Sweet
Sweet, sweet, sweet, I am not talking about all the songs with the words sweet in them, I am talking about sugar, the white crystalline stuff, the brown stuff and the sweet honey and treacle stuff. The stuff that makes you grow fat, the stuff with a lot of calories in them.
In some part of Malaysia, if you are a guest at a home, the host serves you drinks (in most cases) so sweet that you cannot even drink them. Imagine serving you Milo or Ovaltine in a cup with half the cup filled with sweetened condensed milk (nowadays they use palm oil derivatives) and the other half filled with hot water with Milo or Ovaltine stirred in. Imagine how sweet that is. If you have not been served such, try it yourself some time. They do that in some part of Malaysia, if not all over the country. Why do they do it? Because they have sweet tooth and because it is the thing to do. If you do not serve such sweet stuff/mixture then you are not being true to your guest. I suppose its a showoff, that you have milk and sugar in your house, which I suppose in those days if you do not have such stuff then you are considered poor and you do not want to tell the whole world that you cannot afford such stuff, or that you do not want to tell others that you have no money. Just pride I suppose.
Ever tasted 'teh tarik'? Those frothy tea mixture they make at Mamak (I should not use the word Mamak now, it is offending to the Malaysian Indian Muslim I am told) stalls or coffee shops or even at small restaurants, see how sweet they are. Its actually made from the same stuff - a lot of sweetened condensed milk with strained hot tea and mixed over by pouring the mixture at certain heights from one container to another. You need skills to do this or you will have the mixture poured over all over the floor. Its an art to make 'teh tarik', and only in Malaysia as far as I know it is served.
Malaysians are sweet loving people. All the Malay cakes (kuih), well almost all, are sweet. And added with eggs as well, they are a source of health hazards. And drinks, not only those made at home (or 'teh tarik'), but also tinned and bottled drinks are very sweet. I can understand why they put a lot of sugar, 20% I think, its because sugar acts as a preservative (true?) and keep the drink stable. And when gasified with CO2, it makes it more satisfying when drunk. Ain't that clever.
Why is it that Malaysia do not produce (or sell) tinned or bottled drinks that are sugar free, like in some other countries in the world? I know that in Japan (at least when I went there) I could buy sugar free tinned or bottled drinks. I suppose they have a market for them, but is there no such market in Malaysia for such sugar free tinned or bottled drinks?
I also know that cakes, or whatever they are called (halua?), made in the Middle East are sweet as well, so are cakes (or whatever they are called) made by Indians are also sweet, but is that necessary? There must be a reason why such cakes are sweet. I do not know why. I know that these are called sweet, you have them as the last dish after your meals. But what is the origin of that last dish before your coffee or tea? Why the sweetness?
Sweet is something that people like, without doubt. For example there are about 1000 songs that has some relationship with sweet, either the name of the songs, the album they are in or the composer. Just look at the list in the Internet and you will be surprised as to the variety of sweet in songs. Sweet girls, sweet state and even sweet Lord. What more can you ask for?
But is sweet meat sweet?
Back to Malaysia, the effect of everything that people like about sweet is that diabetic is a problem to be tackled. In one state where people like their sweet stuff, the incident of people having diabetic is very high. I have no figure to quote but you have to believe me in that; these have been reported in the local press. And also in Malaysia is general, reported incidents of diabetic is high, from the fact that many hospitals in have their own diabetic advisory units.
Somehow I have observed that it is very difficult to wean people out of taking a lot of sugar. In Kelantan for example, people eat their 'roti canai' ( a sort of Malaysian pancake) with sugar whereas in other states they eat theirs with curry or other gravy. And also in Kelantan, their curry and most of their cooking tastes sweet. They purposely put sugar in their cookings, somehow they all seemed to have sweet tooth. And when they migrate to other States in Malaysia, then you can tell where the cook comes from by tasting their cookings. Kelantan cooks always cook them sweet. Cannot really blame them though, Kelantan women are all very sweet. Why not, many of them have either Thai or Chinese blood in them. How come? They are close to the Thai border and many Chinese also then migrated and settled in Kelantan - its a long story, but I am told that anyone with Nik before their names have Chinese ancestry. Someone may debate me on that.
Of course the less serious effect of eating the sweet stuff is tooth decaying. But this has been reduced by putting fluoride in either drinking water or that most tooth pastes have fluoride in them.
