Food Trip in Malaysia

Because Malaysia is multi-ethnic, it offers a wide variety of food. Food of Malaysian, Chinese, Indian, Korean, Thai, and Portuguese origin are available in this country.

On my first night in Malaysia, I was treated to barbecue chicken rice by my friends. The chicken rice was also served with sliced cucumbers as side dish, chili sauce, and chicken broth. I liked the sweet taste and tenderness of the barbecue chicken but the broth was too salty for me.

Barbecue chicken rice

For breakfast, I had nasi lemak which consisted of rice, chicken (which looked red), boiled egg, anchovies, peanuts and sambal (a chili-based sauce). My friend told me this is a traditional breakfast for Malaysians.

Nasi lemak

I was also served with roti canai which, I was told, is a dish from Southern India. The roti is a thin bread, some parts crispy, some parts soft and lumpy, and is eaten by first dipping it into the thick spicy curry sauce for flavor. I also enjoyed the roti canai.

Roti canai

While in Melaka, my hosts and I ate a quick lunch in an out-of-the-way eatery which serves Nyonya snacks. Melaka is a city known for its rich historical and cultural background and has been the dwelling place of Chinese-Malays called Peranakans. The male Peranakan is called Baba while the female is called Nyonya. I had my taste of Malaysian laksa in this place and I loved it! My host was worried that I might not like the spicy flavor but I was daring enough to try it and I never regretted every slurp. This curry laksa has shrimp, spongy tofu squares, cockles, egg noodles, vermicelli, bean sprout and other herbs.

Laksa

To complement the laksa's spicy taste, we also ordered popiah and pai tee which both contain chopped turnips. Even the popiah has shredded chili in it--proof of the Malaysian's love for spicy foods. While eating the popiah, I recalled the Filipino lumpia, a similar fresh spring roll except that ours is not spicy.

Popiah

Pai tee looked dainty, delicious, and obviously delicately prepared as strips of turnips are placed in tiny, crispy, molded cups.

Pai tee

To finish the meal and wash the spicy aftertaste, I had cendol. It's similar to the Philippines' halo-halo, except that cendol only has two ingredients on top of the shaved ice with coconut milk--sweet beans and green jelly-like strips made from green pea flour.

Cendol

We ended our tour of Melaka with dinner at one of the open-air restaurants at the Portuguese settlement. The open-air restaurants were beside the placid Strait of Malacca and as the sun set, we ate Portuguese baked stingray smothered with chili sauce, scallops in butter and garlic, and lady fingers with rice (okra). It was my first time to eat scallops in shells and I liked the creamy flavor brought by the butter.

Portuguese baked stingray

Scallop with butter and garlic

Lady fingers

I also tried eating a Bengal food combination of dal, nan, and mutton masala at the Suria KLCC food court. I had yee wat mee (noodles) at a Chinese restaurant frequented by Koreans, tried the famous yong tau foo of Ampang  (tofu or tokwa) which was surprisingly firm and silky, and of course, I sampled street foods like fishballs and soya pudding (taho). Their fishballs were big and firm, with a consistency like a squid ball. On my last day in Malaysia, I picked up some bread to eat while at the airport. And though I wasn't able to eat bak kut teh while in this food haven, I bought a pack of bak kut teh mix to make this dish back home.

Truly, there's so much to savor in Malaysia!

That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil--this is the gift of God.                 Ecclesiastes 3:13