Bread and Butter

"I depend on tuition for my bread and butter." If you say this in Malaysia you could raise eyebrows!! Not that giving tuition is lowly..but many would really take the idiom bread and butter literally. Bread and butter means source of regular income.

There used to be a bakery of the old kind in Sibu along Central Road. It was a "back shop" and the rental must have been like $50 per month. While most people would get their bread (Regular long and unsliced- this was called the block bread or loti teauh... or the round shaped roti baked in a round tin - this was called the wheel bread - chiar lun bao) in the morning my frugal dad would get the day old bread at half price . Dad was careful with his money all his life(albeit short) having been trained by his own family to be frugal. Having lost his mother at a young age also made him financially anxious all the time. He did tell us a few times "when I was your age I had to go over to my maternal grandfather Chong's with a small cotton bag to borrow rice to tie us over...my mother was very very frugal...so be careful with money always.."

Do you know that the best toasts came from the charcoal fires of Lok Huong Coffee Shop under the Palace Theatre? I was always impressed by the large amount of butter the kopi shop owner would slap on the toasts...the toasts were literally dripping with oil.!!..On the marble table would be a few hardboiled eggs and pulut pangang. I would sit at the table with my dad enjoying his bread and butter and this Kopi-o-kaw after our  marketing...

Aside from B and B as an idiom I have something to write about butter dishes.

Recently I bought a nice butter dish (something which delights me no end). And I really wanted to put a nice block/slab of butter in it. And indeed I was happy to get a slab of Golden Churn (made in Australia which is deemed halal).

My butter dish ( something went wrong with my camera)

My almost perfect French toast. I like the slightly burnt parts. Cheese hidden under the egg...

Another view of my butter dish

Examples of butter dishes around the world

Sometimes it is not the desire to own things that makes one buy an item.

For me it is a kind of connection I want to make with the past. Making french toasts in the morning. Having a cup of black coffee. Or gently spreading butter on a slice of nicely toasted whole grain bread....and then closing the lid on the butter dish.

It is a by gone era "thing"..but it makes me feel good inside. So why not?

Well I am not going into antique shops and buy 100 of them.....LOL!!!