Svea Deli House, Kota Bharu

Today at 8 p.m., Earth Hour will commence. Earth Hour is a global initiative that aims to offset global warming by reducing carbon emission and this is done simply by turning off the lights for a whole hour. Though Malaysia is not participating in this event, USM (the university I’m currently studying in) is joining the effort and I, myself offered my participation. Even you can join along and help to save the planet in simple ways you never expected. And turning off the lights is surprisingly helps the purpose. Visit the Earth Hour website for more details.

When I was told that there is a Swedish restaurant in downtown Kota Bharu, I was rather shocked to hear this yet delighted because knowing that there is such a restaurant in Kelantan. My friend first introduced the place to me as Sven’s Deli House. Not bad to name a restaurant, that is what I had thought in mind. What is more convincing to me is that according to my friend, the owner is a native Swedish. What can go wrong if you have a Swedish operating a Swedish restaurant? However once my friends and I set our foot there last night, I began to think that I should have doubted a such convincing expectation in the first place.

 Svea’s Svea Deli House

I smell DONUTS!

In contrast to last night’s event, today I’m settled for a very negative mood. Now that the winter 2008 anime had begun, I thought to kickstart my anime review campaign by downloading the season’s anime. Then disaster struck. Download failed midway and I still have no new anime to get started with. I’ve been bickering about the lousy internet service in my campus but this time, it has crossed the line. I’m losing my tolerance already.

Last night has to be the happiest moment throughout my 3-weeks back in Kelantan. Let me get you the details. Quite recently (to be specific, on the 3rd) Tesco had opened its doors to the Kelantan consumers in their efforts for a nation-wide expansion. This latest addition to the shopping scene in Kelantan is considered timely because honestly I find KB Mall alone is too boring. What is great is that Tesco is the first foreign retail tenant in the Kelantan and with this, I give high hopes with the presumption that being foreign means more product variety. I don’t have Tesco back home in Miri but I can tell for sure that Tesco being a multinational company will dedicate many efforts to improve their product quality and brand name. Here’s a little comparison to you. Before the arrival of Tesco to Kota Bharu soil, the available shopping complexes such as KB Mall, Billion and Pantai Timur have poor product availability and variety. While back in my hometown, the range of products is kick-ass and just to want to inform that we don’t have Cold Storage (Cold Storage is predominantly known for its wide-ranged imported goods). Yet we got more stuff sold in the small city of Miri compared to Kota Bharu that is on the Malaysia Peninsula. They should have more products for the market demand, right? Wrong, dead wrong. But that concern stops there. Tesco has landed.

Kelantan’s latest tourism campaign.

After rambling so much about Tesco (I might get back to that sometime later), here’s the thing that really made my day last night. So my roommate and I decided to take a look on Tesco as opposed to the initial suggestion to go there some days later because we are aware that Tesco being brand new would have huge number of visitors. And we were not wrong. The thing that I like about Tesco on the shell (literally) is the well-organised with well-directed signboards and the shopper-friendly environment of the… don’t be surprised… parking lots. Not only the parking space is huge, it is also resembles everything I know about being British. So we got inside and we set sight on this words – DONUTS & COFFEE. Whoa! I thought to myself. Is Kelantan trying to create another cheap imitation of a doughnut store? With the recent buzz of J.Co Donuts, I am not too surprised by this move at all. I thought the Kelantanese decided that bring doughnut business in Kota Bharu under a lousy brand name. We got closer. And heck, I was more surprised that moments earlier. It goes by BIG APPLE DONUTS & COFFEE. That name rang the bell. My friend, Max once told me about this donut store and many times he would compared theirs with J.Co and how good their doughnuts are. Big Apple should not be mistaken with J.Co though their logo and products look pretty similar. Even to their store layout. And many of you should not belittle Big Apple and herald J.Co alone. Big Apple are opening many stores throughout the country and soon to make an overseas venture to Thailand. As for Dunkin’ Donuts fans, I am sorry but I have come clean with you people. Dunkin’ Donuts suck! Big Apple Donuts taste way much better. And yes, that is a statement. Big Apple is really good.

The wait is finally over. Here comes the donut madness.

Big Apple Donuts & Coffee

Selection of donuts are pretty similar to J.Co’s.

Enough with the doughnut hype already. So as I said, Big Apple is here in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. You can always compare Big Apple with J.Co simply because these two franchise are alike. However I get comprehensive with my comparison. First of all, Big Apple’s doughnuts are more tender compared to J.Co’s. J.Co doughnuts would harden after a few hours yet Big Apple’s remained soft. Second is that Big Apple has the best cheese doughnuts. I am aware that J.Co too have cheese doughnuts but I did not have them a try. But I am pretty sure that Big Apple’s are better. However when it comes to fresh ingredients especially the nuts and chocolate, J.Co emerged the victor. J.Co gives the best quality chocolate to cover their doughnuts unlike the slightly lousy chocolate for Big Apple’s. This is where Big Apple lose the bout. Most of their ingredients are close to being fresh but their flavour gave them away. J.Co Donuts came with a stronger flavouring on their ingredients, giving a rich and bold taste to their doughnuts. Big Apple on the other hand, are scarce with their ingredients. So it’s sad to have this downside, given that their doughtnuts are undeniably better than J.Co’s. A question at the back of my head is why is that KLites do not appreciate a good local product – Big Apple – but came drooling on J.Co. I admit that J.Co is good but that does not mean that Big Apple is a failed equivalent.

Big Apple has better packaging compared to J.Co ones.

My choice of doughnuts last night.