Letters from the Equator

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Originally uploaded by Ian Fuller.

I’m quite a fan of Bangkok, Thailand. I must make mention one of its derivatives - Black Canyon Coffee, which has recently appeared in some Klang Valley spots. I just got back from the one at Summit, USJ, with LL.

She reported the pad thai isn’t as good as the ones in Thailand, and I suppose not everything is authentically Thai about Black Canyon. The iced mocha was okay, though. What I previously enjoyed was some gourmet hot coffee, like the one displayed in the picture – but I decided tonight was not a good night for hot coffee.

I might make a trip back another day.

The menu is a carbon copy of the one in Bangkok, though, with RM conversions (almost dollar to dollar). So, the prices are relatively decent.

What makes it different is how BCC communicates its own brand of coffee culture – just like how the Japanese have their own perspectives of McDonald’s, all packaged for local consumption (Tsukimi burger, anyone?)

For example, it has all sorts of sugary phrases pasted gratuitously across the walls and menu pages, on their coffee mugs and saucers – “a drink from Paradise… available on Earth”, reads this one in the picture here.

You can’t blame the Thais for their entrepreneurial spirit – God bless their souls. I hope we Malaysians warm up to this. Coffee Bean and Starbucks are getting a bit old.