In this tropical region blessed with an abundance of sumptuous food, it is hard for visitors not to be charmed by the famed Southeast Asian cuisine. With fresh fruit and vegetables, rich fish and seafood harvests and all manner of herbs and spices, the 10 Asean countries have for centuries pursued similar cooking approaches, honouring the authenticity and freshness of local produce while boasting combinations of flavours not found elsewhere.
The young and talented Malaysian chef Muhammad Nazri bin Redzuawan, aka Chef Riz.
Yet there has been concern about the recognition of Southeast Asian cuisine, with questions raised about why dishes from some nations, like Thailand and Vietnam, are highly celebrated worldwide, while others seem hidden in the humid jungle.
The Malaysia Tourism Authority is trying to redress this imbalance. During the 2012 Asean Heritage Food Trail with Chef Wan, which ended a few weeks back in Kuala Lumpur, visitors witnessed a benevolent endeavour to promote Asean cuisine as a whole.
The 14-day festival is an annual event organised by the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board together with Datuk Redzuawan Ismail, aka Chef Wan, the country's most famous celebrity chef.
Brunei-style chicken korma and biryani rice with sour and spicy tropical salad by Chef Riz.
The event, which began in 2009, is part of Malaysia's three-month-long gastronomic campaign which starts in October with the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival that promotes high-end dining, and ends in December with a local street food fair.
The Asean Heritage Food Trail falls in the middle of the campaign and this year gathered Southeast Asian chefs to showcase myriad dishes using native ingredients. Through a series of cooking demonstrations held mostly at shopping centres, these international kitchen masters delighted the public with their exceptional skills as well as freshly prepared food available for tasting.
''The event aims to push Malaysia as a one-stop gastronomic centre for tourists, allowing them to taste the food of all 10 Asean countries right here in Kuala Lumpur,'' said Pandian Vijayarengam, chief executive officer of the Chef Wan company which organises the event.
''[The tourism board] has already done enough marketing of the resorts and the islands and now we want the tourists to enjoy the food as well. So this is also to support the restaurants in the city that serve Southeast Asian food, particularly Thai, Malay, Vietnamese and Indonesian,'' Vijayarengam explained.
Over the past couple of years, the project has been expanded with a television show featuring the travelling Chef Wan at different locations and resorts in Malaysia. He shows local people how to combine ingredients from other Southeast Asian countries with Malay cooking.
Peranakan spicy laksa noodle soup.
The 2012 affair, which I recently attended, featured a line-up of local and guest chefs including Florence Tan, Daisy Lee, Celine Marbeck and Muhammad Nazri bin Redzuawan (commonly known as Chef Riz) from Malaysia, as well as Sisca Soewitomo from Indonesia, Chumpol Jangprai from Thailand and Jerome Valencia from the Philippines.
The event also presented a number of cooking masters from the Western world who came to showcase their interpretation of Southeast Asian cuisine. They included Australian chef Garth Welsh, French chef Frederic Cerchi and Swedish chef Michael Elfwing.
Among the dishes demonstrated during the two-week event were Malaysia's vegetarian laksa (spicy noodle soup) and Peranakan-style red mushroom curry; Indonesia's rojak (a fresh fruit and vegetable salad); Brunei's chicken korma and biryani; Vietnam's beef salad and the Philippines' pancit luglug (pan-fried noodle dish) and paco (vegetable fern) salad.
Chef Riz, who is also Chef Wan's son, said: ''Food is our culture, our language. So it's important that we embody the flame and the power of the Asean cuisines because that will tell a better story of the region.''
Since it was first launched, the affair has also been a stomping ground for culinary students and amateur cooks.
During the event, there was a series of cooking competitions for the public and college students, while five restaurants were hand-picked by Chef Wan to receive the best restaurant awards. The selection included Busaba Heavenly Thai, a Thai restaurant which has 14 outlets in Kuala Lumpur.
Vietnamese softshell crab salad with fresh banana blossom and pickled vegetables.
''Thai cuisine is very popular here. You really cannot go more than two miles in Kuala Lumpur without seeing a Thai restaurant here. Malaysian people grow up with Thai food, once a week we go to a Thai or a Chinese restaurant,'' noted Vijayarengam.
Chef Riz explained: ''One of the most popular dishes among Malaysian people is tom yum goong, yum mamuang, pla sam rod and tom kha gai. The reason why we love Thai food so much is because it's simple and emphasises the balance of the five flavours with all the heat, the chillies, the lime and the lemongrass, which is quite common to Malay cuisine. And when it comes to eating, Malaysian people still very much prefer something traditional and authentic.'' Vijayarengam added: ''In terms of fine dining and modern gastronomy, it may look like we are just starting to catch up with Singapore. Maybe that's one of our goals: it would be nice for people to come to Kuala Lumpur realising that they can have a Michelin-star dining atmosphere.
''Yet, while we are hoping to draw the industry's big names from the Western world, we also want to preserve our traditions.
''I think it's important that the Europeans take our food and place it in their countries, and not the other way around, because Asean food is more flavourful and prominent than that of the West. In terms of flavours and combinations of spices, we are the masters because we've been doing it for 5,000 years. The only thing Southeast Asian people don't do is marketing our food as efficiently as the Westerners.''
Chef Riz concluded by saying: ''This is the time for people in all Asean countries, including the Burmese, Lao, Cambodians, to come together and get to know our neighbours, their food, their culture. Why do we have to travel far to Europe while we can travel with a much lesser cost? Those countries are beautiful and we can help with the economy.
''This event will strengthen our power as the Asean region and to show the world that our flavours are not second best.''
Australian chef Garth Welsh showcases his interpretation of Vietnamese cuisine.
