Malaysian cuisine, is the cuisine for the small peninsula country located in South-East Asia, surrounded by various different countries, whose influences are shown through Malaysia’s cuisine. It’s cuisine reflects Malaysia’s diversity, because of its position in the center of the Asian world. Although many of the ethnic groups in Malaysia have their own dishes and prepare their dishes differently, many of the dishes in Malaysian Cuisine are derived from multiple ethnic influence.
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| Briyani |
Ethnic Groups/Famous Dishes:
The main ethnic groups in Malaysia who influence its cuisine greatly, are the Indians, Chinese,Indonesians and the indigenous people of the peninsula, followed by its other neighbors. Like in other countries, rice tends to be Malaysia’s staple food followed by noodles then bread. The rice that is eaten in most of the dishes is usually grown in Malaysia, and the fragrant rice usually comes from Thailand. Another rice that is constantly used is Indian basmati rice, which is in a long grained shaped with a unique fragrance and flavor, typically used in the dish called Briyani.
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| Roti Canai |
A famous rice dish named Nasi lemak that is also known as the national dish of Malaysia, which is normally eaten for breakfast because of its popularity. This dish is a good example of how diverse Malaysian cuisine can be, because this dish itself can be different in different regions of the country, depending on which ethnic group dominates that area. Noodles is the other staple food of the country, which is also fairly popular in the other Asian countries. Most of the dishes that are made with noodles are similar all over the continent because of the distinct similarities this part of the world has. Bread is the third staple food, which can be made into various unique dishes, such as Roti Canai, which is very common to be eaten for breakfast.
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| StarFruit |
Meat:
Because of its dominant and official religion, which is Islam, the poultry in this country is handled according to the Halal standards. When it comes to meat, Malaysian cuisine can be tricky because of the limits each ethnic group has as to what they eat. Beef is common in diet of Malaysia, but isn’t eaten by strict Hindus, and some form of Buddhism. Pork is also common and largely consumed by the non-muslim community but is forbidden to be consumed by those who practice Islam. Even though Malaysia is a Islamic country, pork is not prohibited to be produced and consumed by other ethnic groups. Chicken, Mutton, and Seafood are the only forms of poultry which is eaten by all the ethnic groups.
Fruits:
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| Rambutan |
Because of Malaysia’s climate, fruits are grown all year round and is in constant demand. Some of the fruits that are famous around this area are Rambutan, Mangosteen, Longan, and Durian which has a smell largely hated by westerners.
Deserts:
Desserts in Malaysia usually tends to be made out of coconut milk and other sweet stuff. And most of the desserts contains a huge variety of tropical fruits, the most famous being the Durian.
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| Desert |
Even to this day Malaysia’s cuisine is still being changed, with influence coming from the West. Being a multicultural country, the main aspect of why Malaysian Cuisine is unique is that over the years each ethnic group has adapted to each others dishes to suit the taste of their own culture. Such as how non-Indian Malaysians have adapted the Indian Curry and diluted and made less spicy to suit their taste.
Your writing was very informative and contained a lot of good facts. However, there are quite a few things that could improve the overall presentation of the piece. First of all, you shouldn't present your writing as a block of text, especially when it is as long as this. Try separating it into different sections and paragraphs. Also, sectionalize your writing a bit more, perhaps having a section for Location of the cuisine, and Different dishes.
ReplyDeleteThe last correction I would add is to include aesthetics. This is very easy in your case since you are writing about food. Put a few pictures of the best dishes so that the reader knows what to picture. The audience is obviously one which wants to learn about Malaysian cuisine, so what better way to teach them than with pictures of the food.
In a positive way, this writing is very interesting to read. The introduction part is easy and let me feel excited to read more. The writing includes not only Malaysian cuisine but also their culture. I think that as an article of introduction of something, this is really good way to explain and share the information. However, this article looks like has only one paragraph. It looks so complex and disorder to read, so I spent more time to read this article. I felt strenuous when I read it. I think you can rally it and more organized.
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, you provide a lot of example about Malaysian Cuisine. Most of them are general and normal food from Malaysia, so if I were you, I would probably write about some cuisine that I know is most special food in Malaysia. Something might be infamous but cool cuisine that you think is worthy to introduce in your article. Moreover, for this topic, I feel pictures can be credible and informative to explain those cuisine that you are going to introduce. It will help audience get the information and have conception about the main topic.
Your writing is very informative, and I enjoyed reading it because the facts in your writing are presented in a very clear manner that helped me understand everything you were explaining, like when you explained the foods and there textures. Your organization is good but in order to enhance your overall presentation to the reader and make it more attractive I would suggest to split up your writing into sections, with titles for what you are talking about, because that will help the reader to stay engaged and look forward to the next section, because nobody just want to look at a big clump of writing, its disinteresting.
ReplyDeleteAnother addition I would suggest in order to improve your overall presentation would be to add pictures as a supplement for your writing. Your writing has terrific descriptions and facts, so if you add photos in addition to the writing it will make a superb visual and factual reading. Although your article is quite informative on some points you could confuse the reader so, I think you should further describe things your audience would normally know like for example “halal,” which is the Islamic way of cutting meat. If your explained further in detail what halal actually is it would give the audience a better understanding of the overall text because small pieces of information that are not thoroughly explained can leave the reader confused.
Shawn,
ReplyDeleteWhile considering the class discussion about organization of your post, did you intentionally leave the text as one chunk? Was it effective to your audience not to break up the text into various paragraphs? I struggled to read the entire text you posted because of the visual organization.
I think it is important to keep in mind that your reader may know absolutely nothing about Malaysian food. You’re last two sentences touch on how Malaysian food is changing to accommodate more diverse palates; however I feel as if the reader is left hanging. Perhaps this might be expanded upon or used in a different place in your piece? Would it be more effective if it was placed at the beginning or middle of your text?
I think you effectively executed your goal of providing the reader with many layers. You topic was board at the start and then tunneled into more specific layers.
From: Rebecca Slotta
Hi, Shawn.
ReplyDeleteI agree with some of the comments above regarding the organization of this post. Also, considering that culinary experiences affect all our senses, i.e. taste, smell, sight, etc., do you think a piece of visual rhetoric (a photo or two) might strengthen your text? Think about it for your revision.
D. Kopp