Factor That Makes Malay Traditional Food Sustain to

Generation
Abstract
Malay traditional food one of the symbol for Malaysian culture which is tourists come to
Malaysia want to enjoy the authenticity of Malay traditional food. Unfortunately, nowadays
certain of Malay traditional food is disappearing and unknown especially for those who live or
born in city since the recent generations are not exposed much to Malay traditional food. Hence,
the Malay culture is changing to the modernism which is to prepared the traditional food same
as the ancestor is not suitable now. The knowledge transmission, practice and preparation of
Malay traditional food nowadays being still apply, but not in proper method and lesser.
One of the causes this to happen is, lack of interest of the younger generation to learn
and to consume Malay traditional food. Younger generation prefer to have fast food like KFC,
McDonald, Pizza Hut which are western food, over the Malay traditional food (Nur Hafizah
Muhammad, Muhammad Shahrim Ab. Karim, and Humairah Hamzah, 2015).
In fact, modernism happen every day, the Malay traditional food certainly need to be
maintain in term of originality in terms of preparation, ingredients and tool. This paper identifies
the factors that would sustain Malay traditional food for generations to come. This is to present
the Malay ethnic and culture to the world that the practitioners is able to sustain their heritage.
Also, the step Malaysia government takes to revitalization the culture that can be
resulting of fabricating fusion and ignoring the authenticity structure. This is because it is natural
to accept something that is up to date compare to out of date things. Same goes to Malay
traditional food, as well. Even though the structure or the presentation of the Malay traditional
food is changed, the taste should remain the same. To attract people to like the traditional food,
sometimes the chef need to be creative and innovative, otherwise, there is no demand on such
food.
Below is the discussion on the points on how to sustain the Malay traditional food
throughout the generations to come. The sustenance should be in terms of taste, food
preparation and its ingredient. Thus, to achieve such sustenance, the followings points are the
way to sustain those aspects in Malay traditional food.

Review of Literature
Knowledge Transmission
Knowledge transmission is the greatest way to ensure the Malay traditional food
knowledge being pass from generation to generation. This can be seen in Norazmir Md. Nora,
Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Hannita Mohd Salleh, Noriza Isha &
Rosmaliza Muhammad research study (2012) where knowledge transmission through
preparation, ingredients, cooking skill and technique, equipments and also the recipes are
passed down to generations. It also believed one of practical methods to sustain Malay
traditional food in terms of skills and practices is through knowledge transmission (Mohd Shazali
Md. Sharif, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Norazmir Md Nor, Rosmaliza Muhammad, 2013).
By looking at the fact that knowledge transmission require time, the collective reasons
where the younger generations lack of knowledge about traditional food as they have no time
and it is difficult to find raw materials nowadays. Moreover, modernization has taken their time
from learning the processing of traditional food as the younger generation is too busy with their
education (Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Norazmir Md Nor,
Rosmaliza Muhammad, 2015). The demand of getting to the highest level of education is the
priority for the Malays nowadays. In contrast, during our elders days, they are ought to acquire
skills that can be used in life. One of the skills is cooking. During the elders time, they have so
much time to learn about all the Malay dishes and the skills on how to cook them in the best
way with the best equipment exist.
However, since modernization came, the commitment of individuals is stacking up day
by day regardless of the age, starting from kindergarten through primary school, from secondary
school through the higher education institution, from working hours to the elderly age. Thus, the
younger generations considered the making process of learning the knowledge and the process
to make the food is time-consuming which lead them to buy the traditional food rather than
learning the making process from the elders (Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, Norazmir Md Nor, Mohd
Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Rosmaliza Muhammad (2015).
Due to lack of knowledge transmission regarding the malay traditional food, heritage
food will be slowly forgotten by young generations in aspects of cooking techniques and
presentations skills (Siti Radhiah Omar, Shahrim Ab Karim & Siti Nazirah Omar, 2015). As a
result, the true feature of the food or dishes would be confused by the younger generation which
would lead to the worst case, the foreign tourists, as well. Thus, in order to sustain the originality

or authenticity of the Malay traditional food, knowledge transmission regarding the dishes has to
be carried out through workshops or certification.
Festivals
Malay culture is having many festivals that the variety of traditional food being serve
such as Hari Raya which is every state or family have their own signature traditional dish. In the
festivals, there are a lot of Malay traditional food is served like lemang, rendang, ketupat and
others that is hard to find outside festival season (Rosmaliza Muhammad, Mohd Salehuddin
Mohd Zahari, Kahirunnisa Mohamad Abdullah, Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, 2014). In ceremony,
the generation is more exposed with Malay traditional food which is being prepared to celebrate
the festival. Furthermore, what the make exclusive in festival for Malay traditional food is the
memory of the Malay traditional food is more valuable and tradition for generation to generation.
However, nowadays generation has no interest to do the food preparation by themselves
because it is too time-consuming and complicated (Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, Mohd Salehuddin
Mohd Zahari, Norazmir Md Nor, Rosmaliza Muhammad, 2016). The younger generation like
things that is simple and fast which leads to the preference of using instant food for these
ceremonies which would slowly overpower the traditional method, indirectly would fade out the
popularity of traditional food in terms of preparation and quality.

