Chicken, chendol and rats

From upscale restaurants to wayside stalls, basic hygiene is taking a backseat.

COMMENT

A few months ago, a friend of mine joined an upscale restaurant as a part-time waiter. He was excited about the extra money he would make and the free food he was going to enjoy. A couple of weeks down the road however, I realised, thanks to the Four Square app, that he was constantly checking into a Mamak makan place near his restaurant.

When asked, he told me that he couldn’t dine at his workplace anymore – not after what he had witnessed.

Apparently, this restaurant with seven branches around the city, had very high hygiene standards. The problem was, these standards were seldom followed. He briefly explained what he had seen. Raw chicken and meat were dumped into sinks together with dirty plates. At times, both the raw food and dirty dishes would be soaking side by side in soapy water until the kitchen staff was ready to start their routine.

After seeing first-hand what actually went on at the kitchen of this very famous restaurant and bar, he lost his appetite and swore never to dine there again – even though it was for free.

His story reminds me of a chendol place I used to frequent. It is situated right at a T-junction in my old neighbourhood. One day, while I was stuck at the junction – thanks to KL traffic – I saw the chendol vendor leave his stall and walk into the bushes a few meters away.

From my car, I observed him ‘watering’ the wild plants with his natural juice. Once done, he shook his waist ala Ricky Martin, and walked back towards his stall while wiping his hands on a towel hanging on his shoulder.

A hardworking man he surely is, because as soon as he got back to his stall, he went straight for the ice cubes and started shaving them with his bare hands.

Disgusted as I was I decided to pull over to continue watching this icky guy. To my horror, not only did he fail to wash his hands before handling food, he also used the same towel hanging on his shoulder to wipe down the tables.

If you think that was simply unbelievable, perhaps I should tell you about another horrible incident which took place in one of the most famous nasi kandar restaurants in Penang – so famous that people line up in zigzags to get a bite.

A friend of mine, who was in Penang a few months ago, was in the mood for some juicy crispy ayam goreng. Just as he was selecting a piece from the mini mountain of fried chicken displayed on the counter, his Chindian eyes spotted a rat selecting its favourite piece too.

Upon realising my friend’s presence, the chubby rat took an enormous bite out of a piece of chicken and ran for its life. As for my friend, he was too grossed out and decided it was time for KFC instead.

Now why am I telling you all these stories? Because there is nothing unusual about the video which went viral yesterday featuring a kopitiam employee in Singapore washing his shoes in the restaurant sink. Despite many Malaysians having something negative to say about it, I don’t think our local restaurants are any better.

Of course our health department and city hall do a good job of conducting regular inspections and ordering unhygienic restaurants to close down. Most of the time however, they have such tender hearts that these rat-infested makan places are allowed to swing back into business in a matter of days.

On second thoughts, maybe they should not be blamed for doing a lousy job after all. Their officers are busy hunting for rats in markets – not with bows and arrows – but with 50 mousetraps a day aiming to capture thousands of rats. Wait! How can 50 mousetraps be used to hunt down thousands of rats? Beats me!

Oh well, with all this talk about chickens, chendol and rats, I wonder… what’s on your menu for buka puasa today?

Bon appetit!