JAN 21 — When I first got to the United Kingdom way back in 1998, everything fascinated me. The people, houses, cars... well, everything, really. Yes, I suffered from culture shock, and one of the hardest things that I had to get my head around was the food.

Having spent all my life, at that point, in Malaysia, I had of course been spoilt by the amazing food and plentiful flavours of the dishes that Malaysians enjoy. To my absolute horror, I found the food there to be bland and very uninteresting.

Not long after arriving in the country, a friend’s mother invited me round to their house for dinner. All I remember about the meal was the fish that was served swimming in some gloopy white sauce.

Being the polite young man that I was at that time (all that has changed since then), I made appreciative noises and swallowed the meal. Imagine my horror when I was offered a second helping. I pulled the old “oh my god, your stove is on fire” trick to distract everyone, and ran off screaming down the street.

You think of the UK and you will probably think of fish and chips as the national dish. A study was done a few years ago and, surprise, surprise, curry is actually the best-selling dish in the UK.

One of my first outings to a curry house was an absolute disaster. My mate suggested that I have a vindaloo curry, saying that I might find the others too mild. So I did.

A vindaloo is the hottest curry that one can have. I was thinking, how bad can it be? I am Malaysian after all. Jesus, I was crying while I ate it and I was still crying the next morning.

Then an amazing thing happened. Food changed. It became exciting, different, and bold. It was a quiet change, subtle, slow.

Over the next few years, people began travelling more, becoming more exposed to new foods. Different restaurants began popping up, offering a taste of the world.

There was also the whole celebrity chef explosion. If I recall correctly, Jamie Oliver was one of forerunners of this phenomenon. He showed the country, on a weekly basis, how to make simple, delicious, different food.

Moving to and living in Cambridge was a food education for me. Cambridge had so many different restaurants offering so many different types of food.

I found a great Turkish restaurant, small but with delicious food, which became one of my favourite restaurants.

Over my years in the country, I worked in so many different restaurants. Most of them were chain restaurants, a couple were small independent ones. One thing they all had in common was that the food was really good. The bigger chain restaurants were big on freshness, flavour and quality of the food.

Even the supermarket chains got in the act. They began offering pre-packed ready meals that were very, very tasty. Many of the supermarkets hired top chefs to help with the food development.

See, the supermarkets got smart. They realised that people were working longer hours and on weekends.

People didn’t really have the time or inclination to cook a meal from scratch. So the supermarkets got top people in their food development teams and began offering good, ready meals that just needed to be cooked in the oven or microwaved.

So there I was, working in food and beverage industry, and watching as food — and people’s attitudes towards food — changed. It was a very exciting time for me, and I am glad that I was there to see it happen.

I did, however, really miss sitting at a stall having roti canai and teh tarik.

* The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist.