Thru’ introduction from the Donut Man Alan Pang (now CPA residing in L.A.) a group of Malaysians started working at the Acadian Bakery on Johnston Street during the Summer of 1983. The pioneer Cajun Pie crew a.k.a “Pie Loh” consists of few local black “kids” and a few Malaysians mostly on either “FaMo” or Solo scholarship. The initial days were fun and I recalled Mok’s one-hand egg cracking skill and dough rolling technique thru his training at home(family was in the “Pao” business in Sugai Buloh) were a jaw dropping eyes opener for the locals and the boss.
We did such an efficient job during the initial months that the owner Bill decided to fire the locals and let us “sub” the whole pie making job. His utilities bill was probably halved since we usually finished the work in half the time taken previously by the locals.
The pie crew’s roles & responsibilities were:
- The mixer: prepare the dough from flour, grease and shortening etc.
- The dough roller: prepare the dough for the pie maker
- The pie maker: making the pie from coconut, fig, apple or pineapple, etc. filling
- The forker: poking holes on the pies so that the pies could breathe in the oven to prevent them from exploding.
- The "general worker" - side kicker with no specific role
The first generation(Ver 1.0) “Pie Loh” :
1. Gan Kim Teck - MIA?
2. Lee Soo On - MIA in NJ or NY?
3. T.S. (Affandi) hantiewsiew@gmail.com - hunting "heads" for a living and 50% goofing off in cyberspace currently residing in the “little red dot” under the "foreign talent scheme". Aspire to be a casino croupier in his next career move.
4. “Forker” Jiunn Tan jstan@technip.com - successful oil and gas engineer residing in a posh mansion in Klang but no where as compare to Istana “Z”
5. Mok KamTsui wun_mok@hotmail.com - software consultant and part time fisherman(leisure) residing in Dallas
6. Small Tham wctham@elken.com.my – graduated with some “laude” pangkat, now CIO residing in KL
7. Big Tham thamkomsan@maybank.com.my - banker in Ipoh
8. Freddie (Chooi Fatt Fook) fchooi@gmail.com – private financier residing in KL
9. "Speedy & longhair" Tiong from Sitiawan - MIA
10… anybody else???
Second Generation(please add on....)
The Oven team?....
