MELAKA, July 17 -- Growing up in Melaka, there were mornings where all we wanted for breakfast was some butter and kaya toast to dunk into a saucer of half-boiled eggs. Or an aluminium tray filled with a roti kosong hot off the griddle, kari ikan and a mug of frothy teh tarik.

Not unlike how folks in other states in Malaysia would have their sarapan pagi, really.

Then there are mornings when we had heartier appetites, perhaps after an early jog around the taman, and wanted something more substantial.

I won't lie; some days I would scoff down a dozen chicken rice balls, a Malaccan specialty (the food, I mean, not the gluttonous behaviour) when I was hungry, especially as a growing teenager.

But for something less belly-bursting, this w...