While economy rice or cai png is a staple in Singapore and across the Causeway, the concept may be new to foreigners.
Recently, a South Korean man tried cai png for the first time in Malaysia and documented his experience on Xiaohongshu.
Source: Xiaohongshu
He was so overwhelmed by the variety of items available that he decided to take tiny samplings from at least 12 dishes.
However, this landed him in hot soup with the stall owner, who was unsure of how to calculate the price of his food.
Xiaohongshu user @kimqyinkorea, who is the man’s Malaysian girlfriend, posted the video on 7 June.
It starts with the man standing in front of a self-service cai png stall, where customers can take whatever dishes they want themselves.
“[There are] too many choices,” he says.
Source: Xiaohongshu
His girlfriend then explains that the more food he takes, the more he’ll have to pay.
The man, who says he “wants to try everything”, then asks if he can take “a little bit of everything”.
His girlfriend says yes — but later adds in a text overlay that she came to “regret” her answer.
Sure enough, the man proceeds to take meagre portions of various dishes, including single pieces of meat and pinches of vegetables.
Source: Xiaohongshu
This, of course, shocks his poor girlfriend, who tells him that he can’t do such a thing but gets ignored.
By the time the man is done, he is holding a plate of white rice surrounded by around 12 sample-sized bits of cai png dishes.
“In my 27 years of living, I’ve never seen anyone eat economy rice like this,” his girlfriend had exclaimed earlier.
The clip later cuts to the Korean man revealing that he was “taught a lesson” by the cai png stall owner.
This was apparently because she had trouble calculating how much to charge him for his unconventional order.
Source: Xiaohongshu
“This is Korean style,” the man claims.
One user who also sells economy rice remarked in the comments that she hates it when customers take dishes like that.
In response, the OP said that her boyfriend no longer dares to do such a thing in the future.
She also explained that it was his very first time eating cai png, so he presumably wasn’t familiar with the usual practices.
In her reply to another comment saying that there was no need for the stall owner to scold the man, the OP clarified that she actually “wasn’t very fierce” and was even smiling.
The girlfriend also said that they both apologised to the stall owner and told her that the man is a foreigner.
Source: Xiaohongshu
As for how much he had to pay, the OP said the stall owner was an “angel” and charged him only RM12 (S$3.50).
Source: Xiaohongshu
Well, at least the boyfriend has now learned his lesson. Hopefully, he’ll know what to do the next time he’s standing in front of a cai png stall.
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Featured image adapted from Xiaohongshu.
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