Wednesday, November 14, 2007

The Quest for the Holy Crisp

This is the kind of horror story that you'd hear on a dark scary night in front of the campfire.

No, Nee did not build a bonfire. It's just an example.

In Kuching there are a lot of hawkers selling deep fried stuff such as fried chicken, yu char koey (Yu tiaw), ham chee peng & banana fritters. And sometimes we do buy a few home cos they're usually irresistible.

The attraction factor here is the crisp level. The crispier it is, the more satisfaction we get. It is about getting that KA-CHA KA-CHA feel when we bite into it. The more KA-CHA, the happier we become, and the more we buy. For the hawkers, the crispier it is, the longer lasting it will be. And so began their quest for the Holy Grail of Crisp. The more KA-CHA, the more KA-CHING. No KA-CHA, No KA-CHING.

In recent years, in the quest for the Holy Crisp, certain hawkers have resorted to less than holy methods purportedly originated from neighbouring Thailand Sawadeekap. Unbeknownst to innocent & hungry consumers like us, this imported 'technology' included adding a secret ingredient into the hot boiling oil. And this secret ingredient is plastic. Yes, PLASTIC. Plastic bag, raffia strings & plastic straws to melt in cooking oil. Malaysia BOLEH.


It makes us think of all the banana fritters that we've sapu-ed. The yu char koay that we've walloped. Mr. Plastic must be happily sticking to the geat walls of our intestine. I wonder if our bodies are absorbing the right nutrients as it should. Or is it absorbing plastic? Scary isn't it?

Isn't this even scarier? It's right in our face & the authorities can't/won't do anything about it.

4 comments:

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

i've heard of this before n didn't believe it. I'm glad we seldom eat fried food from outside. thanks for alerting! i must tell my family n friends! we shake our heads at china products, yet here we rn't any better. n our authorities r getting so irresponsible, more than ever before! the country really has gone to the dogs.

Terri @ A Daily Obsession said...

or gone to the crocs.

Anonymous said...

Shit... How stupid can those people be...Using plastic to get the "ka-cha" feel?There got to be a better way.

Greg Wee said...

NEE: The reporters test was non conclusive. but what shocked me is the authorities are dishing out excuses that are not viable.

like impossible to such a thing. heay how would they know.

public outcry then check. and not well equiped. Hai! shocking!

Myth or truth, we just have to be careful of super crispy food. It is this 50 -years-independent-and-so-we-must-tolerant culture that we make us adopt the just walk away, inform people we know only , who cares about the rest and these traders just trying to get a living attitude that get us into trouble.

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