Don’t Start Another War – Not Over Food La!

It was only like yesterday that Indonesians wanted to ‘ganyang’ (crush) Malaysians after accusing the latter of robbing them off their cultural and national heritage.

Malaysia has recently been accused by Indonesia of using the Balinese ‘pendet’ dance to promote itself in a television advertisement. Prior to this, Indonesians claimed that Malaysia’s national anthem was copied from the Indonesian song Terang Bulan.

After the tension between the people of Indonesia and Malaysia over the pendet dance has somewhat eased, another issue emerged. This time, the war is raging on over the internet between Malaysians and Singaporeans over food. Both claim that nasi kandar and pasembur are theirs.

This came about after Malaysian Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen’s statement that Malaysia would lay claim to dishes such as laksa, nasi lemak, bak kut teh, chilli crab and Hainanese chicken rice.

To our Singaporean friends, nasi kandar and pasembur definitely originate from Penang. Both words are pronounced in the Penang Malay dialect (nasi kanda’ and pasembo’). As long as I can remember, both have always been associated with Penang. Have you heard of Singapore nasi kandar or Singapore pasembur?

According to Wikipedia, nasi kandar is a popular northern Malaysian dish, which originates from Penang. The word nasi kandar, came about from a time when nasi (rice) hawkers or vendors would kandar (balance) a pole on the shoulder with two huge containers of rice meals. The name has remained and today the word nasi kandar is seen on most Malaysian mamak restaurants.

The most famous nasi kandar stalls are Kassim Restaurant and Line Clear in Penang and the Pelita chain. Pasembur is also listed in Wikipedia as peculiar to northern peninsular Malaysia and especially associated with Penang where the best pasembur can be found along Gurney Drive.

It is a Malaysian Indian salad consisting of shredded cucumber, turnip, potatoes, beancurd, bean sprouts, prawn fritters, spicy fried crab, fried octopus, etc served with a sweet and spicy nutty sauce. In other parts of Malaysia, the term Rojak Mamak is commonly used.

I agree with Malaysian celebrity chef Redzuawan Ismail, better known as Chef Wan, who felt that food lovers should not get too excited over the “ownership” of food as “we are all from the same roots.”

“Where are our roots? We are satu rumpun (from one creed),” said the Singapore-born chef, adding that everyone should just eat and let live.

Singapore is more aggressive at branding. Go to any Singapore food website, and see how it has branded a host of famous delicacies like Singapore fried bee hoon, Singapore rojak, Singapore murtabak, and even Singapore satay!

Satay, according to Wikipedia, may have originated in Java, Indonesia, but it is also popular in many other Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as the Netherlands, which was influenced through its former colonies.

Satay was supposedly invented by Javanese street vendors, based on satay becoming popular after the influx of Arab immigrants in the early 19th century.

So, Malaysians and Singaporeans better watch out. Don’t claim satay as yours as the “food fight” on the internet may draw Indonesians to join in. Perhaps, Malaysia can start promoting Nasi Kandar and Pasembur as Penang Nasi Kandar or Penang Pasembur.
Or you can sell Malaysia by labelling it as Malaysian Nasi Kandar and Malaysian Pasembur.

In the spirit of Syawal, let’s have an Open House with food galore of Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian food (halal food of course), with Malaysia hosting the event. How about it Dr Ng?








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