McDonalds Drive-thru

We gave in and went to the McDonalds Drive-thru at Indera Mahkota, Kuantan the other night. We went with the idea of buying two large fries and McFlurries but our plan changed  when we arrived.

The new McDonalds restaurant in Indera Mahkota is on Jalan Bukit Ubi. It gives us a shorter drive instead of going all the way to the Teluk Chempedak beach McDonalds.

The McDonalds restaurant in Indera Mahkota looks fresh and inviting. They also possess a children's area with play frame and TV. But we went through the Drive-thru and were served well.

There were several cars in the queue but it seemed to move quite fast.

The wait gave us time to explore the menu and decide what we wanted

As you can see, we were bombarded with choices!

We opted for the Family Dinner Box at only RM29. It's a very good deal. It was quick and easy speaking to the staff to make our order before moving on to the next point . . .

We drove on a little and paid for our meal

Then we drove around the corner to the next check point where we pick up our food

Collecting our food at McDonalds Drive-thru, Indera Mahkota, Kuantan

Here's our Family Dinner Box and drinks from McDonalds

The McDonalds Family Dinner Box consists of: 2 McChicken burgers, 1 Spicy McChicken burger, 6 chicken nuggets, 2 regular fries, 2 ice-cream sundaes and 3 regular drinks (coca cola)

We were really impressed with this great deal and had a great time eating it all! Though I still didn't feel as good afterwards, as eating my home-made salad! But once in a while, we do enjoy a good McDonalds.

I liked what was written on the side of the Family Dinner Box:

I had to laugh because I thought it was great self-advertising and promoting on McDonalds' part!

What's your favourite McDonalds meal? Or do you never eat fast food?

Manchester United

"McDonalds" - fast food restaurant responsible for comfort food and contributing to high levels of obesity




Manchester United

Manchester United are the winners of 18 league titles, 11 of them since the inception of the Premier League in 1992. They have been champions of Europe on three occasions, the first coming in 1968 with a 4-1 victory over Benfica in the final. This came just 10 years after a dozen of the Manchester United players and staff died in a tragic plane accident in Munich.

Sir Matt Busby, then manager, rebuilt the squad including many youngsters who went on to greatness just a decade later, who became known as the "Busby Babes."

Through parts of the seventies and eighties, Manchester United went through a trophy drought, dicing with relegation from the first division of English football, while Liverpool won four European cups and reached 18 league titles, becoming by far the most successful English club.

Alex Ferguson, who was hired from Aberdeen where he enjoyed much success, endured a slow start to his tenure at Old Trafford, but the momentum began to pick up in 1993 with a first league title in over 20 years.

During the mid-90's Alex Ferguson called up several youngsters into the first team including the Neville brothers, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt. They went on to win multiple trophies with Manchester United, the highlight being the dramatic season of 1998/99 when Sir Alex Ferguson led his team to an amazing treble of League, F.A. Cup and European Cup. It was an incredible time and tasted much better than my beloved McDonalds strawberry milkshake!

Sir Alex Ferguson has been Manchester United manager for an unbelievable 26 years and is still going strong. Manchester United recently equaled Liverpool's long-standing record of 18 league titles and is poised to capture an historic 19th next month.

Here are some videos of Manchester United's best moments. We apologise for keeping our neighbours in Kuantan awake during some of these passionate moments at all hours of the day and night!

If you're a Manchester United fan, this was the season that will never be forgotten. Some of these images and lines of commentary are immortal!

And here is the passion and success associated with Manchester United

Which is your favourite football team?

McDonalds Delivery in Kuantan

Last night I wasn't feeling too well so we decided to order McDonalds. However, we got ourselves into a great mess.

We waited a painful 45 minutes as our stomachs growled. We were sure glad to see the McDonalds Delivery man arrive with our food. We paid the money and sat down at the table, licking our lips in anticipation. My wife pulled out a burger wrapped in a yellow packet and placed it in front of me. After closer inspection, I discovered it was a McChicken burger, and not the double cheeseburger I'd ordered. We discovered that there was also a stray prosperity burger on the table, which was not part of our order. The receipt was correct, but the food was not ours! The delivery man had made a quick getaway as we rushed to the balcony to see if he was still there.

We called back and explained to McDonalds what had happened, at around 9:25pm. We were told that they would have our order delivered "as soon as possible", a phrase which I don't trust whatsoever in the country of Malaysia.

With stomachs rumbling harder, we waited for the next 40 minutes, wondering what "as soon as possible" really meant. Our food should be here any minute now. At 10:10pm we received a call from McDonalds. "What's wrong now?!" I lamented as my wife took the call. We were informed that they will ask the driver if he can cook our meal for us. (The store closed at 10pm so it was already after hours). I thought it was already on the way, being delivered "as soon as possible!!!" "What the hell have they been doing since we called about the wrong order?!?!" I despaired, an angry stomach adding bite. The answer is, I have absolutely no idea.

So we waited again. In the meantime we gave the prosperity burger to our neighbour, after McDonalds said we could keep the errant order. We also began eating the french fries and McChicken burger whilst waiting.....and waiting.....and waiting.....

Our food finally arrived at 10:35pm, almost 2 hours after we originally placed our order, at 8:40pm. The delivery man said something to me in Bahasa Melayu, which went in one ear and out the other, and handed over a suspiciously heavy brown paper bag of food. I managed to force out a "thanks" before opening the bag to see what we got this time.

