Authenticity is key when it comes to heritage recipes, and that is especially true when referring to gastronomic hotspots such as Penang where food plays a major part in driving tourism to the state.
This has been an especially glaring point of contention in the past several years for the island’s City Council, with an uptick of numbers in migrant workers now helming stovetops at some of the city’s most prominent hawker hotspots in place of native Penangites.
Keeping Penang food authentic: Foreign cooks may be banned from preparing 13 dishes
Locals now claim that this practice of outsourcing one of Penang’s most renowned culinary treasures for the sake of convenience and improving bottom-line margins has directly resulted in a notable compromise in the quality of food served, explains MBPP councillor Tan Soo Siang. This is why in the next year, the MBPP will be enforcing a state-wide ban on foreign cooks in all hawker stalls, food courts and coffee shops.
At this stage, the proposed bill is in its final stages of approval. “It is about 90 per cent complete so once it’s approved, it will be added to the city council by-laws to be enforceable,” said Tan, with the city council targeting an early 2025 enforcement date.
Previously, the MBPP had already instituted a similar ban for all food courts and hawker centres operating under its jurisdiction in 2016. As part of this ban, foreign cooks were forbidden from preparing 13 dishes, which included:
- Nasi lemak
- Asam laksa
- Pasembor
- Mee sotong
- Char koay teow
- Koay teow soup
- Hokkien mee
- Curry mee
- Wan tan mee
- Loh bak
- Chee Cheng fun
- Char koay kak
- Oh chien
“Ratepayers have questioned why we were not taking action so we decided to extend this ban to privately owned hawker centres, food courts and coffee shops,” the councillor added. With that said, cafes, restaurants, hotels and franchises offering the same types of hawker food on their menus will not fall under the purview of this new ban and are exempt.
Feature and hero image credit: Khanh Nguyen/Pexels
Photos used are for illustration purposes only.
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Written by
Benjamin Wong
Senior Editor, Fashion and Dining
Armed with an Advertising major from Lancaster University, Benjamin is a senior editor who has spent his time oscillating between the social media and digital media landscape since 2018. With a keen interest in haute fashion and gastronomy, he has written for publications such as ERROR Digital, WORLD OF BUZZ, and KL Foodie. Beyond the keyboard, you can find him arms-deep in a thrift pile.
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