Event: Sarawak Bloggers Anniversary Dinner

It was with great pleasure that Myst was chosen as the host for the 1st Sarawak Blogger's Anniversary on Saturday, 12 March 2011.  The Sarawak Bloggers have made a long way since their humble beginnings about one year ago. Take a look at their web portal here.

Everyone had their share of light refreshments, snacks, food, and a huge load of cake to top it off thanks to the sponsorship of generous bloggers. The event signified the 'grounding' of the Sarawak Bloggers being an online community, thus bringing bloggers together.

Being one of the affiliates for Myst, we are proud to have the Sarawak Bloggers working alongside in expanding and developing the network. We are looking forward to further affiliations and partnerships in the future to further drive our vision forward hand in hand.

Below was the group photo courtesy of Willie who took the shot for us:

Stay tune for further updates! Coming up next will be a short announcement of our upcoming affiliate to be part of our network! For a more personalized coverage for the event by our rep, click here.

Event: Gathering of The Dentists

We had the golden opportunity to cater for the annual general meeting for the 'Dentistry Ministry' for pretty much the whole of Sarawak on the 21, 22 and 23 February 2011. Serving a total of 130 pax, this is one of our first major external event since catering for Sri Datai's 60 pax Christmas lunch.

Being naturally short on resources due to our 'small business' nature, it was indeed quite a challenge to serve up a breakfast, lunch and tea consecutively for 130 pax with barely more than 5 kitchen crew, mostly which are inexperienced and drawn out from the 'fresh meat' squad.

Anyways, before running into the details, photos of the event (our apologies for the blurry shots as we do not have proper shooting equipment):

The good news: They loved the food! For any cook, one could not delight more in their guests liking and finishing their food. At every meal, nearly everything was finished despite our efforts in doubling the portions even for the second day.

A big thanks to all the crew who served and prepared the food during this time. We are proud to announce that there was no chef at the helm of the whole event, but rather a Computer Science graduate - I'm not sure, but I'm about as baffled as you are to how it all worked out :D

The kitchen crew got up as early as 4a.m. to begin ingredient preparations and each meal was allocated between 4-6 hours of preparation. With 5 crew, that equates to one crew serving 6.5 guests per hour. Not very heavy at first sight, but if we were to break it down, it equates to serving 1 guest every 10 minutes with all courses (usually 4-5 courses per meal) inclusive of preparation time and everything. Thus, our estimation was just on time on nearly all accounts, minus one meal where the organizers wanted their meal earlier - So the kitchen simply told them if they were to serve earlier than agreed upon, there would be less food - literally :D

The biggest surprise for the whole event was actually the lack of experience that most of the crew 'had'. All our kitchen assistants (or at least 75%) were completely new to our kitchen, and some had never even touched a 'kuali' in their lives. Thankfully, we didn't ask the fresh meat to go 'goreng nasi' LOL.

With the tiny kitchen churning out food for double its normal capacity, we naturally ended up utilizing most of the space in the cafe - converted into a mobile mass production centre for 3 days. Due to limited storage, we had to acquire most of the stock only the day before preparation. Thus you could probably catch an overloaded white Myvi full of vegetables, poultry, potatoes, fruits, and more running round the city at 5a.m. in the morning :P

All in all, it was great exposure and also a good benchmark to test our capacity for future events. Don't worry though, if your event requires food for 1000 pax, we would happily mobilise our kitchen to adapt to your needs (If that means occupying public space too haha).

With that, we hope to see you around at our next event! All thanks to the Ministry of Dentistry!

All In A Days Work: Quality Assurance

No matter how much we would like to be called a networking point or events business, Myst is still essentially an FnB operations that serves food, drinks, desserts and the like. As such our KPI's fall solely under one criterion:

Customer Satisfaction.

I'm not sure how people think. But then again, this guy is starting to look freaky.

One of our friends did advise us on referring to customers as guests - and it is something I really find interesting and applicable - simply because, by addressing our customers as guests, we automatically push up their statures at least by a little. Being in service line, it is only logical that we should treat our customers with utmost respect, thus they are guests. Little things in our patterns of thinking - but I realised that after spending some time addressing them as guests - I actually began to develop a little more respect for the people who dine in with us. And that is certainly a good thing for just about any field in actuality- because I believe the most important element of a business deal or partnership is satisfaction for both parties.

