With living costs rising by the minute, even dishes that are normally considered budget food aren’t quite as, well, budget-friendly as they were before. It’s not all doom and gloom however, if you’re a resident of Balik Pulau, as you can get a steaming hot plate of briyani rice here for just RM0.10!
According to The Star, this insanely affordable meal can be enjoyed under the roof of Baen Cafe in Jalan Pondok Upeh, Balik Pulau, which belongs to 37-year-old Ibrahim Abdul Rahim. If biryani rice isn’t your cup of tea, you can also opt to get tomato rice for the same price! By comparison, a plate of biryani rice costs an average of RM3, while tomato rice is usually priced from RM2 and above, in most nasi kandar outlets. That’s a huge difference!
Source: The Star
The cafe also offers dishes to complement your rice, and they are sold below market price as well! For example, a ‘siakap’ fish head curry is only RM5, whereas chicken pieces are RM3.50 each. If you’re just looking to ‘yumcha’, you’re in luck too – certain drinks such as coffee, tea and syrup are priced at RM0.10 too. Imagine the amount of money that locals get to save!
Source: Facebook
With such affordable prices, it’s pretty common for Baen Cafe’s customers to pay less than RM5 for a full meal that consists of rice, dishes and a drink.
As Ibrahim puts it,
“I agree that the pricing for my food and drinks may seem out of this world but I just want to ensure my meals are affordable to everyone.”
“So my wish is that they would never feel burdened when it comes to paying for a fairly decent meal.”
Thanks to his delicious yet budget-friendly offerings, Ibrahim’s cafe serves about 400 customers every day from 9am to 4pm, and enjoys exceptionally good business at lunch time. To make sure his customers are well-fed and fully catered to, he has two barrels of biryani and tomato rice prepared daily, and these will usually suffice 180 customers. If the rice is depleted, he will simply cook more white rice on the spot.
Source: Harian Metro
As if these prices aren’t unbelievable already, Ibrahim also revealed that prior to shifting to his current cafe premise, he had been providing the rice for free for three years! Yup, free of charge. He only began charging a nominal price of 10 sen per plate after more and more customers felt uneasy about not needing to pay for it. Go figure!
At the end of the day, we understand that not all hawkers or cafe owners are able to do the same as Ibrahim here, as living costs do vary from state to state, and city to city. However, we’re really glad that there’s a corner of our country where you can still enjoy a traditional Malay kampung-style dish, at prices that haven’t been the norm in years!
Also read: Penang Ranked the 19th Cheapest Holiday Destination in the World!
