Money rules...

Within each family, the siblings are invariably made up of two categories i.e. the “Haves - those considerably more affluent and the “Have-nots”, their poorer relatives. Where my family is concerned, there’s only one “Have” while the rest of us sadly, falls under category 2.

My 2nd sister, more commonly known as “Datin”, (because she’s always harboured a desire to have this title bestowed upon her) is the only one in my family considered to have ‘made it’. Most of the time, the fact that she’s well off doesn’t go to her head or makes her behave like an incorrigible snob. On the contrary she’s always been more than generous so occasionally, when she does get all high and mighty, we indulge her and allow her to ‘act up’ as if it’s her right. There have been instances though, when her acting-up backfires and places her in awkward or comical situations!

There is 1 particular incident that never fails to tickle me whenever I am reminded of it.

Most of our family gatherings take place at our ancestral home i.e. at the shop so on the few occasions that meals are taken in Klang, we make it a point to drop by datin’s house for coffee. (Coffee’s our family’s preferred beverage.)

One Sunday we all proceeded to 2nd ‘s home after a hearty lunch. As always, the initial part of our visit was filled with much oohing and aahing over her recent purchases. Depending on what her latest craze is, or that of our brother-in-law, there is always something new for her to show off to us. (Between the two of them I don’t know who is the more compulsive shopper. Imagine having Chairman Mao’s bust as part of the house décor!) Admittedly, a lot of gizmos, widgets and gadgets found in her house are things I have never seen before in my sheltered life.

While male members of our family lounged at the sitting room, we girls huddled over the kitchen table and Supri, our maid hastened to prepare the much craved for coffee. 2nd commented that the brand of 2-in-1 kopi-o that was being brewed wasn’t sweet enough and suggested we add in more sugar to enhance the taste. She said that her husband, Chai, who had just returned from Sydney after seeing their eldest son settle in for his studies, had brought back a particular brand of sugar from Australia that was quite expensive by normal standards and lucky us would have a chance to taste it!

The question in our minds then was why would people pay more for sugar? Did it contain special nutrients we were unaware of? But of course we, the have-nots couldn't possibly know what goes on in the minds of the wealthy.

When the ‘special’ sugar was brought out in a normal transparent container, (amidst more oohings and aahing) the bumpkins that we were couldn’t help but gawked at it.

I beg to be excused because I do not spend a lot of time in the kitchen so it was conceivable that what was placed before us was “expensive” sugar in cube form. They weren’t white or brown like the sugar I am used to but more translucent, like ice cubes.

Mei Cheng, the only one of us girls considered to have inherited our mum’s cooking skill, blurted out … “How come look like rock sugar one?” The rest of us gasped at her apparent audacity to dare say something like that. True enough, 2nd glared at her and sounding rather pissed off, said, “Don’t know don’t simply talk!!” The rest of us, not wanting to annoy her further, chastised Mei Cheng and made eye signals for her shut up.

Try as we might, none of us could uncap the container so 2nd got Mei Mei’s daughter to take it over to my bro-in-law to have it opened. She came back with the now uncapped container, saying “ Uncle Chai wants to know what you want to do with the …(you guessed it!) rock sugar! “

Now wasn’t that plain embarrassing?

Apparently the expensive sugar does exist except that my sister paid no heed to where our bro-in-law kept it. She, another one of those who hardly spends time at the kitchen did not know the difference between ROCK SUGAR and sugar for daily use, simply assumed that the container she took out was the correct one.

In the end we finally decided to use regular sugar for the kopi-o and well, guess Mei Cheng had the last laugh but no need to guess whose face was the reddest?

F