Yogurt, soya sauce, popiah skin….something in common

To those who do not know what is a ‘popiah’, it is the healthier cousin of the Chinese fried spring roll, a part of Singapore / Malaysia cuisine.

No, I am not focused on the culinary details.

Just recently I got hooked to a Korean drama series which is about the passing down of traditions in a family of Imperial Chefs. [My neighbour bought the disks and I borrowed them.] The next generation ie the sons had to take on the practices that began during the Imperial days of Korea.

Besides, the culinary skills, the integrity and honour or serving up the best of best to the royalties, the drama script also caught my attention on the significance of soy sauce and kim chee ingredients.

It got me thinking of the yogurt story. In both soya sauce and yogurt making, the ‘stock’ in some families trace back hundred of years to their ancestors. It seems for each new batch of yogurt / soya sauce, a ‘spoonful’ of the original batch is added. That way, the soya sauce / yogurt have become a family heirloom.

In the drama, the script indicates that people treated the soya sauce vat or urn as their ancestor’s remains – they talk to / pray to their ancestors via the vat. [presume it is true].

What about the ‘popiah’ then?

The skin of the ‘popiah’ is also like the yogurt / soya sauce in that the families who make the skin are passing down the traditions to the next generation. Just like in the case of soya sauce production [in the drama], the next generation is not interested in the traditional, manual and tedious process. They do not see the returns on effort to follow the traditional method. Mechanisation, automation and short cuts are prevalent in the new generation’s plan to move the business forward.

The way of the expert in creating solutions through honour, integrity, sheer hardwork, and sense of pride is fast fading with time.

Soon, the secrets of making good soya sauce / yogurt / ‘popiah’ skin will also fade, together with the wisdom of the forefathers.

Will such expertise be lost forever? It depends on our mindset.