: : Honeybee : :

A bit of information before reading before. Today, I got told off for the first time for taking food pictures at a little cafe. Was debating whether to post the pictures or not. I was wrong and admitted it but was still told off repeatedly after that. Below is the conversation that took place at this little cafe with the proprietor, or one of the proprietors, I’m not sure. The cafe served nice food and very fast as well. It was delicious but the mood was spoilt. Some more, it was a friend’s birthday today and we treated her out to lunch. This friend was Pascale, a long time supporter of my blog and picture taking endeavours.

Roast Chicken look like the one from Dave Deli’s in Kuala Lumpur and Pete’s Deli in Miri. Taste good that Patty Cake finished everything.

Lamb casserole was ordered by Mr. Ngui who polished it all off as well.

I ordered the fish and chips and yes, whack it all up as well. Nothing was left on the plate.

Pascale had this. For a little gal, she sure can eat a lot! This is the beef casserole.

Halfway through eating.

Madam : Excuse me but may I ask why were you taking pictures? We saw you taking pictures of the food and were wondering whether the food was fine or not.

Wena : It is actually very nice. I’m taking pictures to put on my website where I do food reviews of places I’ve eaten in Kuching.

Madam : Well, it’s not nice that you didn’t inform us that you were taking the pictures. In future, you should let people know that you are taking the pictures. We don’t know whether the food is good or not. So, you shouldn’t be taking pictures of food without letting someone know.

Wena : Do you want me to delete the photos? I can do it right now and show you that it’s gone.

Madam : No no no. What I meant was that you should have told us that you were taking pictures of the food. Even if you had good intentions, you should have done that.

By this time, I could see that she was more nervous than me so decided not to say too much.

Wena : Two things here. One, you said that I should have told you and I just did tell you it’s for the website. The 2nd issue is different : do you want me to delete the pictures or not?

Madam : No no. No need. But you should have told us why you were taking the photos instead of just taking them. We will not know if the food is good or not. Next time you should do that.

Wena : Ok.

At that point, she left and we went back eating. Did we say anything bad? Nope. We ate everything, did not ask for discounts and paid the full bill. About 10 minutes later, two ladies came up to me requesting for my website, stating that their boss wanted it. So, wrote it down and perhaps you’re reading this now. Thank you for your business card. When we all left, I turn around and saw the proprietor putting down his meal and nodding his head. I gave a small smile, turn around and had a good laugh with my collegues.

I’m not in the habit of putting up reviews of places that served bad food. If it’s bad, it’s not going up. That’s all.

Granny : Aiya! No need to put up pictures one. You get into trouble only!

Well, since I already gave them my website, they will be looking for the pictures so here they are. I spent awhile thinking about the whole incident and wondering what to do. Decided to post them anyway and provide the gist of the conversation.

They were more scared than me. But like I said, I’m do not put up bad reviews of places. Never have and will not start now. The conversation above was what took place. It was a summarized conversation but no sharp words or anger was displayed by either myself or the lady involved.

Thinking thinking thinking some more. Some thoughts did cross my mind :

Pascale : You should have told them how many people actually visit your blog!

If I were a newspaper reporter, it would have been worst. Readership is a lot more and across the community, let alone the state. This blog has a small readership in Kuching and elsewhere. Most of the time, the people who end up here came from search engines like Yahoo or Google. Revealing to them how many people read the blog wouldn’t have helped in this scenario.

I was deliberately and always will be, obvious when it comes to taking pictures. If someone wanted to spy, they would have brought along a camera handphone and no-one would have known.

At the end of it all, it was really good food and I enjoyed it there. The atmosphere of the little cafe was nice and the decorations was interesting. The food prices were very reasonable and affordable as well. Everything was quaint and dandy. Bear in mind that what happened today was a result of something that I did not do because I did not see any harm in it but they didn’t.

So, HB, we gotta tell people we’re taking pictures of food lah!

Pascale, Happy Birthday anyway! I will bring you a cake tomorrow nite!