembangan and Dengkil. The same applies to Bread, which is made daily. Well, the taste and quality should be better than what you get from the machine or supermarket. Agree. So if price does not differs that much I will get it from a pau shops.

How about fruits? Due to logistic and commercial reason, the fruits we eat is not riped when it was plucked, so that it can last longer. What we buy it from the supermarket and eat it ‘s taste is always one to two grade below the best.  I wish there is an orchard which sells road by the road side. All the fruits must ripe on the tree before it is served. E.g Banana, papaya, mango.

Let goes to one extreme, let said I am a millionaires, I want total food quality/taste control. So I buy a farm, rear my own organic chicken/pig/cow/lamb/goat/fish, control what their eats. Then I also grow the plants such as sawi, cucumber and taugee for  the chicken rice shop. Later, I open a shop which sell chicken rice where the chicken is supplied from my own farm. I have 100% end to end control over the taste and texture of my meat. I guess nobody have done that yet in Malaysia. I do hope someday someone will as Malaysia have sufficient land to implement such scheme. Pls don’t ask me to do it, spread the ideas surely someone will take it up one day. I do hope to go to such restaurant b4 I died. If u know one let me know ok.