Talk:Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine

Food pages

I'm planning on writing a page on food in Malaysia and Singapore, covering the cuisines in the region and typical dishes in detail. Questions that I'd like some feedback on:

1. How should this article in particular be named? There is (AFAIK) no single word that accurately describes it; "Nonya"/"Peranakan" are a specific subtype (Malay-Chinese fusion); while "Malayan", while geographically accurate, is bound to be confused with "Malay".
2. In general, should articles dedicated to food in region X be called eg. "X food", "X cuisine", or something else?

As a reference point, the only existing article along these lines that I could find is Chinese cuisine in the San Francisco Bay Area. I'll be writing overviews of Japanese and Thai food in the near future as well.

In general there probably shouldn't be pages about the food of a region, but rather than information should be imbedded into the Eat section of the destination page for the region. Check out Project:What_is_an_article.

I disagree with this (and so does eg. Lonely Planet, which sells entire guides devoted to food). There is no region for Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, and if I start writing even a brief overview of every significant cuisine in every ASEAN country under South-East Asia#Eat, it'll soon be the longest page in Wikivoyage! (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:45, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Generally the rule of thumb is "do you sleep there?". There have been discussions about creating itinerary articles about types of cooking though, so perhaps if you really want to write about food you should create an Itinerary.

As for the article about chinese food in S.F., I'm wondering why it's still around. -- (WT-en) Mark 02:14, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Ugh. Umm, I think Chinese cuisine in the San Francisco Bay Area, as a fairly controversial article, would be a bad model to follow. I'd question whether a full article on this or that cuisine belongs in a travel guide, too. I'm ambiguous on the matter. Would Italian cuisine, say, cover all the food variations that go under that name -- in Asia, North America, Europe, and of course Italy? Or would it simply concentrate on food in Italy -- which I think is what Italy#Eat is for? What do we need to tell a traveller about Italian cuisine?

My general feeling: I'd hate to see [[Foobian cuisine]] take the place of Foo#Eat, since they are two different topics. But I guess I could see some room for experimentation. I'm reminded of the Project:Cultural Expedition here for some reason... Anyways, excellent questions! --(WT-en) Evan 02:27, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Agree with Evan here. I think Foo#Eat should cover types of eating places, expected costs, etiquette notes and such, while Foobian cuisine should cover the menu of a typical restaurant in Foo (or a Foobian restaurant in Bar). (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:45, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Look at Singapore as an example. Singapore#Eat now tells you about the amenity and price differences between a hawker centre, a coffeeshop and a food court, and these should stay there, while the "Local delicacies" part is what I want to expand on and move into its own page. (WT-en) Jpatokal 02:45, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Well you mentioned an interesting word there-- "local." How do you talk about food with out talking about a place? If you have Malaysian food for example, it's fairly different in say Amsterdam then in Malaysia, so you'll end up with an article by-location anyway, why not just put that in the Eat section for that location? I know LP does Food Guides too, but those are travel-related guides, with itiniraries maps and whatnot, but not the same thing as their travel guides (otherwise they wouldnt be seperate books).

And this is exactly why I want to use separate pages! Look into pretty much any guidebook on (say) Thailand or Japan; they'll almost always have a dedicated set of color pages covering the food on a general level. (WT-en) Jpatokal 22:08, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

If I want Malaysian food I generally look for it where I am, not plan a trip to Amsterdam to try what they have... It's easier to think about a Singaporian cuisine page than, say, a Chinese or Mexican food page-- things that have versions in just about evevery country (dont get me started about "tacos" in Nepal!)... I think there is room for lots of food info (I'm a big foodie myself) without loosing the destination-centric style we have now... just my 2 pieces of tapas. (WT-en) Majnoona 12:19, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

But "cuisine" is a larger concept than "destination". Eg. you can find good bak kut teh restaurants in Singapore's West Coast, central Singapore and Kuala Lumpur (just to mention existing articles); does it make any sense to repeat the (fairly extensive...) description of what this is and how to eat it in every article? If there's a good khao soi joint in Bangkok, do I have to link to some restaurant under Chiang Mai#Eat for the description, and have the link break when the restaurant disappears?

Oh well. I'll plow ahead now and draft up Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine, feel free to comment. (WT-en) Jpatokal 22:08, 30 Jun 2004 (EDT)

Here's another idea. Hope it isn't heretical (I believe Evan prefers Wikivoyage to be self-standing): Put the cuisine stuff in Wikipedia (there's an article already started that sounds just like what you want to do) and then it can be referenced in Wikivoyage whenever and wherever it is appropriate.

Should this become a template?

So I've been thinking about turning this page into a template that could then be read in from Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei articles. Opinions, please. (WT-en) Jpatokal 09:28, 8 Jan 2006 (EST)

Food

Indian food in Malaysia has a lot more to offer than just Fish Head Curry and Roti canai. What about banana leaf rice? Mee goreng..

ETC...

Plunge forward! But note that this is an article on Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine, so no need to list stuff like tandoori chicken, muttar paneer or aloo gobi here. (WT-en) Jpatokal 09:23, 15 Feb 2006 (EST)