Well, we have other KPI's under the main criterion of course. Amongst them includes, quality of service, quality of food and beverages, quality of the environment and the like. Quality assurance in FnB is of course, ensuring quality of the dishes we serve, and drinks we make. Other aspects such as quality of service is more subjective - though there are base principles to refer to as well.

In ensuring that the quality of the kitchen is maintained, I myself (as the supervisor of the kitchen - I also develop the recipes for the menu) have to constantly conduct quality checks on the dishes coming out from the kitchen. In simple English, its called picking food (not with my fingers of course! Ahm) or in Hokkien (as it is always funnier this way) - 'nie chai'. Kids, don't try this at home - Or you might just lose your dinner :p

Leftovers: The bane of FnB

Then comes the bane of FnB, a taboo not to be uttered under the worst circumstances: Leftovers! And substantial amounts of it! I understand that everybody has different tastes, so there is a slight possibility that our excellent food and drinks did not quite match the guest's palate. On the other hand, the much more likely scenario (as our crew are well, bumbling !@#$ - Hey, I do respect them a lot - its just that they lack .... technical ..skills) is that some 'idiot' just screwed up the recipe or cooking procedure. At this point, I am informed by the server that the guest did not 'eat up'. Then there is only one thing left to do - Become a recycle bin lo..


Yes, yes.. I know the dangers of hand and mouth diseases. One of my crew even asked me if I could get AIDS by eating infected food ( -.-"). Well, lets just sat I guess I am willing to sacrifice my life for the future of Myst :P But what to do? I need to know if the food was up to standard bah.. Maybe we might have some sort of food testing technology in the future to determine the 'deliciousness' factor of a dish >.<. Disclaimer: When tasting leftovers, we still observe the golden rule: Do not do anything to to the food which would make you not want to eat it yourself. If were still willing to taste it - at the very least its from the untouched parts lah!

There was a time I was sharing this with a friend, and when I thought about it from the third person's perspective, we just bawled over on the floor laughing. Seriously - imagine the supervisor chowing down on just about every plate (and then downing it with a half-finished drink) than has more than a nibble left behind by a guest -.-

Ah.. well.. there is a always a price to pay for excellence. Hey, not every item left behind is bad! I actually realised how great our food was at times - so don't blame me for finishing good leftovers!

Sarawak Bloggers: Gathering of the Tribes

On the 15th Jan 2011, we had our first opportunity to meet up the Sarawak Bloggers and some of their members in person via the event called Gathering of The Tribes, somewhat of a Tribal and Tattoo convention held at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching over the weekend.

Here is a summary of the event by our representative who managed to get an invitation for the event.

We hope that this would be the beginning of many more events, activities and programs with our partners and affiliates as we build our community around us! A big thanks to the Sarawak Bloggers for providing us the opportunity to be there!

Prologue: Reworking History Pt. 2

After completion of the physical works (About 2.5 months in total - particularly due to minimizing labor costs vai DIY) to get the outlet operational - then came the daunting task of pulling everything together - Implementing a system of operations for the business, and to ensure that it is one that can also generate sufficient income and eventually be profitable to further develop the idea.

This post is a little bit more of the step-by-step procedures to get a FnB outlet into operations - and also the interesting bumps we encountered trying to implement them. Talking about business, it reminds me of a time when we purchased a door sign reading something like this:

Somehow or somewhere we actually developed the business model after these principles LOL.. Oh well...

Generally, FnB operations doesn't seem quite complicated, but then again:

The general sections in an FnB outlet would be something similar to Bar, Kitchen, and Front. We had to then address each section individually:

FRONT
Scope: The serving area, hand wash basin, restrooms and basically everywhere a guest is allowed to access


The front's sole purpose is literally to serve guests well from arrival, seating guests, serving them the menus, receiving orders, moving orders to the kitchen, serving out dishes and drinks, presenting the bill, and finally sending off guests as they leave and cleaning up the dining area. Not that complicated, but in practice we certainly do have numerous little blunders here and there, especially in keeping the front row organized and avoiding a mess of dishes and orders.

