Under review: Penang move to ban foreigners cooking 13 dishes

 

The state government has banned foreigners from cooking local dishes at city council-owned hawker centres since 2016.

GEORGE TOWN: 

A proposal to ban foreigners from cooking selected local delicacies at privately-owned hawker stalls, food courts and coffee shops is still under review, Penang Island mayor A Rajendran said today.

He said the city council would need to carry out consultations with those affected. 

We have not decided whether to go ahead or not,

 he said.

Since 2016, the state government has banned foreign cooks from all council-owned hawker centres and food courts.

Earlier this month, it was reported that the city council would ban foreigners from cooking 13 local dishes at all hawker stalls, coffee shops and food courts from early next year.

The 13 types of food are nasi lemak, asam laksa, pasembor, mee sotong, char koay teow, koay teow soup, Hokkien mee, curry mee, wan tan mee, loh bak, chee cheong fun, char koay kak, and oh chien.

City councillor Tan Soo Siang was quoted by Malay Mail as saying that Penangites had complained about the quality of local food prepared at hawker stalls.

However, the Penang Hawkers Association has criticised the proposal saying it was unfair and should be applied to other eateries, such as restaurants, cafes and mamak stalls.

Executive councillor Jason Hng said the state government had no plans to extend the ban to cafes and restaurants. - FMT