On My Brief Stint With Fast Food

So I was wondering through Pavilion Mall yesterday. Its one of the newest malls in the Bukit Bintang area, and is fancier than any mall I've seen in Toronto. It's also the closest place to the apartment to find legitimate wireless. Well, yesterday afternoon, work at CIJ was done and I felt it would be a good idea to really start working on a report for my directed readings course. The easiest place to sit down -- lounge if you will (I want to say perch... but it really has no place. darn) -- and start typing is the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on the outside of the mall (or really any of the 5 or 6 Coffee Beans within 5 minutes of it). Unfortunately, on my way over, I realized I had already spent a significant amout of time that day marvelling out loud about the price of a coffee at Coffee Bean or Starbucks relative to other things, and it would be silly to go directly there. On a side note: it really is interesting though... the price of an ice latté is about the equivalent of what it would be in north america: 12 Ringett. However, a lavish dinner can be 15 Ringett, a movie at an upscale western-style movie theater is 11, lunch is is 6. Anyways, so I wasn't entirely feeling Coffee Bean that afternoon (though it is an excellent place to get coffee and wireless occasionally). So I wondered around Pavilion looking for somewhere to sit.

I'm not sure how it happened, but I found myself in front of Pizza Hut, looking at the sign advertising free wifi inside. I thought about it... but then figured I'd probably have to keep it a secret if I went to Pizza Hut alone in the land of amazing food. So instead I went next door to KFC. Weird decision, I know. What can I say, I was under pressure!

So there I was. Standing in line at KFC, squinting at the menu a meter or two from the middle cashier. Though I chose the shortest line, is turned out to be the slowest. My mind raced as I tried to convince myself to run away and stay at the same time. Over the sound system, the evening prayer played, singalling breaking fast for Muslims. My mind was made up -- "this is an experience" I told myself, "they're broadcasting prayer over a loudspeaker in a fast food restaurant. I'm in."

About 10 minutes later, I got to the counter and ordered a Zinger Meal. i.e. a Chicken Burger, Potato Wedges with cheese and spicy gravey and a Pepsi Max. All for 9 Ringetts. I beamed as I realized that a coffee would have costed more. So, I took my tray to the table closest to the wall seperating KFC from Pizza Hut, in hopes to connect to their online service. Sacré Bleu! foiled again -- the service required a special Pizza Hut club-only password. I put my computer back into my backpack and set to eating. I bit down into the burger, and found it unusually... juicy? I looked down and saw it to be a suspicious colour of pink/red, and realized it was a sign. "this just wasn't meant to be" I consoled myself. I played with the burger a bit to make it look like I'd eaten some of it... you know, broke it up into smaller pieces, moved them to separate corners of the box etc. Picked up my bag, and turned my back on KFC forever.

About 20 minutes later, I found myself at Old Town White Coffee at LowYat plaza, drinking some white coffee, and reading Coming of Age in Second Life for my directed readings course. They didn't have wireless, but I was glad to be drinking a cheap mysteriously tasty coffee.

Later that night, Jose bought a soccer ball and learnt a valuable lesson: If you buy a cheap knockoff soccer ball, it'll probably be thrown into traffic by a monkey wearing a sleeveless hoody and get run over by a bus.