One of the best things about Malaysia is that food is everywhere. Malaysians are blessed with the fact that most eateries are opened until late night and one of the best delicacies to have is loklok.
Loklok is something most Malaysians are familiar with and for those who are unaware, it’s basically bite sized food that’s on a bamboo stick. Customers would just have to pick what they would like to eat and put it into the boiling soup that the business owners prepare.
However, recently, a loklok business owner found herself in the spotlight after she was slammed by netizens after she ridiculed customers for breaking the bamboo sticks.
In her post, she said, “The next time customers come to our shop, I’d have to properly specify that they should return the bamboo sticks to us. Stop breaking other people’s property, it’s not free and it’s something we have to spend money on!”
“To those who are worried about hygiene, how often do you suck on the bamboo sticks? Isn’t it normal when you bite your fish balls you would then put the sticks down? Since when do people bite on the sticks,” she continued.
She then compared her business to hotpot restaurants and mentioned that customers “wouldn’t break the cutleries” and throw it into the soup base at a hotpot restaurant.
In her post, she also attached a picture which said, “Do you know that inflation has caused most of our materials to increase prices? Do you break the cutleries when you visit a friend’s place?”
“For those who take away our food, there’s nothing I can say, but for those who are eating at our store, please stop breaking our bamboo sticks!”
She then concluded the post by asking Malaysians to stop breaking their bamboo sticks as they’re a small business.
Aren’t bamboo sticks supposed to be for one time use?
Her post has gone viral on social media and gained plenty of criticism. Many netizens were shocked that she would want to reuse the bamboo sticks.
One netizen said, “May I know which shop is this? So, I can avoid this?”
“These bamboo sticks are like one-time use chopsticks. You’re not allowed to use it for the second time. One of the reasons why people would break the sticks before discarding it is because the sticks could easily tear the rubbish bags holding it,” said another user.
“It not only helps protect the strays who rummages through the bin, it also wouldn’t hurt the people who needs to clean the mess. But it seems like there’s another reason to break it, it’s to stop unethical owners from reusing them.”
“We’d purposely break the sticks to prevent people like you from reusing it! This is a one-time use item, but you choose to reuse it, don’t you think it’s unhygienic? Where are your hygienic senses? The bamboo sticks aren’t that expensive, can you stop being so disgusting,” said a netizen.
Meanwhile, a user pointed out that since it’s paid for, it shouldn’t be an issue in the first place. “I’ve paid for it so it’s mine, I can do whatever I want with the bamboo sticks. Seeing that many netizens are against you reusing it makes me feel better about the issue.”
It’s definitely unhygienic to reuse bamboo sticks and we hope that all eateries could help to maintain some hygienic standards so that Malaysians can dine in peace.
