Local Favourites Must Be `Branded` As Tourism Products

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Ng Yen Yen says local favourities such as laksa, nasi lemak and bak kut teh must be ‘branded‘ as Malaysian tourism products, not ‘patented‘ as reported recently.

Ng, who cooked up a storm last week by saying Malaysians must lay claim to our food, clarified that she did not mean ‘patenting‘ the dishes as that would be impossible.

“I never talked about patenting food,” she said after chairing a media briefing on the Malaysia Tennis Open 2009 at her office today.

She said she had no idea how news reports quoted her as saying the local foods must be patented.

“What I meant was that laksa, nasi lemak, bak kut teh and other local favourites must be branded as Malaysian tourism products,” she said.

“Malaysians need to know about the roots of their food,” she said.

Ng said some 500 dishes have been categorised as heritage food but the Tourism Ministry will not embark on branding all of them.

“We will carry out a study... and see which dishes we can identify as tourism products and use them to promote Malaysia,” she said.

She added that although other countries might have the same dishes, the concentration must be on dishes that originated from Malaysia.

Citing bak kut teh, she said: “It has its roots in Penang dating back to the 1930s. Some might raise concerns that bak kut teh means only pork... but that‘s not the case, as we also have the chicken variety known as chiku teh.”

Last week, Ng said many dishes synonymous with Malaysia‘s identity had been ‘hijacked‘ by other countries and it was important to lay claim to these dishes.

She also said the ministry will, in three months, identify certain key dishes to be declared as Malaysia‘s signature recipes. Tim Leonard

Source: http://www.sun2surf.com

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