Eating white rice with onions

‘Hunger makes a thief of any man.’
—American writer and novelist, Pearl S. Buck

Recently, I came across a ‘World of Buzz’ story of a foreign security guard in Malaysia who ate only rice with onion and garlic after sending most of his salary to his family.

His simple meal of white rice soaked with boiled water and onions made many netizens sad.

‘The meal may be able to fill our tummy but how long can it last, and how satisfying can it be in the long run?’ asked the writer of the article.

The story said according to a Facebook post by Penang Kini, a user posted photos of the security guard with his simple meal and said his decision for simple meals stemmed from the love he had for his family back home.

On his payday every month, the guard will transfer most of his salary to his family in his hometown and it is up to him how he spends the rest of his money.

The user said sometimes he would treat the guard to better food if he had the money.

In the comment section, many Malaysians wished the guard well while some resonated with the guard’s situation and hardship.

“This shows how great a father can sacrifice for his family. They, too, are humans with emotions so let’s be sympathetic to them,” added another netizen.

Like the netizens, my initial reaction when I read the story was to sympathise with the guard.

“At least, he’s eating rice. This will ensure he will not be hungry when he works,” I told myself.

In Malaysia, we may find it unusual to fill our tummy with plain rice soaked with boiled water and onions. But I find that in certain parts of the world like India, the poor folk do eat rice with onions.

My younger sister, who used to live in Sabah, said she had come across some folk there who ate white rice with fresh chillies only.

“They were not poor. They had lots of gold jewellery. I guess they just loved eating rice with chillies,” she said.

Meanwhile, I am wondering why the guard did not fry himself an egg or two to eat with the rice.
If he could cook rice, surely he could either fry or boil an egg or two.

“Yes, he can just cook an egg or two to go with his rice, too,” commented my sister.

“Why doesn’t he eat his rice and onions with soya sauce?” asked my best friend. “At least, with soya sauce, the food will be more tasty.”

“When I was young, my family was very poor. So most of the time, we ate porridge with fried long beans. In those days, the long beans were very cheap — just 20 cents a kati,” she told me.

Personally, when I was young, my family was poor, too, so we survived mainly on porridge, fried anchovies and soya sauce.

My friends, do you know that the usual and cheapest meal for poor children from low-cost flats in Kuala Lumpur consisted of fried eggs, rice and soy sauce?

This is according to the United Nations (UN) agency’s State of the World’s Children 2019: Children, Food and Nutrition report.

“I think the security guard is just posing for the owner of a Facebook or Tik Tok account who wants to increase the number of his/her fans,” added my friend who tended to think logically and was not easily swayed by emotions. “I don’t think he eats white rice with onions everyday.”

Curious to find out how much the foreign security guard in Malaysia was earning and how much he was sending home, I turned to Goggle.

Well, according to JobStreet, the average monthly salary for security guard jobs in Malaysia ranges from RM1,700 to RM1,900.

So after sending the bulk of his salary home, apparently, the foreign security guard did not spend more than RM100 a month on his food.

Curious to find out how other security guards survived, my sister in Johor Bahru approached a security guard guarding the apartment where one of her co-workers was staying and asked him how much he spent on his food.