Beyond the Plate

01
Beyond the Plate
Food Images, Memory, and Community Cartographies in Malaysia
Kenneth Wong See Huat (Malaysia)
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"This is my grandmother's kitchen."
Before demolition. Before mapping. Before policy.
There was cooking.
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Why Food?
Food is narrative infrastructure.
It carries:
Memory
Care labour
Border histories
Economic survival
Collective authorship
04
Two Case Studies
1. Siamese Reversed (Penang)
2. Jenjarom New Village (Selangor)
Food as: Mourning archive → Preventive cartography
05CASE STUDY 1
The Last Siamese House
Kampung Siam, Penang
5th generation lineage
Demolished despite heritage appeals
The house is gone. The kitchen remains in memory.
06
Food as Care Economy
Festive preparation
Bean sprouts cleaned and roots removed
Cooking Siam laksa together
Family and friends lend a hand
Ancestor altar and Chinese New Year reunion
Ritual keeper: prayers, feast, continuity
Loy Krathong, wedding, and birthday celebration etc
Communal joy and remembrance
Heritage as practice, not monument.
07
Siam (Yellow) Laksa
Mint · pineapple · onion · chilli · laksa flower
Penang–Kedah–Greater Siam entanglements
Food preserves erased border histories.
Laksa as geopolitical memory.
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Ritual Infrastructure
1
Community food for monks
Temple–home continuum
2
Shift observed:
Communal contribution ( unpaid women-led labour)→ Paid catering
Care economy → Commodification
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Siamese Reversed
Cooking as mourning
Communal meals as remembrance
Food as edible memorial
Counter-mapping after demolition
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From Mourning to Mapping
If Siamese Reversed mourned loss, Jenjarom asks:
How do we prevent erasure before it happens?
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CASE STUDY 2
Jenjarom Context
Agricultural New Village
Old Four Treasures: Tea · chives · coffee · ginger
Shift toward food micro-economies.
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New Four Treasures
Handmade Bao
Egg Cake
Gong Tang
You Tiao
Not snacks. Survival nodes.
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Handmade Bao
44 years, three generations: Uncle started on bicycle with umbrella (1970s), 4th uncle continued, now Hong Long Yang (3rd generation).
Handmade vs. mechanization: Producing 1000 bao daily, 1000+ on weekends. Uses fresh ingredients daily and natural fermentation, no chemical yeast.
Innovation preserving tradition: Offers 11 varieties including the signature kung fu big bao while keeping uncle's secret recipe.
Bao shop = micro social archive.
The shop archives community memory through daily practice: 44 years of embodied knowledge, morning social rituals, and resistance to erasure through continued making.
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Egg Cake & Gong Tang
Inheriting mother's flavor. Handmade nostalgia, 80s–90s memory.
Heritage designed to travel. Portable ritual, diasporic circulation.
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You Tiao
Unique Flavor & Daily Production
Garlic-scented signature recipe by Yang Caili. Opens 3 PM, sells 1000+ pieces daily, 2000+ on weekends.
Three-Generation Family Tradition
Mother started at 5 sen, father continued, now Yang Caili continues the tradition (operating 30+ years). Kopitiam staple across generations.
Sustained by Family Labor
Family of six works together: preparing, making, frying, serving. Consumed across ethnic lines.
Handmade heritage, garlic-scented memory. Three generations of family labor.
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Intergenerational Transmission
Mother guiding child
Elder teaching middle-aged
Food as embodied curriculum
Heritage without museum labels.
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Digital Food Mapping
Proposed: QR codes
Oral histories
Youth interviews
Walking routes
Mapping food = mapping resilience.
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Food as Intercultural Dialogue
Zongzi "meets" Ketupat
Chinese–Malay culinary exchange
Village-level diplomacy
Food as negotiated coexistence.
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Comparative Insight
Siamese Reversed
Food as mourning archive
Jenjarom
Food as preventive archive
Food images operate as:
Memory carriers
Spatial markers
Economic indicators
Community authorship
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Heritage is not only what we preserve. It is what we continue to cook.
If food built these communities, mapping food may help them endure.
Images courtesy of:
Phrom Last Siamese House Penang
Jenjarom Gin-a / community contributors
Sin Chew Daily – Metropolis Edition
With gratitude to the families and cooks.