All they wanted to do was to set a record, but this Sarawak shopping mall’s gimmick backfired terribly.
The management of Plaza Merdeka came under heavy fire after reportedly throwing away 600kg of edible Sarawak laksa, which was used to set a national record.
On Friday, the mall was officially listed in the Malaysia Book of Records for whipping up ‘The Biggest Bowl of Laksa Sarawak’ in an event attended by Sarawak minister of local government Datuk Dr Sim Kui Hian and celebrity chef Chef Wan.
According to local daily The Borneo Post, the custom-made bowl — which measured 1.3 metres deep and 3.1 metres wide — contained the Sarawak dish made up of various ingredients such as 225kg of rice noodles, 100kg of Sarawak laksa paste, 90kg of prawns, 1,008 eggs, 80kg of chicken and 90kg of bean sprouts.
It reportedly took 18 hours and 15 chef to whip up the record-setting dish.
After the record was set and the event was over, the mall management did the worst thing possible: they threw away the food.
Their decision to throw away the equivalent of 1,500 bowls of Sarawak laksa was criticised by many, who felt that the mall shouldn’t have wasted the food just for the sake of setting a national record:
Meanwhile, the mall management told Malay Mail Online that they were forced to throw away the food because it was already going bad.
Cheah Kheng Mun, the general manager of Plaza Merdeka Management Sdn Bhd, told the news portal that the food was cooked early Friday morning, and by 7pm, it was starting to emit a foul odour.
The smell indicated that the coconut milk-based gravy was already spoilt, according to Cheah.
“After the display or mock-up, we cannot simply give away (the laksa) because our advisors said the gravy, which is santan-based (coconut milk), needs to be maintained at a certain temperature,” he was quoted as saying.
