Kiam Kanna
Just last night a few of us girls were talking about some of the friends we know, and how a particular guy has unfortunately gained the dubious reputation for being a kiam kanna.
There's a fine line between being thrifty ("which is a virtue", PB noted) to plain stinginess ("which is a bane in any man!", P sniffed). Frankly whenever this person's name is mentioned, my memory harked back to what happened that day which really shocked me. Imagine, being asked to pay even the carpark fees when we helped to foot the bill of the outing in other ways!
For non-Hokkien speaking me, I was quite tickled and intrigued by the phrase kiam kanna. I could imagine how the phrase came about when you think of a miser sitting on a wooden stool, eating bowls and bowls of porridge, only flavored by a very cheap and humble dish - a pickled olive. You can imagine how a single olive could stretch a meal - the saltiness of the kanna would enable you to wolf down bowls of porridge (*visions of teochew muay danced in my mind as I type this*...).
Although my teochew muay vision would contain more delicacies such as chye poh egg, fish, kiam chye, kanna chye and tau pok... hardly a frugal feast!
Yes, that's just how the kiam kanna phrase would come about... hee.
On a related vein, I wonder how I would react if my other half is a kiam kanna. While I'm no spendthrift, I'd probably not react very kindly to a tight-fisted man. P has categorically rejected any person who's like that as a spouse. Another gal pal has objected to chatterboxes ("they give me headaches!"), while another prefered the manly sort (not sure what she meant - I suppose mature men?)
There's a fine line between being thrifty ("which is a virtue", PB noted) to plain stinginess ("which is a bane in any man!", P sniffed). Frankly whenever this person's name is mentioned, my memory harked back to what happened that day which really shocked me. Imagine, being asked to pay even the carpark fees when we helped to foot the bill of the outing in other ways!
For non-Hokkien speaking me, I was quite tickled and intrigued by the phrase kiam kanna. I could imagine how the phrase came about when you think of a miser sitting on a wooden stool, eating bowls and bowls of porridge, only flavored by a very cheap and humble dish - a pickled olive. You can imagine how a single olive could stretch a meal - the saltiness of the kanna would enable you to wolf down bowls of porridge (*visions of teochew muay danced in my mind as I type this*...).
Although my teochew muay vision would contain more delicacies such as chye poh egg, fish, kiam chye, kanna chye and tau pok... hardly a frugal feast!
Yes, that's just how the kiam kanna phrase would come about... hee.
On a related vein, I wonder how I would react if my other half is a kiam kanna. While I'm no spendthrift, I'd probably not react very kindly to a tight-fisted man. P has categorically rejected any person who's like that as a spouse. Another gal pal has objected to chatterboxes ("they give me headaches!"), while another prefered the manly sort (not sure what she meant - I suppose mature men?)
posted by Leng @ 8:59 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home