In simpler terms, the front is the cushion between guests and well, the management (or staff). It cushions any incoming assaults from the guest's end and vice-versa (Yeah... we do try counter attack a lot too) - all while serving with a big smile whether they like it or not. Quite crucial actually, considering that the front is all that the guests will experience.

BAR
Scope: The cash register, serving counter, drinks making counter, and also chillers and freezers for the bar

Moving on to the bar or drinks making section, this sections runs the responsibility of keeping guests happy while the kitchen struggles to prepare the food to fill their empty stomachs. Shall the kitchen be delayed - we stuff them full of water, juices, milk, and various sweet stuff - hoping that it will keep their cool, and also add on to the 'fullness' of their meal :P

KITCHEN
Scope: The whole food preparation area, and storage for stocks.

The kitchen has only the sole purpose of churning out food as fast as they can, under any conditions whatsoever - whether the stock pot is full or not, whether or not there is meat in the fridge, whether or not there are any onions left (yeah, you get the idea). While doing so, they are required to juggle the 3 ends of the equation: Fast, Good, Cheap >.< As much as we would like to force our guests to choose only TWO, unfortunately we still require their 'moneh', so as the common saying goes:

Fast, Good, Cheap, and A lot!

Well, that was the easy part - planning that is.. Hell came when we tried to implement the menu and put it into operations where we had no choice but to slash nearly a quarter of our proposed items due to operational issues -> Storage space, active stock capacity, preparation time, and more importantly the capacity for the crew to duplicate the preparation procedures accurately.

Other issues came to fore - right down to little petty squabbles between crew members, issues with simple personal hygiene and cleanliness and well, we had no choice but to address them one by one. Things grew pretty complicated quickly, especially with the limited number of 'heads' to keep sections managed well.

There were fun quirks though - During our training for the crew, there were times the kitchen sent out fried rice in the shaping bowl and guests complained of eating from a flower pot, not to mention drinks tasting worse than your grandma's healthy juice concoction and waiters bumbling over themselves trying to serve out dishes and take orders.

A recent shot of the crew - yep were still goin

Somehow, we made it - at a cost of course, simplified as 'training expenses' - oh well, money can still settle a lot of our problems after all.. With the first week over and clear - the message was clear - its either to make it succeed and build the dream, or let go and let it fall with a big hole in our pockets. Sometimes we do wonder why its worth it all after all. Many of us could continue living easier lives off the 'makan gaji' with our educational background. But I would guess we have a bigger idea in mind while its still possible.

Prologue: Reworking History Pt. 1

After an extensive search for locations, the founders finally stepped upon its current location at the prompting of a close aide. It was at this point that I finally had the opportunity to walk alongside their experience day by day and relate them to you in this manner as I was finally engaged and drawn into the idea. Looking back, it probably began from 1 April 2010.

The space that Myst sits on was in a disheveled state when we first came upon it. The floor tiles were damaged in parts, one entire wall section was bare with a clear indication of forced tile removal. There was rubble literally everywhere. The lot was entirely without power or water with the main circuit having been removed for some reason. The drainage system was not in any better condition. Looking up, the ceiling was mostly torn apart with loose fittings, wiring and such.

However the was a certain gleam in their eyes as they eyed the interior. Apart from a glass door that we would probably not use, there was a gem amidst the rubble - an emerald green marble sink fitted for the wash basin. It almost seemed like there was a glimmer of hope to refurbish everything and to turn it back into something of value.

Yup.. Thats the sink. A little polishing would do it well.

After a short discussion, decisions were made, and refurbishing work began to reconstruct the lot into what it is today, a shadow of its past in some sense. The previous operator had apparently jumped in and opened a large scale Chinese dumpling (or siew pau) cafe by even leasing a second lot for production on the third floor. It was a pretty cocky move in my opinion - Unlike the founders, who had little to rely on other than the income generated by the salaries of their family members put together, years of saving on the part of their family, and nothing much more other than a desire to bring an idea into reality. We were 'lucky' that the occurrences of many coincidences actually allowed us to progress quickly through the start-up process. As for what happened to the previous operator would be quite an obvious guess - We could not afford to end up in a similar circumstance.

This "HOPE" Garbage Bag was an interesting find. Talk about bad choice of font -.-

The setting up of an operations from scratch is certainly a huge task to bear, especially in implementing a model that requires the involvement of many different individuals working together as whole. The only pool we could draw from from the little resources available was mostly from friends, family and 'nearby' students - mostly inexperienced with the FnB line. It is kind of interesting that Myst never did have a chef - recipes were developed from trial and error. The operations model was entirely experimental and never implemented before.

