| Universiti Putra Malaysia

Cultivating the younger generation’s interest in Malay traditional food

By Siti Nur Amanina Nazri

Photo by Noor Azreen Awang

SERDANG, Nov 6 – The Malay Heritage Museum (MWM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has organised the Traditional Food Festival 2019 with an aim to uplift the traditional Malay food and to cultivate the interest of the younger generation in its unique preparation.

The programme aimed to provide awareness to the participants and visitors on the different types of the traditional Malay food in Malaysia, as well as to provide an opportunity for them to gain knowledge on the combination of natural ingredients used in the preparation of the food.

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation), UPM, Prof. Dr. Zulkifli Idrus, hoped that the programme was able to stimulate the traditional food industry and produce human capital with strong national identity and patriotism.

“It is hoped that the awareness of the importance of preserving the Malay heritage recipes which are disappearing due to modernisation is able to be brought back and reintroduced to the present generation”, he said.

Also present at the festival were Dean of the Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication (FBMK), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mohd Azidan Abdul Jabar, and Coordinator of MWM, who is also Programme Director of the Malay Traditional Food Festival 2019, Rahimah Hamdan.

A total of 30 stalls selling different types of traditional Malay food, including kerabu rice, patin fish cooked with tempoyak, and cendol with anau sugar were open during the programme. A few competitions and exhibitions from some agencies, as well as the traditional cooking demonstration were also held.

Student of the Bachelor of Arts in Malay Language and Linguistics, FBMK, UPM, Aliyatul Husna Shamsuddin, said the younger generation nowadays are losing interest in traditional Malay food as they thought that the food preparation is complicated.

She said that the younger generation are more exposed to the modern dishes and have forgotten about the traditional dishes.

“A programme such as this is hoped to have reached its desired intent to the community, especially to the younger generation. Every effort to uplift the traditional Malay food should be supported by people from all levels of the community regardless of race and ethnicity”, she said.

Her friend, Nadiah Jamaludin, said such programme would enable the younger generation to savour and get to know the different types of the traditional Malay food, and at the same time able to preserve the heritage of the traditional food. – UPM

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