11th October 2009, seafood dinner @ Chinese Seafood Restaurant
The Malaysian Tourism Minister said that our Malaysian food were ‘”hijacked” by other countries like Laksa, Bak Ku Teh, Chicken Rice, Chilli Crab and Nasi Lemak. Well, obviously why Singapore had gained the dishes’ fame were due to it’s strong marketing focus on food. I would say that Malaysian and Singapore food are more or less the similar(due to its geographical location).
Singapore is a small country and its attractions are mainly man-made such as museums, themed parks, safari and other colonial remainders. So it does make sense that to attract the tourist to stay even longer and spend more in Singapore, food will be one of the best factor to promote. Whereas in Malaysia we have museums and zoo(not so interesting) but we have more of natural attractions such as plenty of famous islands, mountains and Taman Negara. Malaysia has 13 states and our tourism promotion probably need to spread its interest on all attractions in many states and put less attention to its food. Furthermore, food like Laksa(Nyonya origin), Bak Ku Teh, Chicken Rice, Chilli crab are mainly consumed by the Chinese population. Being a Muslim country, it is somehow awkward for the government to promote on these non-Hahal-origin food(so I am not sure if we will TRY hard to promote in future) but even Ikan Bakar and Nasi Lemak were not strongly promoted.
As a Malaysian, I felt weird that why Chilli Crab is known as ‘Singapore Chili Crab’. If it is not know as Palm Beach Chilli Crab or East Coast Chilli Crab, then probably we won’t notice that much too. Malaysia has different states which every state has its own way of cooking. For example laksa, we have famous Sarawak Laksa, Penang Laksa and Johor Laksa (and even Nyoya Laksa-Best! but you can’t find easily) but we just can’t name all of them as ‘Malaysia Laksa’ which may even confuse the Malaysian!
Currently, Singapore(TV) Channel U has a food program:万里香 Singapore Flavours(below explanation of the program was cut n paste from website)
“U频道的全新综艺节目《万里香》，目的是带大家到国外寻找当地的新加坡美食，借此一探不同国家或地区的美食文化。《万里香》是由谢宛谕、周崇庆、李国煌和陈汉玮主持。
The four lively hosts – Fiona Xie, Dennis Chew, Mark Lee and Chen Hanwei, will play food detectives and take off individually in search of popular dishes that thrive across different continents.”
I’ve watched 2 episode which showcase Fiona Xie in Tokyo and Chen Hanwei in London/India eating Chilli Crab. I felt the whole program is trying very hard to associate other countries’ Chilli Crab to Singapore Chili Crab even the overseas chefs did not trying to imitate Singapore’s cooking. The hosts tried comparing the Chilli Crab tastes in these countries and to Singapore’s, whether it is sweeter or saltier or spicier. My question is, why try so hard to compare and associate?
Just EAT! Makan, makan, jangan malu!