Without doubts, we Malaysians are sweet loving people.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
In some part of Malaysia, if you are a guest at a home, the host serves you drinks (in most cases) so sweet that you cannot even drink them. Imagine serving you Milo or Ovaltine in a cup with half the cup filled with sweetened condensed milk (nowadays they use palm oil derivatives) and the other half filled with hot water with Milo or Ovaltine stirred in. Imagine how sweet that is. If you have not been served such, try it yourself some time. They do that in some part of Malaysia, if not all over the country. Why do they do it? Because they have sweet tooth and because it is the thing to do. If you do not serve such sweet stuff/mixture then you are not being true to your guest. I suppose its a showoff, that you have milk and sugar in your house, which I suppose in those days if you do not have such stuff then you are considered poor and you do not want to tell the whole world that you cannot afford such stuff, or that you do not want to tell others that you have no money. Just pride I suppose.
Ever tasted 'teh tarik'? Those frothy tea mixture they make at Mamak (I should not use the word Mamak now, it is offending to the Malaysian Indian Muslim I am told) stalls or coffee shops or even at small restaurants, see how sweet they are. Its actually made from the same stuff - a lot of sweetened condensed milk with strained hot tea and mixed over by pouring the mixture at certain heights from one container to another. You need skills to do this or you will have the mixture poured over all over the floor. Its an art to make 'teh tarik', and only in Malaysia as far as I know it is served.
Malaysians are sweet loving people. All the Malay cakes (kuih), well almost all, are sweet. And added with eggs as well, they are a source of health hazards. And drinks, not only those made at home (or 'teh tarik'), but also tinned and bottled drinks are very sweet. I can understand why they put a lot of sugar, 20% I think, its because sugar acts as a preservative (true?) and keep the drink stable. And when gasified with CO2, it makes it more satisfying when drunk. Ain't that clever.
Why is it that Malaysia do not produce (or sell) tinned or bottled drinks that are sugar free, like in some other countries in the world? I know that in Japan (at least when I went there) I could buy sugar free tinned or bottled drinks. I suppose they have a market for them, but is there no such market in Malaysia for such sugar free tinned or bottled drinks?
I also know that cakes, or whatever they are called (halua?), made in the Middle East are sweet as well, so are cakes (or whatever they are called) made by Indians are also sweet, but is that necessary? There must be a reason why such cakes are sweet. I do not know why. I know that these are called sweet, you have them as the last dish after your meals. But what is the origin of that last dish before your coffee or tea? Why the sweetness?
Sweet is something that people like, without doubt. For example there are about 1000 songs that has some relationship with sweet, either the name of the songs, the album they are in or the composer. Just look at the list in the Internet and you will be surprised as to the variety of sweet in songs. Sweet girls, sweet state and even sweet Lord. What more can you ask for?
But is sweet meat sweet?
Back to Malaysia, the effect of everything that people like about sweet is that diabetic is a problem to be tackled. In one state where people like their sweet stuff, the incident of people having diabetic is very high. I have no figure to quote but you have to believe me in that; these have been reported in the local press. And also in Malaysia is general, reported incidents of diabetic is high, from the fact that many hospitals in have their own diabetic advisory units.
Somehow I have observed that it is very difficult to wean people out of taking a lot of sugar. In Kelantan for example, people eat their 'roti canai' ( a sort of Malaysian pancake) with sugar whereas in other states they eat theirs with curry or other gravy. And also in Kelantan, their curry and most of their cooking tastes sweet. They purposely put sugar in their cookings, somehow they all seemed to have sweet tooth. And when they migrate to other States in Malaysia, then you can tell where the cook comes from by tasting their cookings. Kelantan cooks always cook them sweet. Cannot really blame them though, Kelantan women are all very sweet. Why not, many of them have either Thai or Chinese blood in them. How come? They are close to the Thai border and many Chinese also then migrated and settled in Kelantan - its a long story, but I am told that anyone with Nik before their names have Chinese ancestry. Someone may debate me on that.
Of course the less serious effect of eating the sweet stuff is tooth decaying. But this has been reduced by putting fluoride in either drinking water or that most tooth pastes have fluoride in them.
Without doubts, we Malaysians are sweet loving people.
To shout back, e-mail: mylias@tm.net.my
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