Taste of freedom: how coronavirus is changing Asia’s relationship to food
- Culinary adventures are serving as an escape for cooped-up cooks across the region
- Edible parcels spread the love in Malaysia; a brave new world beckons hawkers in Singapore; and a Thai air hostess has a new line in sun-dried pork
But that does not mean they have given up on their culinary obsessions.
In fact, going by the overnight rise in stress-baking and cooking, food may be occupying more than its usual share of head space among Malaysians, Singaporeans and Thais, as culinary adventures serve as an escape from weeks of being cooped up at home.
Beyond that, initiatives to help food vendors hit by the economic shutdowns show how the crisis may be reshaping – in a positive way – our relationships to food and the people involved in food production.
His “Hawkers United – Dabao 2020” page has amassed nearly 230,000 followers since he set it up on April 3, hours after Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced a partial lockdown of the country to suppress Covid-19 infections.
