Malaysian food doesn’t get the global recognition it deserves. But the fact is, this stuff is excellent!
The sum of many tasty parts, Malaysian cuisine’s influences include Chinese, Indian and Malay.
In some aspects it’s comparable to Indonesian food, with the two nations sharing many of the same dishes.
Whatever the case, once you’re in Malaysia and eating, you won’t care much about the past and will instead be thinking about where your next meal is coming from and how you can get there faster.
Here are some of Malaysia’s best dishes, in no particular order, to help you reduce your options.
- Mee goreng mamak
This Muslim cuisine from India is all you could want. orange noodles. Chicken or beef. Shrimp. Soy sauce, veggies and eggs. A touch of chile sprinkled in for an addictive kick. Sounds simple, right? Sadly, you can try to duplicate this one at home, but it’s just not going to taste the way it did when you chowed down at that gritty Malaysian hawker stand.
- Apam balik
You haven’t truly experienced Malaysian food until you excite your taste senses with this delectable pleasure. Apam balik is a frequently-reinvented food that combines the compact form of an omelette with the pancake-style texture of a snack. It is loaded with more than enough sugar, peanuts, and corn on occasion.
Unkle canai has the best roti canai. Eaten for breakfast or supper (or anytime during the day, really), roti canai is one of the favourite dishes. When you’re hungry and have less than RM5 in your wallet, nothing fills you up better than a serving of crispy, hot roti canai served right off the pan.
- Nasi kerabu
If the blue rice doesn’t excite your curiosity, the queues of people around the country queuing to purchase this famous Kelantanese delicacy might. From the state of Kelantan in northern peninsular Malaysia, nasi kerabu gets its eye-grabbing hue from telang flowers, which are crushed and incorporated into flour. The aquamarine dish is topped with bean sprouts and fried coconut, then soaked with fiery budu, a fermented fish sauce. You dig into this one with your hands in genuine Kelantan fashion.
If you like them, then don’t hesitate to try them!
