Wai Sek Kai, Pudu, Kuala Lumpur | Food&Culture

Food & Culture.

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PUDU

TAN CHIN WERNG 0324408

P R O J E C T 0 2

INTERPRETATION & ANALYSIS

FOREWORDS .

The intent of this assignment is to translate the previous research topic into a visual presentation.

My research topic, ' How does Food Consumption and its Environment Affects the Social Sustainability of Wai Sek Kai, Pudu'.

Based on the title, I'll explore the social life of street food in Wai Sek Kai, Pudu, analyzing people’s behaviors and relationships in the street food environment.

This booklet will focus on the quality of space affects the human consumption and behaviors.

This booklet will allows the readers to know what kind of social interactions are taking place in Pudu Wai Sek Kai, between whom and where.

C O N T E N T S .

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 01 THE SITE CHAPTER 02 QUALITY OF SPACE CHAPTER 03 INTERVIEW CONCLUSION

INTRODUCTION TO WAI SEK KAI

The Pudu Wai Sek Gai, has stood at the intersection of Jalan Pudu and Jalan Sayur for more than five decades which is hidden between shop lots (The Star, 2017), is still attracting many people flock over here.

The place is also widely known as Wai Sek Kai or Glutton Street, because many delicious and traditional hawker foods can be found here at affordable prices.

Visit the vibrant food street after 6pm, because most of the hawker stalls are only open at night.

WHY PEOPLE LOVES STREET FOOD

Food is one of the three essentials for maintenance of life.

Hence, people engaged in their day to day hectic schedules look for outsourcing of food available at various cafes, restaurants, food delivered through various mobile applications and people who provide home cooked food.

In this list of available options,street food has maximum importance. This is due to the mouth-watering taste of the food- an outcome of combination of various spices and a lot of ingredients and is yet cheap! It can be found at every corner of the street which makes it highly accessible.

THE SITE Wai Sek Kai is an in-between space which is considered to be nestled in urban backyard. The objective of this section is to investigate how Wai Sek Kai attracts people in a macro urban scale

C H A P T E R 0 1 .

CONTRAST IN COLOR .

Wai Sek Kai  locates in between of urban settings which are mostly made of brick and mortar structure; the colour of the vendor stall roof, the plastic stool, the various kind of signboards of each vendor’s stall,...

The diversified colour of Wai Sek Kai is contributing to the juxtaposition between Wai Sek Kai and its neighboring buildings.

ENTRANCE ORIENTATION

A great number of houses placed around an intricate path system does not automatically represent a noteworthy concentration of activity, even where building density is high.

Conversely, Wai Sek Kai is a small scale marketplace, sits between two medium size blocks and oriented toward the street; this creates a visual contrast to the surrounding passerby, represents a clear and consistent assembly of activities.

Even though the site is filled with mostly white collars and most of the surrounding shops close early before 7pm, the existing neighboring built form and the orientation of the entrance of Wai Sek Kai aid in catching the attention of consumers not only from the neighborhood but also bystanders and passerby on the street.

QUALITY OF SPACE Food has a strong reputation of facilitating sociality between people.

The objective of second chapter is to examine people’s behaviours and relationships in the street food environment.

C H A P T E R 0 2 .

// Visit Wai Sek Kai at 6pm

SUN EXPOSURE DURING DAYTIME Most of the stalls are open at 6pm while some static vendor shops located at the front part of Wai Sek Kai are open at early afternoon.

People sit under the metal roof of the static vendor shop during afternoon,

Despite the presence of primary seatings are provided in Wai Sek Kai, but without roofing, this area receives intense sun exposure during daytime. Therefore, people only passing by this street to get to their destination on the other side.

When outdoor areas are of poor quality, only strictly necessary activities occur. Â (Gehl, 2011, p.11).

The vendors can still extend the seating onto the alley as there has no direct sun exposure.

Compare to another street food located at an alley in Pudu, the vendors are still running their business during daytime and customers still flowing in.

WAI SEK KAI Wide street allow much solar exposure.but presence of roof invite people to stay

This is because the alley is narrow yet it situated between two large buildings thus it is able to get much protection from harsh sun during afternoon and people are feel comfortable to sit and relax at this place.

IN-BETWEEN SCALE

Seatings provide an opportunity to stay, but not for every condition.

OPEN SPACE AS FIRST CHOICE Due to the cooking smoke from the vendor stall, most of the people prefer sitting at open air instead of seating under roof in order to get much fresh air.

CONSUMERS But when it’s going to rain, people starts to move into the roof-protected area

WEATHER ISSUE .

People starts to move to stalls that provide overhangs

VENDORS

This fried prawn cake auntie usually placing her stall at the main circulation path of Wai Sek Kai.

She is forced to move her stall under the roof during raining to avoid the food get wet.

WAIT & EAT. Based on my observation along Jalan Pudu, consumers buying cooked food are more likely to stop and eat their food on small plastic stools and therefore open themselves up to more opportunities for social engagement.

Therefore, in Wai Sek Kai which provides adequate seatings creates possible chance for people to stay.

GRAB & GO In contrast, people buying uncooked food are more likely to be ‘grab the go’ and therefore less likely to stop and interact with other customers; this type of food is also often bought from mobile vendors or static pavement sellers where there is less space to stop or without seatings, decreasing the chance for social interaction.

