Masala Wok: Kisah sebuah restoran milik Malaysian

Semalam kejadian menarik lepas main golf di Manassas
Macam biasa lah lepas main golf, tak lengkap kalau tak singgah kedai mana-mana
sama ada makan atau minum kopi secawan dua
Paling kurang pun dekat club house.
Semalam ambassador belanja dinner. Katanya dah lama tak makan nasi.
Amb kata nak pergi Mandarin Halal in Alexandria
since kedai tu sikit punya jauh, sejam setengah naik kereta baru sampai
kalau naik kuda separuh hari, naik basikal, lusa baru sampai kot..
maka aku cadangkan pegi Masala Wok dekat Fairfax. 40 minit saja dari tempat kejadian.

Sambil makan-makan, sembang macam-macam.
Topik paling hangat ialah nama restoran tu sendiri.
Masala is an Indian word and Wok is Chinese.
So ambassador kata it's probably a Chinese from India or an Indian from China.
Datin Sri kata or maybe Indian from Taiwan/Hong Kong.
I know for a fact that tokei dia is a Chinese because I eat there a few times a month.

Dah letih buat spekulasi, kitorang pun panggil waitress mintak jumpa the manager.
Waitress kelihatan cuak sedikit.
Biasanya kalau mintak panggil manager ni mesti ada masalah kan..
Tapi dia panggil jugak.
Tokei dia pun datang dengan senyuman.

Ambassador tanya, "We were speculating that the owner is either a Chinese from India, or an Indian from China. My wife suggested that it could be an Indian from Taiwan. Since you are definitely not an Indian, where are you from?"

Jawapan dia membuatkan kami ternganga... (sedikit sahaja though.. tak muat masuk lalat lagi)

"Oh no no.. I am actually from Malaysia."

Ambassador dengan wajah selamba menyambung, "Oh Malaysia.. where is that actually?"

Tokei: "Umm.. it's in between Singapore and Thailand. You know, very close to Indonesia.. bla bla bla."

Actually kesungguhan beliau menceritakan lokasi Malaysia itu membuatkan aku sedikit bangga. Dia kelihatan bangga dengan negara Malaysia.

Colonel menyelamatkan keadaan.

"My man, we are just joking. You know, we are from Malaysia too! And this is the ambassador and his wife!" sambil memperkenalkan ambassador.

Instead of bersalaman, mereka actually high fived.

We were really happy - and proud at that time.

"Malaysia boleh!" kata tokei kedai tadi.

To cut it short, he grabbed a chair and lepak dengan kami sembang pasal kedai tu.
He's actually a full time network engineer, and a part-time restaurant owner.

...and I was even more impressed.

I was a network engineer myself 2 years ago! But I guess I did not strive hard enough dan tak terfikir untuk buka kedai sendiri at that time. Setakat freelance photographer.. Maybe busy itu satu hal. But itu hanya alasan orang yang malas.

Before balik, aku chatted with him a little bit more, exchanged phone numbers and emails.
We are planning to get together again sometimes soon. Boleh cerita-cerita kisah business dan kerja. It's time for me to strive harder myself!