"kuala lumpur" news and stories

McCurry restaurant owner A.M.S.P. Suppiah and his wife. Photo: Mark Baker/AP

In a fast-food version of David versus Goliath, the owner of a small curry restaurant in Malaysia has won the final bout in an eight-year trademark battle against the world's largest fast-food giant, McDonald's.

The restaurant facing the suit operates under the name McCurry, short for "Malaysian Chicken Curry," and was the first Indian fast food restaurant to open in 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia -- serving dishes such as chicken curry, fish head curry, naan and biryani.

McDonald's wanted sole rights to the use of the prefix "Mc" to protect its brand image but the Federal Court ruled Tuesday that the fast-food chain had no such exclusive rights.

Even though this is a story about an animal and we primarily concentrate on food for people here at Slashfood, it could be used to teach a valuable lesson to kids whose eyes are bigger than their stomachs.

An 18-ft long python was rendered unable to move after swallowing a pregnant sheep whole. Pythons do not eat more than once per week and when they do, they can unhinge their jaws to devour the first thing they come across. This particular python was captured by firefighters in Kuala Lumpur where it was blocking the road after its meal and is now being held by conservationists.

In the past, pythons have encountered some serious problems when they have employed poor judgment in food choices. Last year, for example, a surgeon (also in Kuala Lumpur ) had to operate on a python to remove a queen-sized electric blanket that it had consumed. A snake in Florida actually exploded after attempting to eat an alligator.

The lesson is to really consider your food choices. Even though you may not explode after having that triple hot fudge sundae, it might be best to stick to a single scoop just to be on the safe side.

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Why a restaurant would want to be associated with McDonald's in the first place is beyond me, but apparently the Kuala Lumpur-based restaurant formerly known as Restoran Penang Curry House, wants to call themselves McCurry.

Unfortunately, the McDonald's Corporation sued McCurry and won. A Malaysian court has ruled that McCurry will have to pay Ronald McDonald for damages. However, McCurry plans to appeal the court's ruling, arguing that "the prefix 'Mc'' was not exclusive to McDonald's and pointed to its use in surnames, including Scottish ones." Additionally, they insist that "its name is an abbreviation of local popular dish 'Malaysian Chicken Curry.'"

Hm. Don't they already know that McDonald's in India serves McCurry?! Besides, I would have gone with "In-n-Out Curry."

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