Fig1.The scenario of festival that show the serve variety type of Malay traditional food (source: Mohd
Shazali Md.Sharif, Mohd Salehudin Mohd zahari, Norazmir Md Nor, Rosmaliza Muhammad,2013)

Gotong royong
Malay culture cannot separate within mutual assistance that in Malay known as gotongroyong. To cooking and preparing Malay traditional food is need work force because the
process is complicated. Usually they produce the dish for festival in large quantity and at least
four types of food (Mohd Shazali Md. Sharif, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari, Norazmir Md Nor,
Rosmaliza Muhammad, 2016). The process to cooking and preparing the Malay Traditional food
being doing in gotong-royong to ensure the process is more fast, efficient and can make the
family or society more close.
The Malay traditional food being transmitted by young generation involve with elder in
that process. The Malay traditional food knowledge transfer spontaneously and hands-on by
observation the elder cooking. Also, younger generation receive instruction from elder in
preparing and cooking. Also in gotong-royong young generation learn and handle the ingredient
on site that, when process food in large quantity will be need to manage the large quantity of
raw ingredient. Here the process regular practice that can help young generation more familiar
with ingredient, know about ingredient and the method to handle the ingredient. Person can gain
confident in food knowledge practicing by exposed and giving space to practicing.
But nowadays the culture of gotong-royong in cooking Malay traditional food is being
neglected by generation today. Trends today is business catering growing with offering services
that can produce the dish more convenient, practical in today with everybody not have time to
cook.

Fig.2 Gotong-royong exposed young generation to ingredient and method in traditional food (source:
Mohd Shazali Md.Sharif, Norazmir Md Nor, Mohd Salehuddin Mohd Zahari,2013)

Tourism
In terms of tourism, the food in our country is also become the attraction factor for tourist
to come. This is because of the cultural diversity that existed here. The tourists like to try every
food in Malaysia to satisfy their taste. Every dish has its own characteristics, where the
international tourists have opinion on them respectively. They have the perspective that Malay
food has oily, sweet and spicy taste which have fried smell as compared to Chinese and Indian
(Siti Radhiah Omar, Shahrim Ab Karim & Siti Nazirah Omar, 2015).
As a result, in 2001, in economic aspect, there are over 12.7 million foreign tourists had
visited Malaysia and that contributes about USD6.3 billion which is good for economic growth
(Siti Radhiah Omar, Shahrim Ab Karim & Siti Nazirah Omar, 2015). One of the cause for this
achievement is the food itself.
For tourism purpose, there are events that are setup by the government like Asian Food
Festival 2016. This event expose the tourists and locals about the various food, including
traditional food, from every culture in Malaysia, namely Malay, is one of them. Through this
exposure, the tourists and local would gain the knowledge about the traditional dishes that they
never encountered before. During this event, there are several smaller events, trade exhibitions,
culinary showcases, conferences, seminars, workshops and the International Showcase of
Hospitality which help to inform the visitors about the dishes there.
Another festival that helps introducing Malay traditional food is International Gourmet
Festival Malaysia that organized by Tourism Ministry. The executive chef of Restaurant Bunga
Emas said Malay traditional food should be introduced into the global stage. To keep up and
stay in the race, the culinary art should be up to date so that it can attract the tourist to engage
with the food. Despite of the modern touch, the food preparation method and its taste should be
preserved by using the original ingredients.

Conclusion
The pertinent point to be highlighted on the factors that sustain Malay traditional food to
generation to come are the transmission of knowledge, festivals and tourism. Transmission of
knowledge can be done in many ways such as hands on (practical), oral communication and
observation. To ensure the success of knowledge transmission is depending on the elders
knowledge and the commitment of the younger generation.
Festivals of Malay or Muslims are several. This is when the younger generation would be
introduced to the Malay traditional food. The elders should play their role as the knowledgeable
party in the traditional food to introduce such Malay traditional delicacies to the youngsters. As
for tourism, the opportunity to bring about the Malay traditional food to the eyes of the world
must be used to the fullest. This is because aside of introducing the Malay traditional food, the
nation can generate income as well. Thus, it creates a win-win situation to the heritage of the
country as well as to the economy of the nation.
To conclude this, in order to sustain the Malay traditional food, all parties have to play the role
properly because it is impossible to carry out such task without any help. Traditional food is a
heritage and identity of a race or nation. Thus, it must be preserve and prevent it from extinct
from the world.