Locals often visit food courts to get the best of hawker fare. — Filepic
I HAPPENED to visit a mall in the Klang Valley not long ago, touted as one of the busiest in Malaysia.
Its food court was filled with hawker stalls serving Malaysian food.
However, the closest anyone would get to such “authenticity” would probably be just its name – Malaysian hawker food - and nothing more.
From the person preparing the food to the person serving the dish, everyone was a foreign worker.
To me, the stalls represent Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh and delicacies from other nations rather than Malaysia.
Although I am aware and understand the reason for our dependence on foreign workers, the preparation of Malaysian food by a Malaysian compared to a foreigner is completely different.
Malaysian food served there had lost its essence, taste and value.
The chicken rice was tasteless, mee hoon soup and kuey teow soup simply awful, the Penang nasi kandar was bland with no side dishes other than cabbage!
All these dishes were prepared by foreign cooks.
The Malaysian owners and proprietors were nowhere in sight.
It is baffling how such “profit-orientated” operators were selected to manage stalls in the heart of the capital city.
The food quality, taste, aroma and unique Malaysian flavour are the reasons why we are known for our food and beverages, especially teh tarik.
At the rate we are going, we will lose even this unique selling point (USP) that our country could once boast of.
We should no longer complain that Singapore is taking over or doing better with food that Malaysia was once known for, because the complaint is soon to be a reality.
The reason for this situation is simple; hawkers in Malaysia, excluding Penang, are allowing and engaging foreign workers to prepare food.
Dishes like fried kuey teow, fried noodles, curry mee, curry laksa, hokkien mee, asam laksa, mee rebus and mamak mee are our top sellers.
If these dishes are prepared by foreigners, they likely may not be up to the mark.
You can visit food courts anywhere in Malaysia other than Penang and you will face the same predicament.
Foreign workers are left to prepare the food and often ignore authenticity and originality.
I would like to propose we follow the Penang government’s move to ban foreigners from being main cooks of local hawker fare effective Jan 1, 2016 as this proposal was well-received by a majority of hawkers and related associations.
It also restored the sanctity of Penang hawker food.
I would urge that all local governments follow this practice, to help restore the standard and taste of Malaysian food.
Also, hawkers should not be issued licences to operate more than one stall as they may be overstretching themselves in meeting customers’ needs.
Local authorities should seriously look into this issue.
Malaysia is struggling to earn extra income through tourism and here we are facing a quality issue with dishes that normally sell like “hotcakes”.
Local authority health inspectors must make regular checks to ensure foreigners are not preparing the food.
They can only serve or provide other services such as washing and cleaning.
Every Malaysian who patronises these hawkers must provide feedback and ensure that we collectively agree to improve the taste, aroma and quality of the food, thus maintaining our USP.
Instead of complaining that other countries are doing well or taking away our cuisines, let’s keep our standards and quality as high as we possibly can by ensuring it is a Malaysian standing at the stove cooking meals, and not foreigners
Our hawkers are our biggest strength in establishing our name in the food sector.
Let’s not take things easy or be nonchalant about our actions, deeds and enforcement.
RAVINDRAN RAMAN KUTTY
Kuala Lumpur
Locals often visit food courts to get the best of hawker fare. — Filepic
Mee rebus is a local favourite.
