Roti canai and tosai lover Michael Yeap makes it a point to stop at the Ulu Bernam rest area near Tanjung Malim for breakfast when driving to Kuala Lumpur.

However, his 15-year love affair may have to end after Dec 31 because the stall that serves the Indian delight has failed to obtain a permit to continue operating at the rest area.

The 60-year-old dance instructor said he would time his travel so that he would either catch breakfast or lunch at the Indian stall at the rest area.

“I have been doing that for the past 15 years. I love the food there,” he said yesterday.

“But during my last visit, the operator told me his permit for the stall has been terminated,” Yeap said, adding that the stall was the only one run by an Indian there.

He said he or other travellers would be unable to find non-Malay food along the expressway if the permit were to be terminated.

– The Star

I took PLUS quite often in the last two months. Most of the time before this, ‘ll enjoy a cup of tea or coffee together with some roti bakar (toast bread). But recently, not many stall are offering roti bakar (There’s one chinese stall in Air Hitam stop towards JB). Worse still, there’s lack of real Chinese and Indian food. The chicken rice or fried kuey teow doesn’t taste authentic. No fresh thosai or roti canai with thick, tasty sambar (dhal curry).  Most of the stalls are selling Malay food or localized version of other cultures’ food. There can be many copycat chicken curry, but nothing beats the authentic southern Indian chicken curry (IMHO).

Forget about getting vegetarian food. You can only depend on bread and fruits.

This is only natural as population imbalance increases. Traffics towards northern states will be predominantly of certain race, thus only those selling particular type of food will make profit. Those catering for minority will eventually suffer a loss as they can’t get the business volume needed.

But, those rest areas in the middle and southern region should have more multi racial meals.

Recently, the lack of non-Malay food served along the expressway was highlighted by Ipoh Barat MP M. Kulasegaran at a press conference. Kulasegaran said there were only a handful of stalls that served non-Malay food in the Tapah and Ulu Bernam rest areas.

“Many Malaysians use the expressway and it is a problem to those looking for vegetarian or non-Malay food,” he said.

Kulasegaran said he was not against the number of Malay food stalls at the rest areas but he was hoping that PLUS would allot more stalls for non-Malays.

He said he had written to PLUS, the Malaysian Highway Authority and the Works Minister to look into the matter.

According to PLUS representative, they are planning to introduce fusion food, and also said that meals were introduced based on demand. Also, the stalls were terminated due to various reasons as given below:

When contacted, PLUS senior public relations manager Khalilah Mohd Talha said PLUS would introduce a fusion of Malay, Chinese and Indian foods that appealed to the masses next year.

We are re-looking at our rest and recreational areas along the North-South Expressway. We are introducing more varieties in terms of menu to appeal to travellers from different ethnic and cultural background.

She said PLUS had never practised discrimination against the multi-racial stall operators, but over the years, operators requested to serve titbits and more Malay-based food based on demand for those kind of food.

We do invite multi-racial stall operators. The response is another story.

She said licences were only terminated if the operators did not comply with the Health Ministry’s guidelines on food preparation, cleanliness of premises or hygiene discipline, did not pay rental or had customer complaints.

“But this is after several warnings are issued.

Well, for those who are having certain preferences or limitations, better plan your journey well so that not deprived of your meals.

Now, the same problem is also manifesting in local universities. Recently, UM closed down its only Chinese-run food stall due to violation of its rules – serving non-halal food and employing non-Muslim cook. This was protested by the students and MCA stepped in. Through the BN Youth Education Bureau, the university management were persuaded to reinstate the stall at College 12. The college has about 600 Chinese student of 1200 students.

However, the stall operator has to abide by the rules –  Chinese cooks are allowed but only halal food and must be clean.

According to MCA Youth education bureau chairman, Chong Sin Woon, who had brought the issue of the stall closure to the BN Youth, the Chinese stall was ordered to close in May.

“However, on the insistence of students, the stall was allowed to operate until this month.

“UM then awarded the tender for the stall to another operator.

“The reason given by UM was that the stall served non-Muslim food and employed a non-Muslim cook.”

Chong said the demand by MCA Youth, acting on behalf of Chinese students, was that the food be prepared by a Chinese chef, especially as there were a total of 13 other stalls at College 12, run by Muslim operators.

Chong said only Universiti Sains Malaysia had proper Chinese food stalls while Chinese stalls at Universiti Putra Malaysia and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia were only allowed to serve vegetarian food.

This begets the question – who should be tolerant? Is it wrong to eat the food the students are used to? What is the unversity imparting to its students? One-sided rule? All it takes is some extra measures to ensure the areas where non-halal food are separated. Disposable utensils can be used in some cases.  And we seldom can get nice Indian food if cooked by non-Indian, so I guess its the same for the Chinese. The food will be watered down or tastes different. So why get fixated with the rule that must be Muslim cook only? If there are muslims who like Chinese food, then set up another stall la! This kind of small things can be settled easily.

This problem rarely happens in Indian restaurants/stall as they don’t cook pork-based dish. All the chicken and mutton are halal. So its easy to accept Indian cook compared to Chinese cook. Yet, how many universities have Indian stalls with Indian cooks?

While I was in university, there was a short period when a chinese stall operated. It disappeared after a year or so. Most of the time, the Indian students get food from outside. The food served in the cafeteria had a kind of smell which was terrible.  Many of my friends, especially in their first year were forced to eat in-campus since no other option. But after entering second year, all those who had own transport seldom visit in-campus cafeterias.

As time goes by, due to relatively small population of Indian and Chinese students in local universities, the non-muslims stall will die a natural death. Unless of course we consider students from China (some of which who are Muslims). So, non-Muslim students face stiff challenge in adapting to university environment especially those who only avenue to a degree is local university.