Made via trial and error - Still not so bad lah...

With little on our backs, we set out together to arrange for legalities, firstly - the Tenancy Agreement - which was signed soon enough, with a great financial setback due to terms set by the landlord - insisting that the rent must be paid for the first month barely days after a verbal confirmation was made. Tensions were high right off the bat as we discovered unearthed more and more skeletons while analyzing and taking measurements for the interior.
 

Yep.. no power.

A clear manipulation in implementing the power and water supply had all of us pretty much on our own, playing off against predators seeking easy meals from the market. It was an early call to exercise caution and wisdom in dealing with matters from this point onwards. After engaging the services of a contractor known to a close aide, the founders decided to have a little 'backyard game' while waiting for principal renovation works to be completed. This lead to one menu section in Myst dedicated entirely to it.

A view of the bar counter base frame

The start up plan for Myst incorporated a 1-month delay contingency plan - Nothing that special actually - Just planning to have 1 month of extra time before the proposed launching date. We live in Malaysia after all - so it was bound to happen in a way. This proved to be quite worthwhile after experiencing severe delays even in the principal renovation works (The conclusion: Never trust a contractor unless you are doing it yourself).

The bar counter going up with the kitchen divider in the background. This was the fast part. Then everything slowed to a crawl. -.-

Despite the delays and numerous hurdles we faced throughout the setup phase, nevertheless, our moods began to lighten a lot more as we progressed through the schedule. One notable mention must have been Amin, an Indonesian worker who greatly assisted us in working on the heavy woodwork that lines the interior, which is also a result of the work of our very own hands.

This is the only shot we have of our dear Amin who worked up about 50% of the woodwork by himself. Take note of the baldy heads in the background :D

Pieces slowly coming together. Next was resanding and painting. Then cleaning, and then.., and..

Time quickly came to pass, and soon, we realized we were running late on the schedule, as expected. There were other notable mentions along the was:

1. The amazing speedy approval of our food operator's permit by the council, which came just moments after being tempted to literally purchase the previous operator's permit for RM2000 (Which in itself is quite insane). We simply submitted a good-looking plan - talked nice to the officers (I don't understand the need for some 'apek's or 'taukeh's to talk like complete a**holes), who came, saw and conquered (duh...). Well, every 'taukeh' told us it would take at least half a year to wait for them. Strangely, we were the ones slowing down the application process at MBKS, and the total time came to 3 months flat - as projected.

2. The amazing speedy and numerous sharks lurking out in the sea all waiting for a free meal and nothing more. Strangely they don't even seem to care about working their way towards their next meal. During this time, one of the founder's had the opportunity to meet a certain Ms. who was desperately trying to resale a flailing operations at a heavily bloated rate, apparently to recover losses from operations. In her and the operator's own words as I heard, (That's probably why I hate parrots) "You are such a young guy with the energy to expand our business. We would much rather sell it to you than anybody else. Don't worry - we have many current customers and sales is going at a nett of RM10000 every month. I can't imagine finding any other candidate than you for taking over this business". Well, the rest was history - literally.

3. The amazing amount of work just about 3 individuals could complete in 1 month's time. We completed 13 huge wooden fences, individually cut, braised, connected, wired, painted. It was literally 7 days of work a week with no off, and no regrets at all - I personally learned what it truly meant to make the most of time. We all realised just how much could be done if only we could set our hearts towards it.

4. The amazing support of an amazing number of people whom we'd probably never be able to repay. It was also during this time that we were exposed to many industries and fields most citizens would never dream of approaching. It also unmasked the ugly truths and realities behind the systems that we have developed for ourselves.

With Myst physically ready for operations, this was the finished product, and also what you would be able to see today:

Seriously, this shot is overused :P

Next would be a near literal hell on earth.. well.. almost...

Prologue: Developing An Idea

"The founders for Myst had no idea to what they were working on, initially."

