Food for thought

This photo is a snapshot of an article that appeared in The Edge, issue 918, page 54.

The writer, Ben, complained about the influx of many foreign workers who seem to fill our kitchen hence cooking our foods which, to the author's opinion, does not taste like what it used to be, once upon a time ago.

I have also observed this time and again that many foreign workers, especially from India, was roped-in to work at our mamak stalls.

I can attest that some of these foreign workers makes the best roti canai: soft, fluffy and a little crispy on the outside; but when it comes to cooking nasi goreng, they are at their worst. I mean, who the hell adds load of spices and unnecessary herbs in a simple nasi goreng?

What used to taste a good, delicious and sweet-sour nasi goreng is now a hot, ridiculously spicy and tongue-burning rice which is not befitted to be called a nasi goreng.

All if this changes occured ever since the foreign nationals conquered and invade our kitchen. That truth may sound hard to digest and swallow down; but that is the bitter truth.

Another observation that the author made was that some of these foreign workers do not understand our simple "dietary" language such as kurang manis, kau, kurang gula etc.

Because of this, I sometimes feels like I am a duck trying to talk to a chicken in a duck's language. As a result of communication barrier, these workers will deliver wrong foods that is different from was ordered earlier on.

For instance, I ordered a milo suam, but I ended-up getting Milo panas, which is totally different from what I ordered. Though the word "milo" means that a drink can be made out of milo, but in essence, a milo suam is hot milo without a sweetened milk and otherwise.

At other times, I am quite mad with foreign workers who are so confident of taking many orders without jotting-down the orders on their special-design notepad.

To illustrate this, let me give you an example of a real case which happened a week ago: sitting in this famous mamak restaurant in Bangi at 3 am; my friends and i ordered 2 milo ais, 3 teh tarik and 1 air suam from an anne who stood coolly next to our table, eyeing each and everyone of us and waiting to take orders without jotting it down on an order's notepad. Being confident in the order, the anne later arrived and presented us with 2 teh tarik, 3 air suam and 1 milo ais which is totally different from what we ordered earlier.

Errors such as this is highly unacceptable because if a person make three or more orders, then it is moral obligation of these workers to present and deliver the correct items as per ordered. Besides, if small mistakes such as this repeats itself periodically, how is the restaurant owner's going to ensure their customers' satisfactions?

Perhaps, we Malaysians need to stop employing foreign workers and instead, help our youngsters and the jobless in making small money by providing jobs to our local "talent" in our very boleh-land.

If that is not a viable solution, then we need to ensure that all foreign workers are at the very bit least have minimum fluency in Malay or English; and be well equipped and trained before they start entering the local workforce.

The day our food tasted horribly wrong is the day our cultural heritage will start to disappear.