Fairy's Strange Junkfood Tribute: A South African's Dramatic Search for Ben & Jerry's In Malaysia!

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A South African's Dramatic Search for Ben & Jerry's In Malaysia!
by Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan (5-Mar-2005) \| Readers Say

I once did a little writeup on my favorite ice cream Ben & Jerry's which stirred up Lisa Wolf from South Africa to write me:

From: lisa wolff
To: fairy mahdzan
Subject: Ben and Jerry's in Malaysia
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2004 08:42:02 +0200

Hi there,

I am a huge B&J's fan however living in South Africa, we are sadly deprived of the yummy ice-cream.

So I did a google search to see whether I would be able to get Ben and Jerrys when I visit Malaysia later this year and your story came up.

I was so excited. However I noticed that your story was written in 2001 and perhaps you can't get hold of the ice-cream now. I couldn't find any other references to B&J's in Malaysia.

Do you have any idea whether you can find the ice-cream in Malaysia (I will be in Kuala Lumpur).

Thanks very much

Kind Regards
Lisa

I wrote back of course; I love getting 'fanmail' (*snicker*):

From: Fairy Mahdzan
Sent: Friday, June 11, 2004 08:01
To: lisa wolff
Subject: re: Ben and Jerry's in Malaysia

Hi there Lisa, thanks for writing.

Yes I did write that B&J article back in 2001. But guess what, B&J is even more accessible these days! You can get them at most 7-11 stores here, so no worries about being B&J ice cream deprived! My favorite is Cherry Garcia teehee. It retails for about RM23.90 here. That's roughly USD$6.28 per pint.

Regards,
Fairy Mahdzan
http://fairy.mahdzan.com

Lisa then wrote me back with a tentative schedule of her upcoming holiday in KL. Eight months passed by, and one fine day I suddenly remembered that Lisa was supposed to have visited in December 2004 (it was already February 2005 when this struck me). I decided to drop her a quick note to say hello:

From: Farah 'Fairy' Mahdzan
Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2005 08:47
To: lisa.wolff
Subject: RE: Ben and Jerry's in Malaysia

Hi Lisa,

Happy new year! I wasn't sure if you had actually made the trip to KL as you had mentioned in our earlier emails sometime last year, just wondered if you made it here OK and if you enjoyed my little country. Did you get enough of Ben and Jerry's ice cream? ;-)

Hope all is well.

Warm Regards,
Fairy Mahdzan
www.MyIndo.com

Lisa enthusiastically wrote me back! This time with a little scavanging tale to tell.

Hi Fairy,

Great to hear from you!

Yes, we did make it to KL - spent three days there and had a wonderful time. Mostly shopping, I must admit but we also went up the Communications Tower, Petronas Towers and learnt a bit of Bahasa Malay as well. By the end of our stay, we were Terima Kasih-ing like locals.

Then spent three nights in Langkawi - what an awesome island - we had an amazing time. We went airtrekkiing and scuba diving and hired a scooter and zooted around the island. Also had some awesome meals at Sun Cafe and Matahari Restaurant - yum!!

Ben and Jerries - well that's a funny story. We had a day stop over in Malaysia before holidaying in Australia for three weeks. Well the first thing we did when we touched down was find a 7-11 store but sadly no Ben and Jerries. Very sad.

Anyway, when we returned to KL after OZ, we must have gone into every 7-11 in KL and no ice-cream. I thought my boyfriend was going to kill me the next time I even suggested walking into a 7-11 store so I almost gave up on my quest.

So on the last day, we were frantically shopping and Jami (my boyfriend) wanted to compare prices of a bluetooth phone headset to those in South Africa. So we found an internet cafe, and I thought while we're there, I would have a look at your posting that you put up about Ben and Jerries in KL. Well I wrote down the name of the shop you mentioned but it was already too late to go.

The next day was our last day in KL and time was running out fast so we went to book in for the fast train to the airport at KL Sentral and then took a train to Midvalley Mall and went to Jaya Jusco and looked around. We looked in the ice-cream section and no Ben and Jerry's and then....finally we saw an oasis - an entire fridge devoted to Ben and Jerry's! I felt like crying after all that effort....we took lots of pics - I think the shop assistants thought we were nuts!

So we bought two tubs...(my goodness, they cost a fortune) and ate them on the way to the airport. After all that, I could only finish about a quarter of a tub and sadly I threw the icecream away before boarding the plane....but at least I got a taste.

Mission achieved!

I have attached a pic of me with my favourite ice-cream in KL....

Hope you're having a good year so far.

Have a Ben and Jerry's for me
Lisa

Way to go, Lisa! :-)

RELATED STORIES:

The Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Fetish!

External link:
Ben & Jerry's Top 10 Flavors (big guess what's No.1? :-))

WHAT READERS SAY ABOUT A South African's Dramatic Search for Ben & Jerry's In Malaysia!:

#17. Someone said that the flavour 'phish food' has been officially discontinued....not where I'm from!!! Here in England we have Ben and Jerries ice cream parlours, and Phish food is in all of them!!!
Posted by Katie on 29-Nov-2007, 18:12 MYT

#16. Right now, I'm enjoying my favorite B&J's ice cream, "Strawberry Cheesecake", in my room in one of Uncle Sam's colleges. While eating, I wonder will I still get this heavenly taste once I go back home. So, I google "Ben & Jerry's Malaysia", and that's how I get to this blog (but, I think I've been here before. maybe like a year ago.) & find the answer to my question.

