A missing opportunity... Part I

I hope I don't sound arrogant in this post, and if I do, please forgive me because I'm only human.
As you may already know, I attended the Manchester Malaysian Night 2008 yesterday with an engineer friend who came all the way from London to visit his 6-month old friend before going home to Malaysia for good next month.

I was trying to get ticket for the play only, but was informed by Dini that it's already sold out and the only thing left is the premium ticket, which includes both dinner and play. 16 pound sterling if you're a member of the University of Manchester Malaysian Students Society, and 17 if you're NOT. Pricey or reasonable, lets read my take first before we draw out our conclusion.

In summary, I would say that the event was not up to my expectation. Again, I don't want to sound snobbish, but to me the event was not have done by university students. I don't know about other Malaysian Nights by other universities in the UK, but to Malaysian standard (read: the standard of MARA College Banting or Sekolah Menengah Sains Muar or Melaka High School) it was poorly executed.

Lets examine the dinner part.

According to the schedule, dinner was supposed to start at 4.45pm. Sorry to Dini if I was torturing you with my rantings about the imapropriateness of having D.I.N.N.E.R as early as that, even to some of my Chinese friends in Malaysia. Although it was almost 45 minutes behind schedule, I think it was beyond of the organiser's control because no matter how hard you plan, you can't 100% guarantee that the so-called VIP will turn up on time to grace your function.

One way of trying to kill time, strike a pose with yourself or tablemates

But, what disappoint me is the fact that there was NO a back-up plan from the organiser. I remember the time when my friends and I organised the Home Improvement Workshop in 1997, the guest of honour did not arrive as per scheduled agenda. We quickly put in our plan B i.e. ice-breaking session. We got a couple of people, including external participants to introduce themselves and to pick a word that best describe their understanding or association with home improvement. By the time the Rakan Muda state director arrived, the participants already established networking among themselves. But yesterday, most of us were bored to death. The less they can do is to play us some good music, if not Malaysian music (if there such a genre).

They have a small of group of guys dressed in nice colours Baju Melayu (full, with sampin and songkok too) played the kompangs upon the arrival of the VIPs. They should have make full use of this group to impress at least 3 tables (10 people per round table) of non-Malaysian patrons. How about getting a couple of British (I assume they're British because they sound and look so British to me) students to go up to the stage and "teach" them on how to palu the kompangs. At least, we have something to entertain ourselves in order to kill time.

According to the menu card, the dinner was prepared by Ning, one of the Malaysian (own and run by Malaysians) restaurants in Manchester. Since I've only been to Jati Restaurant and I was made to believe that Ning is more posh than Jati, I was really excited to feed both my stomach and curiousity. On top of that, they're going to serve us, among others, murtabak, nasi hujan panas, ayam merah and seri kaya (I guess a sweet made of kaya).

Like a typical dinner function, it started with speeches - from the emcee, the organising committee and the guest of honour. Boring...! Can't they think of something creative to start off a function?

Comes the appertizer i.e. murtabak and popiah, I told myself, everything looks promising although there was no presentation when they started serving. I remember when we had the Majlis Makan Malam Pengawas Perpustakaan Sekolah Tinggi Melaka in 1992 (I was 15 at that time), we choreographed the way we brought in the appertizer into the dinner hall in order to synchronise with the high tempo music and the creatively manipulated lighting. And yesterday, they brought in the food with NO dulangs (at least, some cheap trays). That's a BIG NO NO, at least in my parents' house. I remember one incident, whereby my mother, my sisters and I did not touch our drinks at one of our relatives' in Kuala Lumpur, because our female cousin brought in teh O bujang without using a dulang. We don't mind having teh O bujang at all, but my siblings and I were raised by my mother with countless of Malay adabs, including to serve our guests accordingly. In one case, my mother, politely requested my sister to reserve the air kosong requested by Mak Lang simply because she brought out a mug of air kosong without a sauce (it is piring in English, right?) as a alas.

Then, came our nasi hujan panas with ayam merah and sayur (just ricikan cabbage and carrot) goreng. To me, the taste was ok but to Taufik, the rice was NOT done properly because the colouring was so messed up and the chicken tasted a bit hangus. I guess my taste bud was NOT as sophisticated as Taufik's. But I don't like the presentation of my main course. So cheepoh!

Last but not least, a plate of fruit cut and a slice of kuih Seri Kaya. Wait a minute, that's not Seri Kaya, but Seri Muka. Light green moist paste on the top and pulut at the bottom. It is Seri Muka, right? They served us grapes, strawberries and oranges and Seri Muka with too soft topping.

To be honest, I really think that yesterday dinner was so predictable and boring. The only saving grace was a good company at my table, especially Yun, a lady about my age (kot) who is on her final year of accounting and finance degree at the Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). This is her second degree and her first degree is accounting and law which she did in Portsmouth. And of course the friendly Sarah, Suraya and this-guy-who-I-forget-his-name (I'm so sorry, mate) from Damansara who is currently doing his final year of mathematics and management degree with the MMU too.

It was supposed to be the Malaysian night, but to me it was just a dinner with some people in Baju Melayu and modern sarees, which you hardly to find people in Malaysia wearing it unless you go to posh areas in South Asia or Little Indias in Western countries like in Manchester, eating a so-so imitation of Malaysian food with a paluan kompang at the beginning of the event.

Where was the Malaysian hospitality, at least, the way we greet our guests. Don't make me preach on the culinary aspect. It was too far cry from our infamous, Malaysia... Truly Asia!

So, do you still want to know what rating I gave?


p/s: Later, my take on the play titled Full Circle co-directed by Bash and Jannah.