Malay Food is there such a thing?
I post this question to my students and one of them has produced this. At a glance the answer to it can be a simple yes or no of a sort. If one chooses to think that there is nothing wrong with it, than there may not be much discussion. The subject can be considered close. With this disturbing situation, the premise is that, there must be something wrong as such a detail study ought to be conducted.
What do the Malays eat? Rice, dried fish, coconut based curry ( masak lemak ), ulam – sambal, prawn paste and so forth. They may develop a liking for the much fancied “Jalan – Jalan Cari Makan”, of TV 3 Show. Those with busy schedule, tight budget and trendy may settle for Mac Donald, KFC and what have you menus. Interestingly a number of food outlets, restaurants and hotels are introducing international menus on their lists. It was once a field day for Thai food; tomyam everywhere, then the dimsum and related Chinese dishes and next the Western food. Currently, promotion of Middle East food is in town, catering for the influx of the Arabian tourists and adventurous locals.
In general going by the demand and supply theory, the only Malay outlets, that can boast its existence is Restaurant Saloma. Malay eating places like Satay Ria , Restaurant Utara (the late.. I think) and the likes are not operational these days anymore. Nelayan is another player in featuring Malay food, has now diversified its menu by not restricting to a complete Malay food. If this is by any means to be taken as an indicator it can be misconstrued that the Malay food is not gaining any popular within the Malaysian environment. However, the development of food habit may not have left the Malay food in the lurch for extinction. Conversely it is enriched in its development with assimilation of other foods, perhaps it is undergoing a globalization process too. If we can relate to the development of the Malay language which has been enriched by a number of other international languages, English being the most prominent. Therefore, we may settle to think that the Malay food for whatever reasons is now undergoing an enrichment process and many of the Malay kitchens are run by the non - Malays. Ironically, there is nothing wrong with the food perhaps if any it is the Malay people.
