Malaysian Cuisine

Location:
Malaysia

Malay, Chinese, Indian

By Peter Anderson

Malaysia really is a gourmet’s paradise. For those who seek adventure for their taste buds, this is the place to be. The harmonious coexistence of the three main races of Malaysia, the Malays, Indians and Chinese has contributed to the diversity and multitude of tastes found in Malaysia. The discerning gourmet will realise that while each cultural group has maintained its own cuisine, there are some subtle blending of tastes in many dishes.

Whatever the time of day and night there are few places in the world that offer such a wide range of food at an equally wide range of prices from a few Ringgit for the aforementioned street food up to thousands for specialties such as shark-fin soup, bird’s nest soup and certain types of fish. You can make your choice from roadside stalls to the five star air-conditioned up-market restaurants.

For the first-time visitor who is unfamiliar with the Malaysian dietary habits it is worth noting that pork or any pig meat is taboo (haram) to all Muslims while Hindus to whom the cow is a sacred animal do not eat beef. Chicken is the most universally popular meat and is eaten by all races, while seafood is widely consumed, too.

It is a myth that all Malaysian food is hot, as in spicy. While many dishes are indeed cooked with lots of chilli, there are plenty that are extremely mild. Remember when ordering, that hot (spicy) is “pedas” in Malaya while hot (temperature) is “panas”.

Other terms worth learning are the words for rice – nasi - and noodles - mee. “Fried” is “goreng”, so ask for nasi goreng when you want fried rice and mee goreng when you want fried noodles. The word for chicken is ayam (hence nasi ayam). “Sup” is self-explanatory.

The staple foods of Malaysia are rice and noodles; both cooked in numerous ways. Malay rice dishes include nasi lemak (coconut rice), usually served as a breakfast dish with prawn sambal (chilli paste) cucumber, ikan bilis (dried anchovies) and roasted peanuts on the side. Nasi goreng comes in a variety of styles; with soy sauce Chinese-style, pineapple Thai-style and Indonesian-style, to name but a few. Another local favourite is nasi ayam (chicken rice).

There are three main types of noodles; the thin, vermicelli-like meehoon, the spaghetti-style mee; and the flat kway teow, which looks rather like fettuccine. The most popular ways of serving noodles include mee goreng, mee sup, the spicy mee laksa, mee curry and mee Bandung (noodles in a thick coconut and chilli gravy). You can ask the chef to go easy on the chilli, as these noodle dishes are usually cooked to order.

Wherever you go in Malaysia, satay is omnipresent, though it is usually sold only in the evenings. Malaysia’s most famous dish, it consists of marinated skewered barbeque meat most often chicken, beef or mutton, though rabbit and venison are available at some places. It is eaten with peanut sauce and ketupat, compressed rice cooked in coconut leaves.

Rendang is a spicy, dry, curried meat popular at festive times of the year. It is eaten with lemang or ketupat. Another delicious dish is lontong, a vegetable and tofu stew with ketupat in a coconut and turmeric soup. The ever-popular goreng pisang, deep-fried bananas in batter, eaten at teatime or as a snack food, are available at many roadside stalls.

Be warned! Malay desserts are for the seriously sweet-toothed. Made mostly from a coconut-milk base, and incorporating banana or sweet potatoes, they are also best bought at street stalls, especially in the afternoon during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, when shoppers buy them to consume after dark.

It may sound odd to a Westerner, but other desserts are more akin to porridge; there’s pulut hitam (black glutinous rice), bubur kacang (green beans) and gula melaka (sago). All are cooked with brown sugar and coconut milk. Air batu campur, (literally mixed ice), or ABC to the locals, is a mountain of shaved ice served over corn, red beans, agar-agar, (seaweed jelly “noodles”), lotus fruit and other ingredients, topped with syrup and gula melaka. Very refreshing and surprisingly tasty.

Noodles are big with the Chinese, too. Among the most common yee mee; char kway teow, a Penang specialty; Cantonese style in a white sauce with egg; and won ton mee, with prawn dumplings, vegetables and pork. One particularly well-loved rice dish is Hainanese chicken rice, similar to Malay chicken rice except that the chicken is sometimes steamed rather than roasted. Rice is also cooked in a clay pot or in lotus leaves.

If satay is the quintessential Malay dish, then its Chinese Malaysian equivalent has to be steamboat, a soup that comes in a large funnelled pot. Seafood, chicken, beef and vegetables are added to the pot at your table and cooked in the liquid. It’s a very sociable dish — great for sharing with family and friends.

Dim sums, which translates loosely from Cantonese as “heart’s delight” (an indication of the place it occupies in Chinese life), is the Eastern equivalent of Spanish Tapas or Middle Eastern mezes. Served usually at breakfast and lunchtime and always taken with tea (cha), these bite-sized pieces include dainty dumplings filled with various combinations of pork, vegetables and seafood.

Apart from nasi beryani, most Indian restaurants serve plain steamed rice with their dishes, allowing the blandness of the grain to counterbalance the spicy food. But curry does not necessarily mean hot – creamy kurma for instance, has all the taste with none of the oomph.

Whereas the Malays and the Chinese opt for noodles as an alternative to rice, Indians go for bread. There’s a wealth of unleavened breads that make an ideal “sponge” for all those sauces. Some such as naan are familiar to Indian-food lovers the world over, but others are very much Malay influenced.

They include murtabak, made from dough as thin as paper, folded with egg and filled with minced meat and onions. The sight of a cook dexterously swirling the dough in the air is spectacular. Roti, as in roti canai, the popular breakfast dish, is made from murtabak dough. Some stalls sell roti as a dessert; roti chocolate, roti with honey, egg and ice cream – simply delicious. Thosai, a crepe-like pancake is made from rice flour and beans. The masala variety is filled with potatoes and makes a very filling meal.

An interesting experience for many first-time visitors to Malaysia is a “banana-leaf” meal, where various curry-style dishes and rice are served on huge banana leaves. Use your right hand (never, ever your left) to mix the rice and sauces into a ball and then simply pop it into your mouth – and don’t worry if you make a mess. Locals are adamant that the food tastes better this way – and it certainly saves on the washing up!

Now all you need to make the most of dining-out experiences is one more phrase – selamat makan! Happy eating!

Further Information

Travel tips: At the stalls it is best to eat food that is cooked while you wait.

Must see/do at this place: Try roti canai for braekfast

You should avoid here: Seafood at stalls that is pre-cooked