Diversity in Delicacies ?
by Pretesh Sudhakaran
Where would we be without food?
Especially as Malaysians; food defines us. With our nasi lemak, mee goreng and roti canai, I’ve basically described
this country as a whole. Biology tells us that we eat to live but ohh no. A few
arrangements are needed to correct this statement and the legitimate outcome
would be ‘We live to eat’. Food is the alternative to boredom. We’ve all opened
the refrigerator door to find nothing and to do so again not more than 5
minutes later; with the minimal hope of finding the slightest sliver of
anything edible. We’ve all stolen our siblings’ muffin or that extra slice of
pizza at least once in our lives. Well, if you haven’t, then it’s sad to that
you’ve not lived. Nevertheless, food paves the way for our lives to
unfold….somehow. And in UTP, it’s no different. Students from around 50
different countries can oogle at the plethora of dishes served. But should we be content with what we already
have and declare this ‘diverse’?
Now let’s get down to the
serious stuff in hand. Just a week before we at Heart of Tronoh came up with
this article, we posted a survey form for the people of UTP to place comments
on what they think about the diversity of foods in UTP. The results were aplenty.
They were even; since I can’t find a better word to use in this case; diverse.
Some were cringe-worthy and some paid tribute to what we have. But the blatant
fact is that students in UTP aren’t really rooting for the food that is being
served to them. Many of those who participated in this survey weren’t
rhapsodizing over the ‘seemingly diverse’ dishes most of the cafés in UTP
serve. One student, simply naming himself (I’m not sure of this student’s
gender), ‘Key’, gave a detailed breakdown of what he has experienced at every
food outlet. He expressed some great support for the dishes from the Arabic
nation; tending to their cravings and also giving us locals a good feel of what
the Middle East is all about. He concluded with what seems to be a unanimous
thought and I quote, ‘As diverse as it
may seem, students like me will get bored eventually even with the array of
foods available here. However,
I'm contented with the food choices here as boring as it may seem all the time’.
Students like ‘debhasri’ and ‘Syakilla
Burhanudin’ also called for more green food to be served at these cafés. Vegetarians especially have
found it tough to acclimatize to the life in UTP with cafés serving mostly
meat. All that is there for them is just rice and bland soup. Cafés like the
ones in V3,V4 and Café Paprika are not great places for vegetarian food
according to respondents and they’ve asked for an increment in the number of
outlets that serve vegetarian food and rightly so. Another underlying problem
that a majority of students; whether they responded to the survey or
continuously voice out on, is the unsatisfactory prices placed on the dishes.
Students basically can’t afford the Western food around UTP along with some of
the local dishes who some claim to be not up to par. One respondent said that
the food like nasi goreng isn’t even
remotely close to the quality of those served in popular city outlets and yet,
they are even more expensive than the latter with a price tag of RM3.50 that
can shoot up to about RM5 with the addition of prawns; that even being only 2
or 3 helpless prawns; compared to a modest RM3 worth of fried rice at popular
places in big cities like KL or Ipoh. The western food too has been under heavy
scrutiny for the overwhelming prices placed on them. At the Pakistan restaurant
beside ‘Tudung Saji’, a simple chicken cheese shawarma costs around RM6-RM8,
depending on the type you order. Students obviously can’t afford to spend money
like this on a single serving for a meal in a day.
A few anonymous respondents
chose to highlight the abysmal levels of hygiene at certain cafés; V3 and V1
for example. The satisfactory quality of the food is quickly tarnished by the
annoying flies and insects lurking in them. I personally have had my fair share
of startling encounters. One night, I was busy preparing for a meeting so I
ordered a quick fried rice with a fried egg at the V3 ‘Goreng stall’, as people
famously call it. I was given a special ingredient in the form of a fried fly
in the fried egg. I admit, I was appalled by this and gave the cashier a piece
of my mind. This is an issue all of us can agree on and that is the fact that
the cafés in UTP have poor health plans. Even the famous Pakistan restaurant
and the CIMB block has its soothing, air-conditioned environment tarnished by
these pesky pests. Cases of students finding roaches and other unknown
creatures in their dishes has become a common tale here in this beautiful
university and it isn’t good for the name of our beloved home. I guess our
diversity has gone a little too far.
It is obvious that the people
of this wonderful institution love it here and want it to grow to become
something better. Moving forward is important and that means getting the food
right. Everyone deserves what they desire; whether you’re a Malay, Indian,
Chinese, African, Middle-Eastern or anyone of any ethnicity who resides here.
In a nutshell, there is a good diversity in terms of food we possess but many
feel left out and bored at times with the lack of consistency in pricing and
quality of the food and change in the dishes. The absence of Indian food is
also something to be considered given the population of Indians in UTP.
However, students must understand the various steps needed to be taken to
ensure a brand new establishment. It is understood that the proper authorities
in UTP have made a few changes and are deliberating new ideas to revitalize the
food culture here. To proclaim something flawless, is itself, a flaw, hence we
can’t expect perfection, but only satisfaction for our diversity in delicacies.