It turned out that the bag contained two double cheeseburgers, a hot and spicy McChicken burger, a prosperity burger, three medium french fries and two pieces of McD fried chicken! Another coke, and a sprite that didn't taste like tonic water, as the first one did, was also handed over to us, along with enough chilli sauce packets to last a year!

In the delivery guy's attempt to cover up his mistake, he gave us so much food that we would never have been able to finish it, neither do I endorse eating so much junk food at one time! However, McDonalds still couldn't get our 6 chicken nuggets to us - which was Lauren's meal - so we gave her the two pieces of fried chicken instead. We passed a couple of burgers and a french fries to our excited neighbours who couldn't believe their luck again!

I appreciate the gesture of extra food, but that's beside the point. Once again, we were on the wrong end of poor customer service, and the 6 chicken nuggets we ordered, mysteriously never turned up. It was too late, and I was too tired, to enquire where they were.

We spent the best part of 2 hours waiting for our food, frustrated at how such a simple task could go so wrong, and unhappy with the service.




I'm on a see-saw of emotions with Malaysia. 




Beautiful place. . . . .




Dreadful service.

The Eve of Hari Raya in Kuantan

This was a night to be celebrated in the Muslim world. On 9th September 2010, the one-month fast, known as Ramadan, came to an end. Muslims had been faithfully arising at all sorts of early hours while most of the rest of us were still in dreamland, to prepare and eat a very early breakfast. Because as soon as the Sun comes up, fasting begins!

It was a nightmare eating out during the month of Ramadan. Around 7:20pm, when prayers sounded out from mosques around Kuantan, marking the end of the day's fast, droves of people filled KFC, McDonalds and most eateries in town to appease the building hunger in their stomachs. Even ordering fast food on the phone proves to be difficult, as the lines are all busy.

On the eve of Hari Raya there were hoards of people down near the Kuantan town field pouring through the night market there in search of any food or other items to buy. Others filtered into the Pahang State Mosque to offer up their devotions to Allah after a month of denying themselves the physical pleasures of food during daylight hours.

The one-month celebration of Hari Raya is now mid-way through. We have been to a couple of homes of our friends to join them in their feasts. Such open houses are popular in Malaysia where all are invited to enter and eat food with the hosts. (Thank you to Karimah and Syarina for serving us such delicious food!)

The Pahang State Mosque

A water feature on Jalan Mahkota, Kuantan

A busy Jalan Mahkota in Kuantan

The Kuantan skyline from the Tanjong Lumpur bridge. The Kuantan waterfront glows in orange lights on the left, the Pahang State Mosque is partly visible behind buildings on the right, while three old boats lie at dock on the Pahang River in the foreground.

Cars zoom towards Kuantan town from the Tanjong Lumpur bridge

Lunchtime at Teluk Chempedak

Here are some of the images depicting our lunchtime at Teluk Chempedak Thursday. The beach site has endured a restoration of the seafront encompassing a wall bankment filled with grass and trees overlooking the sea. It makes for some nice pictures but will be better when a few of the trees have grown out a little more.

There were hundreds of these colourful little creatures firmly stuck onto a rock...

...and this little creature is no less beautifully adorned either!...

We experienced blistering heat, umbrella-flying wind and drizzling rain during this hour at the beach. But it finished with the bright Sun as we made our way home.

Home Dining

It is better eating in than eating out.

So long as one can overcome the pulsating urge to splash the cash on fast food, eating in has so many more benefits. The temptation with dining out is the easiness of the way. No preparing ingredients, no frantically scrambling around the fridge, no sweating over the wok in preparation. Just walk in, sit down and eat.

Yesterday we resisted the temptation in East Coast Mall, and instead came home to prepare a lovely lunch.

We started by smothering some fish fillet which cost RM3, in flour, and throwing it into the wok to fry until golden brown.

We then used the remaining oil to fry my favourite 'ikan masin' or salted fish.

We then proceeded to cook some sausage chunks in tomato sauce soup whilst whipping out yesterday's leftover 'sambal belacan' from the fridge.

It was a delicious meal, more satisfying than a McDonalds or KFC, and at a significantly lower cost as well.

It was well worth the extra effort in preparing. Home Dining is definitely the best recipe for success!

Teluk Chempedak

We went to Teluk Chempedak last night and had a lovely time together. There are some trees missing and some works going on, but it was still a nice evening out. We arrived just as the sun was setting below these trees...

Lauren was not as scared of the sea as she was the last time we took her, and we managed to get this picture reasonably close to the shore...

But after I tried to dangle her little legs in the sea water, she stiffened up and strangled me, and she was still scared. So we retreated a few paces and as I put her down on the sand for a picture, she tried to run away to mummy. Here is the 'Lauren is scared' shot...

Being the mischievous baby that she is, every time we want to take a picture with her using the timer, she looks at the camera for the ten seconds where people generally shuffle around hurriedly to get in shape for the picture, and then when the red dot begins flashing two seconds before the camera fires, she has this annoying tendency to look directly down, as can be seen here...

The sun soon set and we made our way to the toilet to wash our feet and sit down beside the promenade for a while, enjoying the smooth cool air. Here is a view of the sea...

And finally, no visit to Teluk Chempedak is complete without eating something at McDonalds. It is a beautifully designed restaurant, although the service was nowhere near adequate. We simply had French Fries and an Oreo McFlurry, and as we were about to leave, I noticed Ronald McDonald, the worldwide image of this food chain, sitting on his chair beneath his restaurant name, almost as it were, casually looking out to sea. I love this picture...