Meifongpolitan

Tuesday 1 July 2008

What's your favourite Malaysian food?

A colleague of mine recently went for a 2 week holiday in Malaysia. She'd asked me for a list of food to try. Below is part of the email that I sent to her:

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Rice (Nasi) dishes:
Nasi lemak (coconut flavoured rice with a spicy sambal or chilli paste made from anchovies, and usually served with egg - either hard boiled or fried,cucumber and chicken curry. Not to be missed.
Nasi biryani
Nasi kunyit - turmeric rice, don't let this stain your clothes!
Bubur ( rice congee, great when eaten with yau char kway/fried dough sticks)
Claypot chicken rice ( rice cooked in a claypot with chicken, salted fish, and soy sauce)

Noodles (Mee/Fun):
Char Kueh Teow ( not to be missed! Stir fried broad noodles flavoured with dark and soy sauce, egg and cockles and served with a spicy belacan dip)
Chee Cheong Fun ( Chinese steamed noodles served with various sauces and fish cake)
Yee Meen (pre-fried noodles served with an eggy sauce)
Asam Laksa ( A noodle dish in a sour fishy soup with tamarind and cucumber)
Kari Laksa ( A noodle dish in a reddish, curry soup base)
Wanton Mee ( Noodles - can be served dry or in soup, with prawn or pork dumplings)

Seafood (Makanan Laut) in general is amazing - I love salt and pepper squid/calamari.
Fried catfish served with chilli is also great.
Ikan bakar (literally meaning burnt fish, can be found at some stalls. This is served with a squeeze of lime and a spicy dip. Stingray is usually the sea creature of choice for this style of cooking.)
Shark's fin soup is a delicacy you will find in Chinese restaurants.
Keropok lekor ( Savoury fried fish cake eaten with a chilli sauce)

Meat dishes (usually eaten accompanied with rice):
Ayam masak merah - A Malay way of cooking chicken in a red sauce, usually accompanied by peas
Kari - multiple variations of this occur
Rendang - beef/chicken cooked in a coconut stew

Roti Canai - An Indian flaky pancake served with curries. I absolutely love this.
There can be many variations of Roti (bread), like Roti telur (with egg), roti tisu (sweet and light, also very big!),

Dessert:
Kuih is a Malay term for cake. If something is named beginning with kuih - it generally will be dessert!
Onde onde ( small green balls made of rice flour, coated with freshly grated coconut and filled with gula Melaka - a special brown sugar).
Tau Foo Fah - Soybean Curd served with warm, sweet syrup.
Ais kacang - 'nutty ice' - sweet corn, red beans and jelly topped with shaved ice, syrups and condensed milk.
Bubur cha-cha - yam and sweet potato cubes in coconut milk and sago.

Drinks (Minuman):
Cendol - Amazingly fragrant drink made of starchy green jelly (the cendol), gula Melaka, and coconut milk. Not to be missed!
Bubble Milk Tea/Pearl Milk Tea - I like the yam/taro flavoured version of this. The bubble/pearls are gummy balls made from tapioca and are usually black in colour. Not to be missed!
Teh tarik - 'pulled tea' - a national favourite. Try to watch the process of making this!

Fruits(Buah):
Durian (a really thorny exterior with soft creamy yellow flesh, you'll either love it or hate it)
Mangosteens ( small, round, purple on the outside with creamy white flesh. Tradition has it that this should be eaten alongside durian as mangosteen has cooling properties, while durian is heaty)
Cempedak ( Cempedak goreng is the fried battered version, which I prefer to the raw fruit actually, as the frying brings out the flavour)
Mangoes (the yellow ones)
Longan (literally Dragon Eyes - small sweet fruit about the size of cherries, but with brown skin which peels off to reveal translucent flesh and black stones. I can devour bunches of these)
Rambutan ( unique fruit that I've not seen outside of South East Asia. Hairy red fruit with sweet white flesh, about the size of a golf ball each)
Rojak ( literally means all mixed up - various fruits are cut up and mixed with a sweet black sauce)

Seasonal: Zhong (Chinese dumplings made out of 'pulut' or glutinous rice, during the Dumpling Festival, which is kinda now - wrapped in large green leaves - they can be savoury or sweet)

Miscellanous:
Dim Sum - including Pao (buns with all sorts of fillings) are a must!! This is a great way to have breakfast.
Popiah - spring rolls , can be fried or steamed. Great for a snacka
Yong Tau Foo - Various veggies eg aubergines, chillies, bittergourd, even tofu are stuffed with fish paste.


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It occurred to me as I was composing the email that it would come in really handy for the next time I go home, just to make sure I don't miss out on anything!! I remember beating myself up about not having roti canai after returning from a trip home once.

What would you have included on this list?

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5 Comments:

  • At 2 July 2008 at 20:47 , Blogger Bamboo said...

    Wow, if you follow the list to eat everytime you come back to Malaysia, you would need to change the photo of your passport everytime or they'll not let you through :P
    Anyway, some additional stuff which I think was not in your list: egg tart, kaya puff, fried banana, fried cempedak... and also some states specialties like Hokkien Mee (prawn mee) and the Baba Cendol is the best amongst all cendol!

     
  • At 3 July 2008 at 16:38 , Blogger meifong said...

    I agree with the egg tarts and fried cempedak. But hang on, I think I already included fried cempedak in my list leh...:)

     
  • At 17 July 2008 at 13:06 , Blogger Unknown said...

    i think my list is better lo....

     
  • At 23 July 2008 at 06:46 , Blogger Unknown said...

    This comment has been removed by the author.

     
  • At 23 July 2008 at 06:49 , Blogger Unknown said...

    I'm taking food from your list to fill up mine when for when I go home in November!

     

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