What started out as a simple and fun initiative to sell food and desserts carved our path to eventually move into FnB operations. In 2008, the 'cheesecake makers' discussed on the possibility of turning the cheesecakes they made into a business that could generate income. For a short period of time, they started selling cheesecakes on a pre-order basis from home, and catered mostly for special events, like birthdays and festivities. Not much was generated at that point in time - apart from a little fame amongst family and friends, but this set the stage to consider operating an outlet as a possibility.

The first idea started off as a simple cheesecake outlet where they would sell their 'famed' varieties of cheesecakes with some drinks. A quick reality check wiped out the possibility particularly due to a serious lack of funds, and more importantly a direct conflict in their areas of specialization (They were 'nerds' remember? Everyone was busy working on their final year software project). Back then the joke of the day was to have the founders making and selling cheesecakes in an outlet with their Bachelor's of Computer Science on display on the wall. They'd be driving off customers at first sight I'd guess haha.

Imagine having this on the wall of accolades of your local restaurant

The idea was left at that for almost two years - "Just Cheese" - As it seemed, to be 'just' as much as that. Well, destiny came calling for them once again sometime further into the future.

After securing their first jobs in IT and Marketing in different organizations led by the same Managing Director (This is still somewhat of a mystery to how it happened), a series of events lead to them leaving (or being 'kicked' out of) their posts, and more importantly, leaving the corporate office for good. Why? I will save that for another post on their ideologies on our local private sector.

This was THE place, once. Now - only time can tell.

As time presented itself, one of the founders met up with an architect, which must be given credit: A Mr. William Khoo, Managing Director of DNA (Design Network Architects) - with their website here, a well recognized architectural company. Mr. William has to be the 'youngest' parent around (I don't know how many parents would go to the movies as family routine in Kuching) with two wonderful daughters and an equally lively and lovely spouse - both with the energy of a teenager and the experience of age - Both whom I respect deeply myself - and most certainly a role model for others to follow.

The man!! Camera caught him in a different light :P!

Mr. William was looking for a team to start-up a pilot project for youths and young adults in the heart of the community, tHe Spring - The largest 'lifestyle' shopping mall in Sarawak, as claimed. Mr. William had managed to strike up an agreement to let an empty space to be converted into something similar to a kiosk. The founders decided to give it a shot as the idea was appealing and also very much needed by the community, with Mr. William enthusiastically accepting their offer to operate the outlet.

At around the same time, one of the founders was given the opportunity to attend an international business conference to meet up with big players from around the world. It was surely an eye-opening experience to see a world much wider than his own for the first time. It was there that the vision was created - and essentially the concept for Myst was created.

This is the front for HIP. Its quite a nice outlet actually.

As time came to pass, the outlet was named HIP - a conventional front for a Christian movement. Its weekly activities are promoted here. Christian or not was not much concern to the founders at this point in time. It was the vision that mattered - to bring young adults and youths together.

Somewhat of the idea behind HIP. Inset is this guy (who is on FB here) a close aide, and also an example of what we do.

If anything, this should be the WHOLE idea behind Myst :D

An unfortunate series of events led HIP to being limited to a single day to operate their vision, and the founders felt that the vision was then greatly marginalized. At the end of the one month of training, they decided to leave due to this, and also due to another very critical issue - excessive hours of work with no rest days, with no proper working contracts, and no overtime compensation - Fatal errors in attempting to uphold a vision of righteousness. While the founders found no blame on the founder for HIP, Mr. William, he had his hands tied and had very little space to wiggle with to make amendments to operating regulations. I am unable elaborate further other than the fact that the truth can never lie to itself.

Upon leaving HIP, and after having their dream of an ideal demolished piece by piece, they were left with a dilemma, either to leave the vision behind - with neither HIP capable of fully realizing it (as they perceived at that point in time), and with the founders leaving the vision in history, or to continue building and developing the vision in a physical hell. Important decisions were made, and soon enough, after a quick search for potential locations around the city - the Tenancy Agreement was signed to prevent any of them from turning back. They then had no choice but to transport the vision to reality. I'm sure the founders will still be glad to liaise with HIP in any way possible - though, it is unfortunate that HIP could perhaps be much more than it is as of now.

What you can see now, is the culmination of the vision in its first physical form - Myst Cafe - somewhat of a boulevard of dreams of many different individuals? Perhaps, or perhaps not. Myst in itself is not quite certain.

However, we do have a clear idea what they are doing for now.