These Malaysian Foods Will Have You Craving All Day Long

You cannot disagree with me when I say our country, Malaysia, owns the best and most varied type of delicious cuisine. Malaysia is a country consisting of different races, which also explains the diversity when it comes to food.

However, our food is still considered “underrated” until this day as we’re still not getting enough recognition that it deserves. But the funny thing is, our food will mistakenly be popular in other countries, saying that it’s their food instead. For instance, CNN mistakenly featured “Rojak” as a Singapore dish and not Malaysia, which got a lot of calls out and even to the extent of writing a super long message. But here I am, listing down some of the famous food in Malaysia that you should be trying! (they’re not in any particular order)

1) Roti Canai (Indian Cuisine)

We usually have Roti Canai during breakfast, but there’s no problem with having it any other time of the day, including supper. This dish is a flatbread which is first twirled and then grilled. As for dipping, it has a variety of choices, such as “Kari Ayam”, “Dhal” and also “sambal” for dipping, but it depends on the customer’s preference because Roti Canai can also dip with something sweet as well like condensed milk or sugar. Because of its popularity, roti canai comes in various types, and even shapes depending on which Mamak that you go.

2) Nasi Lemak (Malay Cuisine)

Nasi Lemak, also known as Malaysia’s national dish and the public’s all-time favourite. The word “Nasi Lemak” basically translates to “fatty rice”, and it lives up quite to its name. The rice is cook with coconut milk, served with fried and crispy anchovies, sambal (mainly spicy but can be sweet at times too, depending on the cooker), slices of fresh cucumber, boiled egg (it’s usually half of 1/4) and finally fried groundnuts.

Later on, everything will be wrap in a pandan leaf shaped like a pyramid, making it easier to unwrap and consume, or it could serve as a usual rice dish. A packet of nasi lemak like the picture above can cost from RM2 and above, but the price rises higher as you add more side dishes to it like “telur mata”, “sambal sotong”, “ayam rendang”, “ayam goreng/berempah” which can go up to RM15.

3) Bak Kut Teh (Chinese Cuisine)

What does Bak Kut Teh mean? Well, it roughly means “Pork Rib Tea” when translated. It is a southeast Asian Chinese Dish that includes a generous amount of different parts of pork, mushrooms, vegetables and a bunch of herbs cooked for a couple of hours before served. As for the rice, it is cook with shallot or garlic, which makes the rice fragrant. Alongside, “Yew Char Kuey” (also known as You Tiao or Chinese Crullers) will be one of the side dishes (as shown in the diagram) which you can just it eat plain or soaked in the creamy herbal soup.

4) Cendol (Peranakan)

When it comes to the hot weather in Malaysia, we will tend to crave for dessert to cool ourselves off. To that, nothing sounds better than getting this sweet treat. Starting would be the base which is shaved ice and drizzled with brown sugar. For the topping, the green worm-like jelly thing you’re looking at is a jelly made from rice flour. Then comes the red beans and sometimes even bits and pieces of sweet corn as well.

One of the reasons which make this dessert unique is because of how it’s typically sold from trucks along the side of the road with other snacks and desserts as well. However, it still can be found in some restaurant’s menu.

5) Rojak (Indian Cuisine)

This dish is something you would eat along with “Cendol”, as it is a very unique dish as it has a mixture/blend with many ingredients such as fried dough fritters, bean curds, potatoes, cuttlefish, hard-boiled eggs, cucumbers and to top it off would be a spicy peanut sauce on top. Another version of it is fruit rojak. It’s a salad, but a spicy version which consists of mixed tropical fruits and vegetables. The typical ingredients would be pineapple, rose apple, mango, bean curds, cucumber and many more and the toppings would be a special dressing consisting of belacan, chilli and lime juice. There are also other variations such as including cuttlefish, fried tofu, cruller, and crispy pancakes.

6) Curry Laksa & Assam Laksa (Peranakan)

Starting with Curry Mee, or can be known as Curry Laksa (it is a famous hawker’s stall dish from the Southern part of Malaysia, and it’s a neighbouring country, Singapore). This dish is known to be full of flavours; slightly creamy soup as it is cook with coconut milk, and the spiciness of the chilli as well the fragrance of spices will have spicy lovers craving for it.

Back in the days, a bowl of Curry Mee is only about 50 - 60 cents (yes, it sounds unreal and certainly not relevant to the present). However, the portion wasn’t significant. The ingredients that they would put in to cook are egg noodles/vermicelli or even both, Chinese long beans, deep-fried tofu (tau pok), bean sprouts, cockles, and slices of hard-boiled eggs served with curry broth. However, it depends on the stalls as every stall might cook it differently, like having a unique option of adding “Bak You Pok” (deep-fried pork fat) or even pieces of curry chicken, and blood cake (cooked pig’s blood) and prawns.

To end, we cannot forget the chilli (usually it’s homemade; however, it differs again depending on the stall) which is generally the option to complete this magnificent dish.

7) Apam Balik (Chinese)

Apam Balik, also known as (Terang Bulan) is in most parts of South-East Asia. In Malaysia, it is common to find this sweet delight sold by Malay or Chinese hawkers. If we were to bring back to who originated this dessert, the invention was said to be related to General Tso, who was a Chinese statesman and military leader of the late Qing Dynasty. Later on, in 1855, the army of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom invaded the Fujian region, and General Tso was appointed to lead an army to crush the rebels.

To that, General Tso decided to switch from the flatbread which was eaten together with spring onion and chilli sauce to the pancake that used locally-sourced and mass-produced ground cane sugar and peanut as filling to provide the soldiers to eat without interfering the life of local people. So, this recipe was slowly spread throughout Fujian region and later on throughout the whole Southeast China and brought into countries in Southeast Asia by Chinese Hokkien immigrants.

So, this sweet treat is made out of flour, egg, sugar and coarsely ground roasted peanuts. However, as years passed, the snack has diversified with different ingredients added as toppings such as adding in corn, chicken ham or even cheese and egg. An average price of Apam Balik is RM1.30, but it can raise to RM3 depending on what toppings you insert. Then, the pancakes are folded in half and eaten while the edges are still gloriously crunchy.