Tourism Minister staking claim to local dishes

[HTCHONG]

Bak Chor Mee best at Jurong West St 31....

There are a couple of good Bak Chor Mee around but I have not tried the Jurong West St 31. I guess other local dishes like Fried Carrot Cake, Ker Chap, not too sure are these Penang dishes or Singaporean ?

[Sentinel]

There are a couple of good Bak Chor Mee around but I have not tried the Jurong West St 31. I guess other local dishes like Fried Carrot Cake, Ker Chap, not too sure are these Penang dishes or Singaporean ?

Nobody will know for sure where they started first, its so petty to argue over this. This Ng Yam Yam is just too free and got nothing to do. I have not seen a single initiative from her ministry on tourism promotion except appointing that Jean Toadt fella as ambassador spokesman....

[HTCHONG]

Nobody will know for sure where they started first, its so petty to argue over this. This Ng Yam Yam is just too free and got nothing to do. I have not seen a single initiative from her ministry on tourism promotion except appointing that Jean Toadt fella as ambassador spokesman....

I guess she want to tell Indonesia not to sell nasi lemak, chicken rice or laksa. Well, she will not burn flag but most likely will collect royalty from them. Hahaha.

Oops. Will Chang gives me a banana?

[bslee]

This Ng Yam Yam is just too free and got nothing to do. I have not seen a single initiative from her ministry on tourism promotion except appointing that Jean Toadt fella as ambassador spokesman

EXACTLY my personal view too. Nothing better to do...really.
Pssssst...tell Su Kun KPI to down few points here...

[EricK]

I was watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations" when he was in Singapore. The local host brought him to this "Ampang Yong Tow Foo" shop.... guess he thinks Ampang YTF is from Singapore...

[Naka]

Our Malaysia Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen has nothing better to do but start a food fight?

She claims that laksa, nasi lemak, Hainanese chicken rice, chilli crab and bak kut teh are all Malaysian dishes. Note "Hainanese chicken rice .." is that local or she wants to get into trouble with the Hainanese people?

On Wednesday, she accused other countries of “hijacking” local dishes such as laksa and nasi lemak, and said it was high time that Malaysia claimed them as Malaysian. Ai yah, haven't our MPs got better things to do? Next thing you know, what we wear, do or speak are going to be copyrighted!

Agreed, she has nothing better to do.

Surely there are more important issues around.

[USJ27Resident]

wahahhahahaha!!! you guys are doing all the research for that MCA/Tourism minister...

[cml]

I dont think they would promote BKT. there is always an angle to what they do.

[JC17]

I was watching an episode of Anthony Bourdain's show "No Reservations" when he was in Singapore. The local host brought him to this "Ampang Yong Tow Foo" shop.... guess he thinks Ampang YTF is from Singapore...

This an example of what Ng Yen Yen is talking about. I believe she is specifically referring to Singapore where they have hijacked many of our heritage street food like chilli crab, nasi lemak, laksa etc and claimed it as theirs.A nation's food is a very important part of tourism marketing. To me it is also national pride.For example Spain is well known for their tapas and paella, UK for fish and chips.
Singapore has used superior tourism marketing to claim many of our dishes as theirs.I have to agree with the Minister that we have to fight back. Today it maybe Ampang Yong Tow Foo, tomorrow it could be Penang Assam Laksa and Penang Char koay teow.

[cml]

You have the previous tourism minister taking the la tour de langkawi to desaru and doing the longest ikan bakar in malaysia where the fish disappeared before it was cooked, including even the stoves! Now we have the tourism minister staking a claim on chicken rice and bkt. Our neighbours have beaten us to it and we see singapore chicken rice shops even in our own country which basically is hainanese chicken rice!!. On bkt i'm not so sure since it involves something haram.You dont have the japanese staking a claim on sushi which everyone knows is japanese. Sakae sushi is owned by a singaporean and i dont think he pays any royalty to japan so i think it is a hare brained idea to try to register generic food as your own. If you make it nice people will know you. But if you do it lousy it has negative effects. Like kajang satay. Even the satay in kajang does not taste good but if someone can make good satay and call it kajang satay why not?

