Food as part of the Culture

Other than its dramatic politics (as you may have known) or its diverse cultures, Malaysia is also well-known for FOOD! Yes, food!

Warning: It's advised to have some napkins in hands just in case your saliva drips on your keyboard.

1. Asam Laksa

It's a sour and spicy dish with noodles in fish broth. It's my all time favorite dish since small. I still remember when I was like 5 years old, I started to love this dish. I just didn't care how spicy it was. There was this stall which sold good asam laksa in the market at my hometown. Whenever my mom brought me to the market, I would definitely nag her to have our breakfast there. Speaking of this dish, it made me flash back all the memories with my mom back at home. I'm homesick now! :/

2. Nasi Lemak

This is one of the traditional dishes in Malay culture. However, it's famous among all races in Malaysia. Nasi lemak literally means fatty rice. In fact, the rice is cooked with coconut milk (it’s called santan in Malay) or screwpines leaves to make up its fragrance. Normally, this dish is eaten with some side dishes like fried peanuts, cucumber, hard-boiled eggs, dried anchovies and the most important accompaniment for the dish, the sambal (a kind of special spicy sauce which can be made by garlic, dried chilies and ginger). This is starting to trigger all my taste buds.

3. Char kuey teow (also known by char kway teow)

It literally means fried noodles. You might be wondering what's so special about fried noodles. But this is definitely something different from what you have here in the U.S. This dish can be easily found at any hawker stalls in Malaysia. There are many variations in this dish. Most people like to have it with prawns, eggs and cockles. Bean sprouts are usually put into the noodles while frying. Of course, there is this sauce that makes it so delicious, which is known as belacan or shrimp paste, a spicy sauce made from fermented ground shrimps. However, the belacan is optional and the dish is still tasty without the sauce!

These are all the food I am craving right now! Wait, are these enough for you to have your saliva dripped on your keyboard? No? There are more to come!

Onde-onde – coconut poppers

Roti canai – flatbread made from dough with flour, water and egg.

Satay – grilled meat with some spicy peanut sauce.

Claypot chicken rice – chicken rice cooked in claypot with the indescribable taste that you have to taste it yourself!

Popiah – steamed spring rolls

Ais Kacang – shaved ice with some dressings like red beans, coconut milk, grass jelly, corn or even ice cream! Best food in the summer!

Since independence in year 1957, the three main races – the Malay, the Chinese and the Indian, and some minorities have been living together on one land for 54 years, neither too short nor too long for a country to build up its own culture. If I were asked to use three words to describe Malaysia, I would say “Weather, culture and food!”

p/s: It's a bad idea to blog about food to make myself hungry.