KUALA LUMPUR: Netizens are fuming over a report on news portal CNN Travel which listed cendol, one of ‘50 of the world’s best desserts’ as being from Singapore.
Celebrity chef Johari Edrus, 62, known as Chef Jo, said Singapore was always looking for opportunities to share its delicacies to the world and was often successful in their claims on the nation’s signature dishes.
“By claiming it as the country’s food heritage, they could attract tourists and make it as a reference for the future generation.”
He urged local authorities to play their part and stamp the country’s ownership on well-known local food items such as cendol, ketupat palas, nasi lemak, ais batu campur (ABC) dan roti canai to avoid being claimed by other nations.
CNN Travel in its article listed cendol as the world’s 50 best desserts and noted the scrumptious version from Singapore which came with red beans.
Apart from cendol, other popular food items from other parts of the world are alfajores from South America, baklava (Turkey), black forest cake (Germany), gulab jamun (India) and tub tim krob (Thailand).
The origins of cendol has never been confirmed, but reports claimed that it had either came from Malaysia or Indonesia.
iFood portal claimed the word “cendol” appeared in the Malay annals from as early as 1932.
Netizen Nurzailina Nordin, 56, or Chef Lin suggested CNN Travel to perform simple background research on food items for its article.
She said a simple perspective on cendol’s popularity can be gleaned by looking at the number of cendol sellers in Penang, Melaka and Kuala Lumpur as compared to Singapore.
“CNN Travel could have taken the easy way out by looking at the popularity of red beans among the Chinese community and concluded that the food must have come from Singapore,” she said.
Meanwhile, Twitter account holder @mdamiruzri posted: “Don’t mess with Malaysia food. Cendol is from Malaysia not Singapore. Ask Singaporean where they get the gula melaka (palm sugar), the main ingredients of cendol”.