New restaurants are sprouting like mushrooms after the rains in Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI) lately. And with the mass of humanity thronging shopping malls each weekend during these two-month Mega Sale period, it's hard to imagine a country purportedly heading towards down time.
Last month a branch of Salero Nogori, that well-known joint offering delicious but slightly pricey Minang food, begun business along Lorong Rahim Kajai 14. Last week, fusion food outlet Treats Cafe opened its shutters a few doors up.
The other day we took Pak Abu to Silver Pot, a Chinese-Muslim steamboat restaurant down the main road, Jalan Datuk Sulaiman, for his birthday dinner. The place opened late last year, hot on the heels of Spices of Asia a few pintu away, which started months earlier but serving basically the same fare.
Two restaurants flank the entire shop row along that main thoroughfare; Namaste, serving North Indian food, and mamak joint Devi's Corner. In between there's Restoran Puteri, ex-actress Rubiah Suparman's well-known eatery, and at least 10 other food outlets offering all kinds of cuisines.
Just the other day, I saw yet another restaurant opening along the same row. The signboard says June Thai, so it could be serving Thai food. If so, I do hope it's authentic because KL is already awashed with Thai kitchen pretenders pandering to the farang's bland tastebud.
It goes without saying that we are so spoilt for choice, even during trying times like now. All things considered, Malaysians in general are a lucky lot. Political shenanigans aside, we still have a decent lifestyle, none of us are starving and a plate of nasi campur still doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Compare that to today's Zimbabwe where unemployment is at 85 per cent and a million Zimbabwean dollars is not enough to buy a loaf of bread. Still, there are a lot of whiners out there in our midst who can't see the woods for the trees. What a shame.
2 comments:
how is it that we've come down to this stage - compare malaysia to zimbabwe and feel consoled?
The crux of the matter is not who we compare ourselves with, really. It's how we feel about things that we face today. Human beings by nature are never satisfied with what they have.
we can compare ourselves with UK and moan the fact that we don't have the dole system and birth-to-grave welfare, or compare ourselves to the US and bitch about how we lack Press freedom.
But if we compare ourselves to China we can breathe easy because our family nucleus will never be limited to 2 kids and if we compare ourselves to Singapore, Nik Aziz/Anwar Ibrahim/Kit Siang/Karpal/ can all thank their lucky stars that Opposition is alive and kicking in this country, and Anwar can even brazenly talk about bringing down an elected government.
Like most former colonies, Zimbabwe started out as an independent nation in the 1980s with the good intention of giving much needed land to the poor, large tracks of land misappropriated by the ruling whites for centuries during the Rhodesia era. Things were good for a while and I actually had high hopes Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe would succeed where other African nations had failed. Then the rot set in, and the rest is history.
That's why, all things considered, and taking into account that our lifespan is not likely to exceed 100 years (I'm being very generaous here), I think the best thing to do under the circumstances is count our blessings, pray for God's blessings and guidance and think of the day we return to HIM.
Today's kata mengata and fitnah memfitnah is too painful for my fragile heart...
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