random

Since I started refraining myself from eating roti canai, I terribly miss McDonald’s at night.
I still remember when I lived at Oakland, I would drive 2 minutes to McDonald’s and pay US$4.16 for a McChicken, a McDouble, and a medium regular iced coffee.
Those were the days!

It has been exactly 143 days since I last had McDonald’s.
That seems like a really long time.

More Bubble Teas Outlets! OMG!

So I just discovered another three bubble teas outlets in Butterworth.
Aren’t there too many bubble teas outlets in a small city like Butterworth?
I guess sooner or later, the good ones will stay and the bad ones will leave.
That’s how it works for everything in a free market.

The Quality of Bubble Teas

It all starts with a cup of bubble tea – one that’s of inferior quality.

It upsets me every time when I get a bad cup of bubble tea from a bubble teas outlet that’s supposed to deliver a good one based on past experience. From time to time, there’s this gap between reality and expectation. Be it Chatime, Ding Tea, Tea Garden, or Kalakap, the quality is not consistent. It’s like I give RM5.90 with a chance of getting something that disappoints my taste buds.

Then one must ask, “what went wrong?” Making a bubble tea is easy, but there are still many things that can go unnoticed and ruin the drink.

Pearls are inseparable from bubble teas, and oftentimes they are the prime cause of low quality. How do these bubble teas outlets source their pearls? Are there any inspections on the color, texture, size, weight, and shape upon receiving the pearls from their suppliers? How about the water used to make teas? Do they even inspect the water of its odor, quality, and color? The water today might taste fine, but it doesn’t guarantee it will taste OK tomorrow. As we all know, our water quality only gets worse – not better. In addition to pearls and water, there are other ingredients that require inspection, such as tea leaves and sugar powder. Further, is it full inspection or random sampling? If it’s random sampling, how many percentage of them is inspected so as to provide a confidence level high enough that we can comfortably say the rest is all good? Apart from that, are all the ingredients stored properly to maintain the freshness and quality and used on FIFO principle?

Then there’s the employee side. The process of turning raw materials to finished goods is critical and relies on the employees. When they cook the pearls, what’s the temperature required? What is the water to pearls ratio? How long do they keep the water boiling when it reaches 100 degree Celsius? How about the teas that go into the drinks? We know it’s batch production, so how long can they be kept? From morning till night? At Starbucks, regular coffee can be kept just for a few hours. If unsold, the baristas pour it and make a fresh batch. That way they make sure the coffee they serve meets Starbucks’ quality requirement. Needless to say, the same thing needs to be done for bubble teas.

Is there any visual management in place to ensure the right ingredients are used? Also, is poka yoke (mistake-proofing) concept used to make certain that the right amounts of ingredients are put into the drinks? Now that most bubble teas outlets allow customers to specify the amounts of sugar and ice they prefer. Therefore, what are “less sugar” and “less ice”? Are they defined and understood by all employees?

While it’s easy to make bubble teas, it’s not so easy to make good bubble teas consistently.

FOOD

OK, I have finally started exploring Penang island in a deeper level.
Last weekend Yiying brought her friend to try some of the best char kway teow and cendol in Penang.
I tagged along, so I got to try too.
Then this weekend, I went to the stall that sells laksa near Kek Lok Si.
It’s said to be the most famous and authentic laksa in Penang!
My verdict?
It absolutely lived up to its fame!

So what else do I want to try?
I definitely want to taste other famous char kway teow like Sisters and Ah Leng.
I also plan to go to some traditional kopitiam and have some nice kopi O.
And of course, there are many more local delicacies that are worth trying.
I just need to do some googling.

In no time I will be a good tour guide.
I just need some tourists.
Anyone?

This Weekend

It’s been six months since I moved to Penang.
I told myself that I should make good use of my time while I am here, so that I could be a good tour guide when I have friends visiting me from elsewhere.
Every baby step counts.
Therefore, I try not to waste my weekend merely on comics and window-shopping at Sunway Carnival.

Here’s how I spent my time yesterday.
I went to Gurney Plaza to return a polo shirt that I bought because it stained itself after I washed it!
That’s totally ridiculous given that it’s not some stuff from pasar malam and it’s a rather expensive one.
I was told that they had to send it back to their company to check whether it’s their fault or my fault.
The worst thing is this process will take one month!
Great, now I need to buy other shirts for Chinese New Year.

Then I went to Kim Gary for dinner.
Ever since I learned that Kim Gary has pearl yin yang (珍珠鸳鸯), I had been very eager to try it ’cause I thought this drink had the best of both worlds – pearls and yin yang.
I was utterly disappointed.
The pearls sucked.
The yin yang sucked.
The drink was a total failure – a disgrace to the brand of Kim Gary!
I will never order bubble teas again at Kim Gary.

I went to Straits Quay after dinner.
I heard this place looked fabulous at night, so I brought my beloved camera along.
It was around 5 when I got there – way too early for a night shoot.
So I went to Full of Beans and sat there for three hours.
There’s nothing much you can do at a cafe when you are alone.
I had two cups of coffee, had some small talk with the baristas, and  read novels on my smartphone.
Oh yeah, I took some pictures too.
Here’s one of them.

When the night fell, I left the cafe and went out to take pictures.
I seriously took my sweet time and shot over 150 photos.
I am a bad photographer, but I do hope I can get some pictures that are worth sharing.

I wanted to upload the pictures to Facebook, but my broadband connection does not allow such action.
I will wait until I go to the restaurant cafe that I frequent.
It has decent Wi-Fi connection.

Anyway, I left Straits Quay at around 9:30.
My GPS fooled around with me on the way back.
Fortunately, I managed to make it home.

I had a good time yesterday, and I spent quite a lot of money, too.
I should slow down a little today.
Goodbye!