WALK & EAT As Wai Sek Kai consists long stretch of food stalls for people to explore so some people will prefer to eat while walking and searching for another hidden gem along the street.

People attracts people.

The presence of other people, whether sellers, customers, passers-by or the general crowded nature of the street food environment; also added to the sense of safety.

The shops in Jalan Pudu are mostly medical shops which only have one 24 hours clinic. This results in making the street become less happening due to most of the shops close down at 8pm. Thus, food acts is the only embellishment along Jalan Pudu at night…

PEOPLE =SAFETY

This supports the notion of ‘eyes on the street’ as proposed by Jane Jacobs (1961), which creates a form of natural surveillance. The fact that there are other people using the street, watching their environment (even unconsciously) creates a busy, rather than an empty environment which provides vendors with a level of security and comfort

TNEMECALP LLATS When u walk from head to end of Wai Sek Kai, you can clearly noticed that the stalls are mostly concentrated at the front and slowly scattered until the end.

01.

CAR PARK /NEGATIVE SPACE .

A large open car park and a backlane connecting to Jalan Kancil is situated at the end of Wai Sek Kai. Also, this area does not provide adequate lighting and making it looks dark and the occupants will worried about their safety while walking at this space.

Thus the vendors are not placing their stalls at this point.

Surface parking lots usually create dead space within a city and negatively impact walkability.

However, only a small part of parking lots in Wai Sek Kai are being utilized by the vendors to set up the furnitures.

The presence of street food can prevents the parking lots from being dead space, as the edge space is remain functioning parking lots used for commerce, contact, and socialization.

STREET SCALE /FRONT PART .

SMALLER STREET The street scale of the front part is much more smaller than the back part of Wai Sek Kai. Therefore the vendors will placed their stalls at the edge of the building to allow adequate human circulation in the middle of the street.

02.

STREET SCALE /BACK PART .

WIDER STREET In contrary, the stalls at the back are not placed right at the 5 foot walkway of the building in order to enhance the sensory engagement between the consumers and the vendors as the street here is much more wider Sensory engagement: Hear the vendors promote their food verbally, the smell from the cooking food, cooking process can be clearly seen, large banner or sign boards to get attention

INTERVIEW The third chapter will compiled some interviews from the consumers in Wai Sek Kai to show an idea of how street food is inclusive in some ways.

C H A P T E R 0 3 .

NIGEL KOREA “One thing that I really like about street restaurants is that you never actually eat alone. You can go on your own and as soon as you sit down, often you are sitting on a communal table so you are joining other people, or you are sitting so close that you feel like you're on their table…”

SUNNY LOCAL "For the new generation, like me, we are young and we love to spend time with our friends and hangout, so eating outside is a good solution to saving our time. Because after eating we don't need to wash up and we don't need to spend our time on cooking food. And, after eating in one place we will take out a motorbike to another place for a drink and whilst we have a drink"

GAO LOCAL He works for a public health institute nearby, is not a fan of eating cooked food sold by street food vendors, however, he told me that he often come here after work so that he socialize with his friends.

STREET FOOD FOR ALL .

This suggests that the street is an open environment whereby those who do not wish to consume street food can still take part in the social activity it provides, building further upon the idea that street food is not an exclusive practice but also blurring and complicating what is commonly understood to be ‘street food’.

Observations made throughout the fieldwork also support the idea that people simply enjoy being on the street; I witnessed a lot of people, particularly older men, sat on small stools around the streets at all times of the day drinking tea, beer and occasionally coffee whilst they people watched or chatted with others.

There was also evidence that street food is inclusive in other ways, for example, a few of the vendors also commented on how local people will sometimes help tourists at street food restaurants by showing them how to order or eat their food

The analysis in the study divulge that consumer and street vendor value in the street food is largely driven by the quality of space and the existing built form and structure.

Eating street food was very much a social activity, people always eat street food with another person.

And even when people do eat at street food stalls alone, they often feel part of a wider group due to the communal tables and cultural acknowledgements which take place before starting a meal. This was considered to facilitate loose ties between strangers in public space and create opportunities for more meaningful contacts to form.

Lastly, the street food environment is able to facilitate social interaction and provide citizens with a space in which to socialise with friends and acquaintances in the  crowded city; moreover, these spaces were found to be socially equalising with a combination of people, young, old, rich, poor, foreign and local mixing within them. In doing so it is hoped that functioning, sustainable street food systems can be developed that are socially just, inclusive and which help to sustain street food cultures for future generations to enjoy.

C O N C L U S I O N .

REFERENCES .

Bell, D. and Valentine, G. 1997. Consuming Geographies: We Are Where We Eat. Psychology Press. 2. Seeland, K., Dübendorfer S. and Hansmann, R. 2009. ‘Making Friends in Zurich’s Urban Forests and Parks: The Role of Public Green Space for Social Inclusion of Youths from Different Cultures’.

Forest Policy and Economics 11 (1): 10–17.

TheStar, 2017, Wai Sek Kai destroyed in fire, Retrieved from 5 Oct 2018. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/09/16/waisek-kaidestroyed-in-fire-disaster-strikes-pudus-foodheaven/ Whyte, W. 1980. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces.

New York: Project for Public Spaces

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