AUGUST 4 — I find it amusing when I read about the fuss that MCA is creating over Penang Chief Minister, Lim Guan Eng’s proposal to ban foreign workers from working as cooks in Penang.
Umno’s Nazri Abdul Aziz as Tourism Minister apparently has his reasons to support Lim’s proposal but one wonders why Perkasa is also into the debate when the issue has nothing to do with Islam or the Malays. As usual, its president has his own spin of things: “I support what is done by the chief minister and Nazri. This does not mean that we are supporting DAP, but that we support good policies.”
The on-going debate clearly shows that MCA’s latest batch of politicians are still immature when they are involved in public debates. Far from everyone’s expectations, they raise objections without taking into consideration what is good or bad policy.
When there is nothing to harp upon, even talks about food will do for the long-gone Chinese-based party.
If even someone like Ibrahim Ali can call Lim’s policy a good policy, how come MCA has not been able to understand what the people really want when it talking about authentic Penang dishes?
Depends on who you listen to
Apparently, while Nazri is listening to the feedback from both local and international tourists, MCA is only having its ears opened to the ‘taukehs’ who have since hired foreigners to do the cooking.
These stall owners complain that they cannot find people who are willing to work, but the truth is, while they are raking in higher profits from the rise in prices of hawker food, they are unwilling to pay higher wages to attract jobless young people to work in the restaurant business.
If MCA leaders are willing to walk and talk to the people, what most Malaysians are now saying is that there are too many foreigners working in the restaurants. We do not mind them serving the food as waiters or waitresses, but some of them are now employed as cooks.
Even as a local, I prefer to eat food that is cooked by a local cook who understands the local tastes. Cooking is very subjective. It also depends on the ingredients, which is why some restaurants in the Klang Valley prefer to order ingredients in bulk every week from the same supplier in Penang, instead of getting them locally.
Cooking is not what MCA assumes to be a simple standard formula, where A + B + C = D. That is franchise food, where the taste is the same and only busy people would eat fast food every day and still enjoy the taste.
In the case of famous Penang or Ipoh hawker food, the cook needs to know how a good bowl of Penang curry mee or Ipoh Hor Fun should taste like. Very rarely, you will find a foreign cook who can cook so well like the local. Even if he is extremely good at it, soon, he will be taking home the skills where he will be serving his ‘localised’ Penang curry mee in his home country.
Perhaps our MCA friends should be invited to eat hawker food at the Newton Food Center in Singapore, and compare that to our Penang hawker stalls, before they continue on with their boring debates.
I can bet most of us have heard friends saying, “Chinese food in Singapore is unpalatable!” If that is true, there must be a reason why food and tastes can be very subjective to the taste buds. Before MCA proposes cooking classes, they should sign up for Taste Buds 101 course. Perhaps, even Nazri would probably be able to teach the course!
There are some very good reasons why in order to taste the best Nasi Beryani, you have to visit an Indian restaurant, especially if the cook is from Hyderabad. Likewise, you do not expect to taste the best Klang Bah Kut Teh from an Indian restaurant.
I find it hard to even imagine how one can expect to have the best Penang curry mee served by a foreigner.
Take pride
I am told by a restaurant proprietor who serves good Penang curry mee in the Klang Valley that he has to prepare the ingredients himself every morning. Even his wife is unable to reproduce the same result if she were to do it herself.
It is the pride of being able to serve Penang cuisines that has kept this restaurant afloat for the past 15 years that I have been savouring its Penang curry mee, from the time it was only a little stall to what it is today — a full-fledged restaurant!
It is no wonder why a French masterchef once told me that you can never beat a French chef when it comes to cooking a good French cuisine. My first reaction was: “This guy is racist!”
But, as he explains further, it makes a lot of sense. Besides the cooking skills, the French chef has the advantage of a rich heritage and knowledge of “how Grandma used to prepare the dish for the whole family.”
The French masterchef is right. There is no way you can teach foreigners something that has been inherited from one generation to another.
Foreigners should instead add their varieties into the food business to complement the local cuisines, while our Penang hawkers should take pride in their famous local cuisines. There is nothing like Penang hawker food, cooked by a local Penangite!
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.
