Food is a basic human need to carry out various activities and continue living. Food can also reflect the culture and identity of the local community. Malaysia, which consists of a multi-racial society and different cultural backgrounds, provides a variety of delicious foods and dishes that have been inherited for a long time. Heritage food has long been the identity of a community because of its uniqueness. Heritage food is liked not only for its taste, texture but also its aroma that arouses the appetite. Recipes and preparation of heritage food, including heavy meals, desserts, cakes and side dishes, are usually passed down from one generation to the next orally without any systematic records and documentation. Knowledge regarding the uniqueness, philosophy, nutrition or preparation of heritage food itself is increasingly lost to time when no one inherits and practices it. Therefore, JWN is actively implementing programs to preserve, document and research various aspects of heritage food so that it can be used as a reference by various levels of society.
As of 2018, a total of 213 Malaysian heritage foods have been designated as National Heritage. Among the foods that have been designated as National Heritage are:
1. Manok Pansoh
Manok Pansoh is a special food for the Iban and Bidayuh community during the festive season. Manok Pansoh or village chicken is cooked in bamboo. The bamboo used to cook the chicken gives the food a unique flavor.
Manok Pansoh is very famous and suitable for breakfast, lunch, dinner or anytime. It will be more delicious if eaten with glutinous rice or lemang. It is a food that must be tried when visiting Sarawak.
2. Pulut Kukus Dalam Periuk Kera
Steamed Pulut Periuk Kera is one of the Orang Asli Semelai foods in Malaysia. This food is very unique because the glutinous rice is put in a kera pot and then steamed before eating. In the past, the Orang Asli community used glutinous rice, padi huma, to steam the glutinous rice in the kera pot. The use of kera pot which is a wild plant shows the close relationship between the Orang Asli community and nature.
2. Opok - Opok
Opok-opok is a type of food like crackers that are very crispy. It is a traditional food and is only found on the East Coast, in the state of Kelantan. The process of making it is trivial and requires high expertise during the baking process. Baking opok-opok does not require oil but is only baked on coals.
3. Kuih Cincin
Kuih cincin is a traditional cake from the people of Sabah. This cake is left to dry before being fried in hot oil. Kuih cincin is made from sugar, nipah sugar/apong sugar, rice flour, cooking oil, water and gula Melaka. It is very important to ensure that the cake is dry enough to prevent the oil from splashing out when frying. This cake has a sweet and slightly salty taste.
4. Kari Devil (Kari Ayam Debal)
Devil's Curry or also known as Thick Chicken Curry is a popular food among the Portuguese community living in Melaka. Devil's Curry is a type of chicken dish cooked using ingredients such as chili sauce, galangal, vinegar and nutmeg (hard fruit). In addition, the cooking process of this curry does not use thick coconut milk, but the texture is still thick because it has hard fruit as a thickening agent.