Day 48: Happy New Year!

I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Eve and that the hangover, if any, wasn't too bad. We had a quiet evening and enjoyed the fireworks from the rooftop. Private fireworks are officially prohibited here, so the few we saw were mostly organized by communities or companies. Compared to Germany, the fireworks here lasted only about 10 minutes after midnight, with no explosions in the days leading up to New Year's. As a result, the streets were clean—no burnt remnants of firecrackers to be found.  

Night view of Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur in the background.
In the middle you might detect the KL Tower and one of the Petronas Twin Towers.

Not much of a firework to see.

***

Life in Petaling Jaya has been getting very busy. Our schedule is packed with lunch, coffee, and dinner meetups with family, friends, and former colleagues eager to catch up and exchange the latest news. Unfortunately, this meant yesterday's blog post didn't get written.  

Today’s blog is about restaurants. Like in Germany, restaurants here faced staffing challenges after COVID-19. Many restaurant staff are migrant workers from Indonesia or Bangladesh. To address the staffing shortage, someone came up with the concept of an “AI waiter.”  

Here’s how it works: when you sit down at a table, you scan a QR code that takes you to a website with the menu. You select and order your food and drinks online, and within a few minutes, a human waiter delivers your order to the table. Payment is also made electronically. Initially, it felt a bit strange, but I’ve grown to appreciate the system over time.  

Interestingly, credit cards are not the preferred payment method here. The most popular option is the "Touch 'n Go" card, a prepaid payment system originally developed for toll roads. Unlike in Germany, this card allows you to load money in advance and spend it by tapping a reader. It’s integrated into the Malaysian ID card, which makes it incredibly convenient. I like this system because it prevents overspending—you can only spend what you’ve preloaded. It’s also great for kids, as you can load a limited amount for them to use instead of giving them cash.  

Good old fashioned beer advertisement in a Japanese restaurant

Ghost busters

Japanese beer advertising:
realistic depiction of the effects of beer.

Tonight, we visited three different restaurants. We started at a Japanese place that I enjoyed for both its food and interior decoration. Since they didn’t serve dessert, we went to a dessert-only café afterward. Finally, we ended the evening at a typical 24-hour coffee shop run by Indians or Pakistanis. These places are inexpensive yet serve delicious food and coffee. We finish the evening with strong coffee and roti tissue. This is a very thin and crispy pan cake made from lentil flours rolled in to a cone of 50cm height, eaten with dhal curry.

Roti Tissue in its glory

I first fell in love with these restaurants during the 2006 Football World Cup. They would show matches on screens at 3 a.m. when Germany was playing or during Champions League games happening in Europe. And the crowd is loudly cheering mostly for English teams. As a German spectator I am most of the time quiet. The only downside is they don’t serve alcohol—but otherwise, they’re fantastic.



Location: Damansara Utama, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia

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