That’s not my name…

I was browsing through the newspapers earlier today and I certainly would not say that I was amused or anything of the sort. As a matter of fact, I was quite pissed off when I saw this advertisement inserted by the Tourism Ministry, Malaysia…

Now what on earth is MEAT BONE TEA? If they feel that there is a need to translate everything into English, then why didn’t they translate NASI LEMAK as well? Now what will that become? Fatty Rice? After all, lemak is fat, as in lemak babi which is pig’s fat or lard. It can’t be called Oily Rice as in that case, the Malay name would be Nasi Minyak or Nasi Berminyak. And for heaven’s sake, please do not ask me to translate LAKSA as I must confess that I would be completely and utterly stumped!

Every race in the world may have their own special delicacies with their own names. Why would we need to translate them into some loosely-relevant English equivalent or as in this case, a glaringly ridiculous term? The Japanese have their sushi and all that…and don’t we ALL know their names? Don’t we ALL know what tom yam is and which country it is originally from? The Indians have their naan, chapatti and murtabak and in English, at best, they are referred to as Indian breads. In western countries, they will tell you that they are going for dim sum or yam cha…and they are going to feast on the (meat) dumplings. Well, that’s the name they use to call our pao of different varieties, our siew mai and even our chang. To them, they are all….dumplings!

Really! I simply fail to fathom why they simply HAD to translate the name of that special delicacy into English. After all, there is no reference at all to the type of meat used, in which case some people from certain quarters might take offence. Why, I’m not even sure that it is authentically a Malaysian dish and if it is causing so much discomfort, perhaps they should remove it from the list completely.

Otherwise, let’s call a spade a spade…and let it be called by its original authentic name – BAK KUT TEH!!!

Better this time…

It used to be the hotel’s coffee house that doubled as a music pub after 9.00 pm every night with skimpily-clad Pinays wriggling away whilst singing terribly out of pitch at an ear-shattering volume and everybody seemed too stoned to care. I would go there quite often for lunch or dinner (before 9.00 pm) as the food was very good…and cheap too even though one could detect the stench of the smoke and in bright light, the place was not a very pleasant sight. For one thing, even at lunch hour, the coffee house would be quite packed – with the nocturnal regulars…and despite the sign stating; “No smoking till after 9.00 pm”, they would be puffing away like choo-choo trains.

All that has changed since and it is definitely a lot better this time.

They’ve given the whole place a face-lift and got rid of the Filipino band…but unfortunately, the prices of the food and drinks have somewhat been inflated too. The food is still very nice…and it is now a quiet and comfy place to hang out especially on scorchingly hot afternoons to sit around as long as you like and go online – you can get the password at the reception counter. There are not so many customers now, so you can have the whole place to yourself to chat with friends and catch up with the latest gossips.

I’ve posted on the food there MANY times, for instance here and here…but of course, in those days when I used to take photographs using my old handphone, the dishes did not look really nice. This time, perhaps they will look much better than before – like this plate of fish and chips (RM12.00) that my daughter had for lunch the other day…

…or the tomato kway teow with crispy seafood (RM10.00) that I had…

Well, I did say that the food is no longer cheap but considering that it’s a hotel café with a somewhat classy ambience, it is still relatively cheaper than the other bigger hotels around.

And what’s more important is that my daughter likes going there…though I wonder whether that will change once she has gone to NZ where they have fish and chips in abundance – wrapped in newsprint paper and eaten with vinegar, the traditional way. But actually, she does not like her fish fillet fried with batter and prefers it coated with breadcrumbs, so probably when she comes home in the future, she’ll probably want to drop by the Garden Hotel’s café again…