KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysians do not “play play” when it comes to food, as seen on social media today, where a user complained about food prices sold in Ramadan bazaars.
The user, @LVGIF, complained about confusing bazaar prices, where oftentimes, the seller would display some delicacies’ prices in a lump sum, such as RM5 for five pieces of kuih.
The post, which included a photo of masala vadai and its recipe video, garnered more than 100,000 views, as well as an increasing number of likes and interactions.
“Dear Ramadan bazaar sellers…. Please don’t lump prices such as ‘RM5 for five pieces?’. It’s confusing! What is wrong with saying it’s RM1 per piece? It is not like there is any minimum requirement of kuih purchase at one go anyway.
“Sellers are vexing these days…and then they get weirded out when nobody wanted to buy their foods,” said @LVGIF’s posts.
An X user, Atiq Rusli, chimed in with her experience when she said: ‘I’ve been scammed the same recently…the seller had displayed the popia sira price at RM5 for five pieces…so, I assumed it’s RM1 per piece.’
“I just wanted to buy three pieces. But the seller told me it’ll be RM3.90 for three. I was so disappointed. I felt scammed…I just wanted to buy three pieces because I do not want to waste them.
“But I ended up buying five pieces. The prices were very misleading,” Atiq Rusli said.
However, the price-complaining posts not only captured users’ attention to share a similar experience, but they also caught the irks of other users, as “masala vadai” was misspelt as “masalodeh”.
User Niresh Kaur said: “Good effort. It’s actually called ‘masala vadai’ or ‘masala vade’. DPB hasn’t come out with the proper spelling but ‘masalodeh’ sounds like you’re about to pull one’s pants down,” she said referring to the Malay word “londeh” which translates into the action, or loose pants.
While user @ashipipo said: “Why is it masalalondeh? Is it not masala vadai? Kuih vadeh? I think my brain is jammed cuz I immediately thought of ‘kuah masak londeh’ (at the sight of the word masalodeh).”
Whether it is the spelling of masala vadai or confusing food prices in Ramadan bazaars, food means serious business for Malaysians. – March 17, 2024