Last night Kim and I walked over to Chili's for a late dinner and a couple drinks (I didn't feel like navigating around the Friday night checkpoints, and we both didn't want to deal with cabbies). It was a slow night, so we found some seats at the bar straight away, and ordered a couple tiger's.
Kim started walking me through her adventurous day with Vanessa and out of the corner of my eye, I spied something moving across the floor with a quickness. "Oh shit a rat!" I blurted out as it ran under Kim and my bar stools. For a split second I felt like the lady in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons! The rat ran off as quickly as it ran in. The only unsettling thing was that it "ran off" into the kitchen (and probably straight into the chip bin! That's where I'd go if I were a rat!).
There was a family next to us and the father said, "Wow guys, I just saw a huge rat!" I looked at the guy and said, "He was quick for such a big guy, haha" The wife jumped in and said, "It's the latest addition to the menu! Special for tonight!" Kim couldn't resist in saying, "Yeah, they fry it up and serve it with a nice sauce!" All had a good chuckle and went on with their conversations.
It wasn't until we walked home that it struck me as odd that nobody really cared about a rat in a restaurant. I don't want to give the false impression restaurants in Malaysia are dirty and covered in vermin, but the health standards are a bit more relaxed. Most of the best food in KL comes from roadside stands, much like the best Mexican food in Texas comes from taco buses in random parking lots across the state! There is an inherent understanding that the food might not be the cleanest, but it sure is worth the risk to sink your teeth into a Carne Asada Burrito as big as your head, or dark red, hot out the tandoor chicken breast with garlic naan and dahl.
So it depends on what your focus is. Sometimes the best food comes with compromise, and after too long that compromise doesn't seem like such a big deal anymore. As I thought about it more, this compromise has always been easy to make for me and my family. Roadside stalls in Mexico, weekend bike rides to the big blue taco bus on FM2920 and there was even that bat we found in the booth at Cyclone Anaya's (after a couple margaritas there could be a giant space alien next to you and you wouldn't mind!)!
To sum it up, it's about the food, the adventure and the people. Forget everything you've learned about anything, grab some friends and order the weirdest thing on the menu. That's how memories are made!
Bonne Appetit, Eet Smakelijk, Makan Makan and Let's Eat!
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