Western Food
You may be asking what the hell is Western food and is this some sort of reverse racism happening here. Progressive western cities make it a point to try their best to differentiate between the different Asian cuisines (except for Lucas Group’s so-called best Thai food in Melbourne; Chin Chin). Shouldn’t Malaysians try and do the same?
Perhaps, but there is a bit of background behind what we call western food over here.
It starts off during the colonial days of the British where a lot of Chinese migrants worked as cooks for the British in their fancy clubs, mansions and offices. These were typically migrants of Hainanese descent who were the newer arrivals to Malaya at that time. The earlier waves of Chinese immigrants had already established themselves either for working for the British (mainly Nyonya/Peranakans – ie my grandfather who served the Queen), involved in trading and being merchants or in mining and construction.
This meant the earlier waves of migrants had taken up most of the lucrative jobs around and the Hainanese were left to take up jobs in the service industry such as being servants and being in the food industry such as chefs. Remember this was back in the day where the different groups of Chinese people were more fractured than what it is today. Mandarin was not the lingua franca but instead the local dialects of Hokkien, Cantonese, Teow Chew and Hainanese ruled the day. Thus, there was certainly discrimination towards these later Hainanese migrants. It was not easy for them to compete for more lucrative jobs taken up by the existing Chinese diaspora due to this discrimination and also the difference of language/dialect spoken.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as these Hainanese chefs gave birth to one of the best styles of cooking and some of Malaysia’s most famous dishes to date like the Hainanese Chicken Rice. Having to cater to the tastes buds of their British employers or masters, they took their very own dishes and adapted it to the liking of their masters.
The most famous “Western Food” dish you will come across is the Hainanese Chicken Chop. It is a large fried chicken chop served with potato wedges and thick brown gravy, made from a concoction of sauces and vegetables like tomatoes, peas, carrots and onions. Another “western” creation is the Hainanese Chicken Pot Pie. This was their take on a meat pie but they used Asian ingredients such as soy sauce, chinese five spice, cinnamon sticks and other local spices.
These days “Western Food” has evolved and you will see things like Fish and Chips, Lamb Chop and so on. Even with the evolution, the main staple that you will always find in a Western Food store will be Chicken Chop and it is favourited by all Malaysians (and Singaporeans).
While Western Food in Malaysia started out as a by-product of British colonialism, it is really due to the ingenuity and willingness of these early Hainanese chefs to adapt to their situation in order to survive to come up with their own cuisine.
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