Fast Food Frenzy

There are three things, at my time of life, that are really enjoyable: food, eating and going out to stalls and restaurants.

Sitting on the beach is good. Looking at things through the car window is enjoyable. Sleeping is great.

Food is best.

Living here in Malaysia is, from a food-lovers perspective, like being in paradise.

The choices that are all around us here are vast and varied. Starting with the small stalls (gerai) that abound in open air and enclosed food courts (medan selera) and passing up through small restaurants (kedai makanan dan minuman) to the restaurants in top hotels there is an abundance of good food that utterly spoils anyone for choice.

A short while ago I paid over fifty ringgit (around seventeen US dollars – ten pounds sterling) for a buffet dinner in a hotel. This was a modestly priced hotel and the meals were also modestly priced. It was superb. It was wonderfully presented and eaten in comfortable and gracious surroundings by attentive and friendly staff.

Two days ago we went to a local restaurant where we had a meal that cost us around twenty ringgit, including drinks, for both. That is seven US dollars or four UK pounds sterling. Extremely tasty, filling and satisfying.

Yesterday saw us at a ‘roadside’ stall for a snack. Half the price of the restaurant but still very good and with good service.

Each of these meals was different. Each of these dishes had their own distinct flavour and were eaten in a different ambience.

Each experience was pleasurable whether it was inside an air conditioned hotel or at the roadside watching the cars drive by and pedestrians stroll past.

In each case there is a wide choice. We are spoilt for choice. Chicken, beef, lamb (goat here), fish or even vegetarian—it is there for your picking.

Last night we went to the International airport (KLIA) to collect Mother-in-Law and some other family on their return from overseas. On our arriving back at the house I found that there was some green chilli beef curry and rice left over from lunch.

I cannot tell you how ecstatic I was over that. It was just superb. Home made and perfectly cooked; eaten in the comfort of my favourite chair watching some sport on TV.

Life hardly gets better than that.

Wherever you go, wherever you eat, whatever you taste when you go out there is nothing on God’s earth that is ever as good as the food that is prepared by your wife and eaten in your own home.

Nothing.

So why do people go to ‘McDonald’s’?

I drove past ‘McDonald’s’ (one should never wish to stop there!) at lunchtime. It was packed. Packed, I tell you!

Why?

Advertising? Media?

We always say that if you want to find a good place to eat here in an area you don’t know then follow the crowd. If there are lots of people in there then it must be good because Malaysians are really fussy where they eat.

And then there’s ‘McDonald’s’!

I throw my hands out in despair. I am aghast, agog, speechless.

Why ‘McDonald’s’?