Malaysia is a blend of three populations: Malays, Chinese and Indians. As a result, the cuisine is extremely varied. As you can imagine, this was not to our displeasure. It was our first time in Asia, so we were very happy to be able to sample different types of cuisine. Still, we quickly turned to the Chinese specialties, which were far less spicy than the others. Again, as in Latin America, we ate at markets called Foodstalls .
Our favorite specialties:
–Nasi lemak(Malay): we’d already tried out a really good Malaysian restaurant in Australia, and without realizing it, we’d taken the most typical dish. In the center of the plate or palm leaf, sticky rice with coconut milk is placed (a magic word for me), followed by a hard-boiled egg, cucumber slices, crunchy peanuts and dried salted anchovies. This dish is usually served for breakfast… In Malaysia, it wasn’t easy to find sweet treats early in the morning.
– Roti Canai (Indian): fried pancakes served with a variety of sauces, always spicy of course. This dish is eaten mainly for breakfast, once again, salty food predominates in the morning.
– Dim Sum (Chinese): these are steamed ravioli filled with meat or vegetables. It’s good and, above all, quite healthy.
– Mee goreng (Malay/Indonesian): stir-fried noodles with vegetables, also a staple dish in Indonesia, we’re not done eating it and telling you about it.
– Popiah (Chinese): a kind of steamed sweet and sour spring roll, a “killer”.
– Chicken rice (Malay): rice cooked in chicken broth served with chicken, simple and nutritious.
– Chicken butter (Indian): a non-spicy dish, rare enough to mention, it’s chicken simmered in a butter sauce, a delight.
In terms of sweet treats :
– Rôti banana (Indian) : fried pancakes with pieces of banana. Of course, we ate them as soon as we could find them.
– Dim sum (Chinese): steamed ravioli filled with coconut, red bean or chocolate paste. Delicious for breakfast.
– Lhe Durian: the smell of this fruit is similar to that of a garbage can, appetizing isn’t it, without any exaggeration, theMalays are fans and with our luck the high season was in July, there was absolutely everywhere.
– Cendol: ct’s a dessert made with crushed ice, palm sugar, coconut milk and cendol, a kind of fluorescent green vermicelli. We wanted to try it, intrigued by the color of the noodles, but it wasn’t great.
And what else do we drink?
No alcohol in most establishments, as Islam is the official religion. Only a few street vendors sell it at exorbitant prices. We preferred to take advantage of the many cold drinks and juices on offer, which we asked for “without sugar”, because they ‘ re heavy on the sugar.
– Coffee and iced tea: freshplease, it was the discovery of our stay in Malaysia, it was so hot that we drank it absolutely all the time!
–Lhe juices of watermelon, pineapple, mango... In short, it’s as much fun as ever.
Foodstalls offer a variety of inexpensive and often high-quality cuisine, so we hardly ever visited real restaurants in Malaysia. We can recommend two addresses: theHelilounge bar on the 34th floor offers a 360° view of the whole city, including theMenara Tower and Petronas Towers. We went there to celebrate our 5th anniversary (heart-warming moment). And The Baboon House, a great burger joint in Malacca, is worth a detour for the interior design alone.
