Off Culture, Culinary and Too Much Love

One of the biggest Malaysian attractions that lure the basic of tourists to come to our land is our food. For Malaysians food is not just a mean of surviving on this earth, it is also another culture on its own. Every travel show you watch all have their own permanent food segment, where they show local cuisines. In the case of most travel shows covering Malaysia their segment on our local cuisines has become the main segment of the entire show. This is how big the culinary culture have become, heck it could be our biggest non-manufactured export (not statistically proven). Although everything seems to be manufactured now, but that's a different story altogether.

We have it all, cuisines from all over the world. Apart from our own Malay, Chinese and Indian cuisine we also have those from abroad such as Italian, French, British, and Swedish and so on. So how does that differ from the other countries especially those so called big nations of the USA and France for example? Well there are probably a lot of factors but I want to point out those on the top of my head at the moment.

Our much publicized diverse culture acts as my first point. Growing up with diverse group of friends will open up experiences that no other country has. Since little we have already been opened up to many types of different food. Breakfast of roti canai, lunch of nasi goreng kampung and a dim sum dinner are just one of the millions, if not billions of variations of our daily intake. We are culturally diverse while other countries are diverse culturally.

The love of food. It's not rocket science that we, Malaysians, love our food. It's in our blood. Our love for food is brought down from generations to generations. With the judgmental eyes of the world ripping people by genre, specifications and so on the common denominator among all of us here in Malaysia is food. We talk about food all the time and at times passionately. Is it any wonder that with all the history we consume as education the thing that showed the heartache and suffering of the Japanese occupancy is that Malaysians were forced only to eat yam. It would be such suffering for Malaysians now if we were forced to only eat yams even though the British had eaten only bland food, food without taste, until their discovery and later occupation of India decades before. This goes to show how in love with food we are. Everybody’s a food critic here.

Looking at the vast array of culinary choices we have at our disposal it is hard to find those who are hungry unwillingly. With many fast food chains coming into the country, it has boosted our need for fast food. This is very alarming considering the very dangerous side effects it has on the body. The number of obesity in the country is increasing. As Steve Elbert once said, “We think fast food is equivalent to pornography, nutritionally speaking.” Fast food chains are not the only blame. We eat out a number of times daily without having any thoughts of the impact it might have on our health. We could be well on our way to the same "heights" of countries such as Great Britain and USA. Obesity in Malaysia has tripled in 10 years. We are getting more "horizontally challenged" like those big countries but in a bit healthier way. A BIT.