By Cassidy Ng
Malaysia is a small country sandwiched between Thailand and Singapore and is full of diversity, various cultures, languages and not to mention, the FOOD! We have 3 different main races – Malay, Chinese and Indian. As a Malaysian student studying abroad, the things I miss most about home is, well, obviously my family and the FOOD! If I get a dollar every time I say food when people ask me about Malaysia, I would be a billionaire by now. So here we are, starting our Malaysia To-Do list with FOOD!
- Malay
Gosh, where do I even start? There are so many options! As we have 3 different races in Malaysia, we get to try each culture’s food! Starting with our National dish – Nasi Lemak! You have to try this when you are there because you didn’t travel to Malaysia if you didn’t try it out! Nasi Lemak is a Malay cuisine – rice cooked with coconut milk, served with ‘sambal’, toasted peanuts, cucumber and fried anchovies, egg and is fully customizable. Some people like to add curry or fried chicken, squid sambal, or beef rendang onto it to add more flavors. My personal favorite is with the squid sambal, it’s a little spicy so I like to eat them with the rice to reduce the kick haha
Nasi Lemak
Best Place to get Nasi Lemak: Village Park Restaurant
What to Order: Nasi Lemak with Fried chicken
Malaysians rave about this restaurant and there is always a crowd during lunch/ dinner time so go early before their fried chicken is out!
- Chinese
Now onto Chinese cuisine, it’s hard because everything is so good! But if I were to pick one, it would be – Hainanese Chicken Rice! It is a rice dish, not just any regular rice, but seasoned rice cooked with the leftover chicken broth from poaching the chicken, either served with poached chicken (white) or roasted chicken, cucumber slices, side of chicken broth and the crucial part (for me) the chili garlic and ginger sauce! Though I prefer the noodle version of this dish (cuz I’m a noodle gurl) people usually have it with rice.
Hainanese Chicken Rice
Best Place to get Chicken Rice: Kar Heong’s Ipoh Chicken Rice
What to Order: Chicken Rice with White meat (white just means it’s poached rather than roasted), you get to choose different parts of the chicken, such as thighs, breast, drumsticks etc.) or if you’re a noodle gurl like me, you should definitely get the Ipoh Hor Fun (flat noodles in flavorful broth served with shredded chicken)
They have a couple chains around the Kuala Lumpur area and it is one of the best in town! If you are willing to travel, the best ones are in Ipoh as it is where it originated from and in Malacca where the rice are served in ball shapes. - Indian
Last but not least, hands down my favorite Indian food is – Roti Canai! It is a flatbread (ish) typically served with dhal (made of lentils) as dipping sauce. In Malaysia, we go to ‘Mamak’ to get our Roti Canai fix. ‘Mamak’ is a term for Indian restaurants that typically opens till late night if not 24/7! There are different variation of it, including Roti Planta (roti with LOTS of butter), Roti Tissue (Long and thin, sweet, sugary flatbread, good for sharing with the whole table), Roti Tsunami (Roti with soft poached eggs and curry on top) and many more! The best drink to get at a ‘Mamak’ is definitely ‘Milo Dinosaur’ or ‘Teh Tarik’ aka ‘pulled tea’ where they pour the tea with condensed milk from one cup to another a couple times to achieve the frothiness. Disclaimer: Both drinks are really sweet and that’s the whole point haha but if you are not a huge fan of overly sweet drinks, you can always ask them to reduce the sweetness, my parents do that all the time 🙂
Roti Canai
Best Place to Get Roti Canai: Restaurant Sri Melur Jaya
What to Order: Roti Canai, Mee Mamak (stir-fried noodle), Milo Dinosaur/ Teh Tarik
Honestly, whichever ‘Mamak’ you can find is good enough they taste the same to me everywhere haha! This is probably the cheapest food option in Malaysia as you can get a full meal with drinks in just a dollar!
There are so many more other food options in Malaysia and the list is endless! Wait in line for Dimsum on the weekends, try Banana leaf rice where your food is served on a banana leaf because who needs a plate, satay (chicken skewers) on the street and many more! If you ever see a Night market, don’t walk, run! Night markets are honestly the best place to get cheap eats and a variety of different Malaysian street food like kuih (Malay-style pastries), fried bananas, fresh-pressed sugar cane juice etc. My mouth is watering as I write these…
So come try it yourself! Check out the Laos, Thailand, Malaysia Winter break short-term program or consider studying there for a semester to experience the cultural cuisines!