Ever heard of Cold Stone's Creamery? Never tried their ice creams, but I love their shakes & ice cream cakes!
Posted by az on 30-Oct-2007, 13:02 MYT

#15. DALILA: Tak pernah jumpa that flavor kat sini..
Posted by Fairy on 2-May-2005, 22:56 MYT

#14. My fav new flavor : appley ever after..ada tak in malaysia??
Posted by dalila - Website on 1-May-2005, 12:22 MYT

#13. JONNY: Irony rawks! When are you coming over to visit me again?? Although, I would love to drop by to see you..! Argh.
Posted by Fairy on 28-Apr-2005, 09:37 MYT

#12. Fate, it would seem, is not without a sense of irony... (Morpheus)

I mean, first you've got me, from San Francisco, looking for Vanilla Coke for you in South Africa to bring to Malaysia... then you've got a South African looking for Ben & Jerry's in Malaysia to bring to South Africa... Then you've got another San Franciscan writing to Malaysia about getting Ben & Jerry's into South Africa... Next, Ben & Jerry go to Malaysia looking for South Africans hiding in Vanilla Coke cans!
Posted by jonny on 28-Apr-2005, 06:34 MYT

#11. SHERWIN: I know Phish Food is officially discontinued but somehow, I think I saw the ice cream flavor at a 7-11 in SS2 (or was it Kelana Jaya?) recently. I'll try and drop by again to verify. Or you could go ahead and check it out.

LEBZ: Welcome! We had a person named GenS write us from San Francisco who said that she could help with getting B&J into South Africa as she once worked with B&J. Haven't heard from her in a while though...
Posted by Fairy on 30-Mar-2005, 12:02 MYT

#10. how i landed on this website is totally unfound but i'm glad i did anyway. i dunno kno how many south africans do visit this website and even more interesting i jus wonder how many south africans kno bout Ben & Jerry's, the pioneers of mighty-good-tasting ice cream. it's one of those sad tragedies that one learns to live with here, but i don't blame Lisa for her pursuit of the ultimate ice cream experience, i have done the same thing, only i did it at a starbucks in Kuantan,last june! having worked as a barista at a similar concept express coffee kiosk here in Johannesburg for 3 years it was really exhilarating to "come home" to a full bodied cuppa. i'm still beside myself but as for Lisa, i salute her. Tahniah!
Posted by lebz on 30-Mar-2005, 07:14 MYT

#9. Have any of you guys here seen B&J's Phish Food selling around in KL? Been a long time since I last got this flavour.. don't tell me its' been discontinued
Posted by sher win - Website on 30-Mar-2005, 02:28 MYT

#8. Hi GEN: Thanks for the lil' note!

DUSYUM: Yes Lisa's story sounds similar to my friend Jon's adventue of scouting for Vanilla Coke in South African, doesn't it! The resemblance is uncanny.

SYL: Udah coba Ben & Jerry's? Enak lho Mbak. Slurp! I don't think it's available in Myanmar is it?
Posted by Fairy on 13-Mar-2005, 18:49 MYT

#7. Hi, Fai. It's Sunday afternoon, Mandalay is so damn hot - feel like muching something fresh but nggak ada yang enak dibeli disini. Iseng2 main ke web nya Fai, mmmh - end up kepingin banget makan ice cream by now
Posted by SyL - Website on 13-Mar-2005, 16:20 MYT

#6. my favorite was Chunky Cheese, which was discontinued a loooong time ago.

Lisa's adventure sounds like your friend's (or is it yours?) looking for Vanilla Coke in South Africa!

Posted by *dusyum* - Website on 10-Mar-2005, 13:55 MYT

#5. Hello, Fairy!

I read the story about B&J's lisa, and I must say I used to work at
B&J's scoop shop in the Bay Area, San Francisco USA.

I suppose there is no B&J's in South Africa?
Can you give my email to lisa? I think I could make it happen to send
some ice cream to SA.

Thanks!
Genaro Sicaeros
+ 1 503 754 8433
Posted by GenS on 9-Mar-2005, 04:31 MYT

#4. BANDOENG: That all sounds very interesting, I'll have to make sure I look for this BJ Habibie es puter if I'm ever in Bandung. Hey if you're interested, you can contribute an article on myindo.com about es teler.
Posted by Fairy on 8-Mar-2005, 01:06 MYT

#3. I still prefer es puter to B&J. You should try es puter in Bandung. There are 2 famous es puter in Bandung. One is BJ Habibie's favorite and the other is special home made and also not many people know. I will be in Bandung mid May, next time you wanna visit Bandung let me know, I'll take you to "tempat jajanan"
Posted by bandoeng - Website on 7-Mar-2005, 22:32 MYT

#2. ADHE: Ben & Jerry's are da bomb! Ice cream never tasted so good, move over Baskin Robbins! I've not seen B&J in Jakarta, but you never know those supermarkets in Kemang might carry them, considering it's an expats area.
Posted by Fairy on 6-Mar-2005, 03:26 MYT

#1. Were B&J "that" good? Never tasted one before. You should introduce it to me sometimes.

Well I'll try to browse and look for it here at Jakarta Kali saja ada yg mengimpor Jd curious hehehe
Posted by Adh3 - Website on 6-Mar-2005, 01:54 MYT

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