[jan tomaswaki]

What about Mee yoke from penang. Half of the cabinet have no creative ideas how to make Malaysia progress.Just look at Blue Station (Radio 4) it use to have Alan Zachariah,Constance Haslam,Janet Ambrose,Rizal Abdullah,Joey,why no replacement or carry on their style of broadcasting.Twenty years ago,David Lim of Country Style at 8.30pm have the largest following on R 4.

[Sentinel]

What about Mee yoke from penang. Half of the cabinet have no creative ideas how to make Malaysia progress.Just look at Blue Station (Radio 4) it use to have Alan Zachariah,Constance Haslam,Janet Ambrose,Rizal Abdullah,Joey,why no replacement or carry on their style of broadcasting.Twenty years ago,David Lim of Country Style at 8.30pm have the largest following on R 4.

You forgot to mention Patrick "Niamah!" Teoh aka The Voice! aka Blue Skies & Everything Nice....

[HTCHONG]

This an example of what Ng Yen Yen is talking about. I believe she is specifically referring to Singapore where they have hijacked many of our heritage street food like chilli crab, nasi lemak, laksa etc and claimed it as theirs.A nation's food is a very important part of tourism marketing. To me it is also national pride.For example Spain is well known for their tapas and paella, UK for fish and chips.
Singapore has used superior tourism marketing to claim many of our dishes as theirs.I have to agree with the Minister that we have to fight back. Today it maybe Ampang Yong Tow Foo, tomorrow it could be Penang Assam Laksa and Penang Char koay teow.

Singapore Tourism Board (STB) has been promoting dishes like Satay, Hainanese Chicken Rice, Laksa and Nyonya foods for decades. It is not the intention of STB to claim these dishes are uniquely to Singapore. It is a part of promotion to create awareness to the tourists that they may try these dishes if visiting Singapore. Probably, STB has been working very hard which gives impression to others that these are Singaporean dishes.

Frankly speaking, Malaysia Ministry of Tourism can do the same and I can assure you, nobody will stop them from doing it. Furthermore, Singapore & Malaysia were the same country before 1965. Therefore, to have common dishes is not unusual. Similarly, our accent when converse in English is the same; we can’t tell whether you are Malaysian Chinese or Singaporean Chinese. We have a lot in common.

When people migrate from one place to another place, they bring along the recipe. Today, we have many dishes that are similar with our ancestral birth place, such as, Teo Chew porridge, Hokkien lo bak and etc. There is no ending if we start to claim the right of these dishes. It was rightly mentioned by one of the interviewees, we can only associate food with region, race or country.

By the way, if we go by the argument of NYY, probably we got to pay royalty to Italy when we patron at Pizza Hut. Not to forget about the finger licking good fried chicken which could be from Kentucky, USA.

Frankly, I want to see how NYY proceed from here and not to talk for fun only.

[kuma]

Now that the Penang State Govt is staking claim to the word 'Penang'....how about all the stalls in the coffee shops?....'Penang Char Keow Teow'? Penang Mee Yok?'

Soon Ipoh might follow....all the 'Ipoh Hor Fan' pay royality?

Then the 'Seremban Siew Pau'.....not forgeting the 'Sarawak Laksa'

[Sentinel]

Now that the Penang State Govt is staking claim to the word 'Penang'....how about all the stalls in the coffee shops?....'Penang Char Keow Teow'? Penang Mee Yok?'

Soon Ipoh might follow....all the 'Ipoh Hor Fan' pay royality?

Then the 'Seremban Siew Pau'.....not forgeting the 'Sarawak Laksa'

The Penang state government isn't staking a claim on the name Penang per se... looks like you believe the spin by mainstream media too.

What the CM Lim Guan Eng said was should anyone wants to organize something called Penang, like The Penang Dragon Boat Festival, or The Penang Lantern Festival, do let them know because such a title reflects on the state government and sometimes it is misconstrued as organised by the state government. It is also wrong to mispresent and use such name for fund raising....

Hmmm... don't you think its time to stop buying mainstream papers?