The column titled The vigilante bigots by MGG Pillai refers.

The column lambasts deteriorating Malaysian mores and bemoans the slow descent into oblivion of everything that is non-Malay. That is fine as far as it goes. Pillai is entitled to his views and I respect his and everybody else's.

However, and this is unfortunate, tucked somewhere in the middle of the article was this misplaced 'epicurean' observation by Pillai:

'The menu at the Buttery coffee shop of the Lake Club in Kuala Lumpur is now designed that any dish that is not Malay or Western is slowly dropped. The non-Malay must adapt. He has no choice. He must accept the Malay view of what he should eat '

Reading this made me wonder what it was that I had missed in that menu. I naturally rushed to re-examine it. I couldn't see a single indication of bigotry in that menu. I looked in the Fried Mee section (Indian, Chinese and Malay style take your pick) and did not see it.

Was it the Chicken Rice? The Laksa? Or perhaps a lackadaisical Bread Pudding - the perennial colonial favourite? The club has a medley of Malaysian hawker stalls, a Chinese restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, a cosmopolitan Buttery menu plus delightful international spreads at the buffet.

What descent into non-Malay food oblivion were we talking about here?

Pillai is a respected journalist who visits the Club regularly. He is not a member but comes as a guest. Now, if he sees in the Club's Buttery menu some image that the rest of us have missed, that does not necessarily make him right and the rest of us wrong.

Or our menu bigoted.

The writer is the president of the Royal Lake Club, Kuala Lumpur.