SPURRED by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s suggestion that only Malaysians, rather than foreign workers, should be allowed to cook at Penang’s hawker stalls, our columnist Andrew Sia asked if hawker food would only taste “authentic” if it were cooked by locals in last week’s instalment of Teh Tarik titled “Immigrant Food”. Here are some of the responses he received:
BANNING is not the answer to anything. If Penang is serious in preserving the authentic taste of its local food, there are other ways. I expect our national leaders to be more creative than taking discriminatory shortcuts. I dont understand this talk about foreign helpers not being able to cook as well. There are standard recipes and cooking methods that can be controlled. Malaysians must learn to not blame foreigners for everything – from crime to disease to food tastes – especially when many of our forefathers were foreigners in this land.
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