The Worst Fish Head Curry Suing Google and a Blogger?

Nowadays, Malaysia have been poured with many bad stories on the newspaper and television. One is the famous dog abuser in YouTube but it was first posted in Facebook by a woman who found the video in a thumb drive somewhere in a shopping mall. The one I'm about to say here is an owner of a Indian cuisine restaurant suing Google and a local blogger. The law sue was filed at RM6mil! Not 6 ringgit or 60 cents but RM6mil with 6 zeros at the back!

Here's the article from The Star:

  

KOTA KINABALU: A popular Indian cuisine restaurant here that is recommended by travel guide Lonely Planet, is suing a blogger and Google for defamation.

Jothy's Fish Head Curry restaurant director Tharumaraj Sivaperumal filed a RM6mil civil suit at the Kota Kinabalu High Court here Monday, naming blogger Poh Huai Bin as first defendant and California-based Google Inc as second defendant.

The suit is arising from some allegedly defamatory statements about Jothy's Fish Head Curry restaurant posted in May last year by Poh, originally from Sibu in Sarawak and now residing in Kuala Lumpur.

Jothy's, represented by counsel Marcel Jude Joseph, is seeking exemplary or punitive damages to deter them from making similar statements in future and an order to restrain Poh from defaming the restaurant on the Internet.

Jothy's is also seeking an order from the court to remove the offending articles from Google and other popular search engines used on the Internet.

The company claimed that the alleged defamatory statements published by both the defendants tended to prejudice against the plaintiff in the conduct of its business and deter others from dealing with it and were injurious to the business.

As a result of the defendants' action, the plaintiff claimed it had suffered loss and damage, and its reputation had been affected both locally and internationally.

The plaintiff claimed that the good reputation of the restaurant, in operation since 1987, was known globally and reported as a well-known destination in Kota Kinabalu and Sabah, in the global television and book series Lonely Planet, referred to as an authority for tourists throughout the world.

The plaintiff also claimed that the posting and articles of the first defendant were available and read by Internet users throughout Sabah and Malaysia, adding that the second defendant conducted business within the jurisdiction of Malaysian courts because its search engine was used regularly by Internet users in the country.

 Google opens up an office in Malaysia and the very first thing they got is a RM6mil law suit. EPIC!

Below is the blog post which was the cause of that event:

Jothy's Fish Head Curry Banana Leaf Restaurant

Indian, Kota Kinabalu, The Grim Eater

May 092010

a.k.a. The Worst Fish Head Curry and Banana Leaf Restaurant in the Known Universe

Jothy’s Fish Head Curry Banana Leaf Restaurant is located in Api Api Center in KK, Sabah and has a lot of impressive stickers on its front window facade, including one that says “as seen in Lonely Planet”, which was the reason we headed there to eat in the first place. I place a certain amount of trust in the Lonely Planet brand.

The first clue that it might not exactly be the best place to eat when we walked in is the underwhelming crowd in the restaurant. We were the only ones there. I swear I could hear crickets chirping.

Their banana leaf rice seems authentic enough…

…but the taste did not live up to expectations. I tried every single one of the side serves and found them severely wanting.

Their flagship signature dish – the curry fish head – was tough, overcooked and dry. It’s certainly not “the freshest fish head from the market”.

I don’t know what kind of fish this head came from but finding meat is like looking for a needle in a haystack (or insert other cliched analogy here since there are a lot of fish bones in there).

The fried prawns were not “succulent” as the menu claimed, but tough. I’m also highly doubtful about the “choice fish eggs fried to perfection” description as our fish roe had the same taste and texture of cardboard (not that I’ve ever eaten cardboard – it’s what I imagine cardboard would taste like).

I find this unforgivable in a place known for it’s abundance of seafood. The bill was exorbitant too – the fish head curry alone was RM 50.

It’s a tourist trap. Avoid it like a bad case of herpes.

*blog entry taken from Lowyat.net forum

 Sithxseal.com is a local blogger who blogs about food, events and travel managed to turn himself as famous as Raja Petra overnight but hopefully he won't be ended up behind bars as well.

What I learn from here is, we as Malaysian have only limited rights to voice out our opinion but when it's done properly, people somehow will accept it. In this case, he might have gone overboard by claiming Jothy's Fish Head Curry Banana Leaf Restaurant as the worst in well known world. My humble opinion, maybe the chef wasn't feeling well or in a bad mood that day and unable to prepare the meal as up to his standard or maybe the fish, prawn or whatever wasn't that fresh on that day which is common to any other seafood restaurant but at least they need to be honest and notify their customers. Tell me about it, I know it mostly when I have left Sabah for more than 3 years. Actually there's a lot other good seafood/fish head curry places in KK if you ask around or just simply Google for it on the net.

Whatever it is, I am curious to know what's the outcome of this story. Stay tuned for more updates from my blog ya. Till then...

.: Peace Out :.