One of the best reasons to come to Malaysia and Singapore (even Brunei, to a lesser extent) is for the food. The countries' cuisines are inspired by the heritage of their three main communities, Malay, Chinese and Indian. From the ubiquitous hawker stalls to the restaurants in world-class hotels, the standard of cooking is extremely high and food everywhere is remarkably good value. Basic noodle- or rice-based meals at a stall rarely come to more than a few ringgit or Singapore dollars, and even a full meal with drinks in a reputable restaurant should rarely run to more than RM40 or S$30 a head - though if you develop a taste for delicacies such as shark's-fin or bird's-nest soup, the sky is the limit. The most renowned culinary centres are Singapore, Georgetown, KL, Melaka and Kota Bharu, although other towns, like Johor Bahru, Ipoh, Kuching and Sibu all have their own distinctive dishes too.
One myth to bust immediately is the
notion that you will get food poisoning
eating at street stalls and small cafes
but avoid it eating in hotels. On the
street, individual stalls will only do a
limited range of dishes usually with
fresh ingredients, but they do them
extremely well and very cheaply. In
hotels, the food is pricier but can be
batch cooked and frozen, then re-heated.
It's not uncommon to hear reports of
food poisoning from hotels - even
five-star ones - but they are very rare
from street food.
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The Cuisines
Malaysia and Singapore's history at the crossroads of Southeast Asia guarantees it an amazingly varied cuisine, and the great food cultures - Chinese, Indian, Thai and Indonesian - have not just co-existed but intermingled. Malaysia's "national dish" Nasi Lemak (rice cooked in coconut milk served with a garnish and a spicy sauce) is but one example. Each race has its own variations on the dish and no one is quite sure where it originated. Nyonya cuisine evolved from the Babanyonya culture of the Straits Chinese who intermarried with local Malays. The food has elements of both cultures and flavours all of its own. It's at its best in cities like Singapore, Meiaka and Penang, the old towns of the Straits Settlement, but also in KL.
The most familiar Chinese cooking style is Cantonese, but all over Malaysia and Singapore you can also sample Szechuan, Hokkien, Beijing and other regional Chinese specialties. Indian food splits into Northern, Southern or Muslim styles of cooking. Below are accounts of the different cuisines, while for a rundown of the most popular dishes.
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Malay
Food
Malay food is rather underrated. Surprisingly perhaps, good Malay cuisine can be hard to find, with the best cooking often confined to the home. On the positive side, the Malay restaurants that do exist are of a good standard, presenting dishes with a loving attention to detail. The cuisine is based on rice, often enriched with santan (coconut milk) which is served with a dizzying variety of curries, and sambal, a spicy condiment or sauce comprising pounded chillies blended with belacan (shrimp paste), onions and garlic. Other spices which characterize Malay cuisine include ginger and galangal (a ginger-like root), coriander, lemon grass and lime leaves. The most famous dish is satay; skewers of barbecued meat (chicken, mutton or beef) dipped in spicy peanut sauce. At it's best it is a wonderfully subtle and original cuisine although it's not uncommon to find slightly sweet, gloopy sauce versions, especially in tourist hotels. The time to sample Malay food is during festivals, ironically especially around Ramadan when the evening feast that breaks the fast brings some delicious food, in particular in the j street stalls outside mosques, selling kueh (pronounced "kwey"), bite-sized
savories and cakes.
The classic way to sample Malay curries is to eat nasi campur (pronounced "champur", meaning "mixed"). At small stalls this will mean taking a plate of rice and adding to it from any one of a number of dishes including lembu (beef), kangkong (a variety of greens), fried chicken, fish steaks, curry sauce and various vegetables that are on offer and paying for what you've chosen. Some Chinese cafes/stalls offer much the same type of deal. If a more upmarket set- ting like a hotel it becomes a buffet. Other popular dishes include nasi goreng (mixed fried rice with meat, seafood and vegetables) and chicken or beef cooked "Rendang-style" - a Malay curry sauce made from coconut milk, onion, shallots, lemon or lime leaves, and rempah: (a mix of lemon grass, galangal, chilies, garlic, black pepper, coriander, cumin and fennel). For breakfast (or just about any other time of the day), the most popular Malay dish is nasi lemak, rice cooked in coconut milk and served with sambal ikan bilis (tiny crisp-fried anchovies in hot chilly paste), fried peanuts and slices of hard-boiled egg.
Much of the diet of the indigenous groups living in settled communities in East Malaysia tends to revolve around standard Malay and Chinese dishes. But in the remoter regions, or at festival times, you may have an opportunity to sample indigenous cuisine. In Sabah's Klias Peninsula and in Brunei, villagers still produce ambuyat, a glue-like, sago-starch porridge that's dipped in sauce; or there's the Murut speciality of jaruk - raw wild boar, fermented in a bamboo tube, and definitely an acquired taste. Most famous of Sabah's dishes is hinava, or raw fish pickled in lime juice. In Sarawak, you're most likely to eat with the Iban or Kelabit, sampling wild boar with jungle ferns and sticky rice.
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Nyonya
Food
The Chinese have been a trading people since the days of European pre-history and have left their mark across Southeast Asia. They came to the early Malay kingdom of Malacca through royal marriage and for business, marrying locals and settling on the Straits, hence the broad term Straits Chinese or Peranakan (Straits-born). The men were known as Babas, the women Nyonyas - hence the term often applied to the people and culture "Babanyonya". The cuisine simply took the name of the women who cooked it - nyonya.
Typical Nyonya dishes incorporate elements and ingredients from Chinese, Indonesian and Thai cooking, making use of a far wider range of spices than Chinese food. Chicken, fish and seafood form the backbone of the cuisine, and unlike Malay food, pork is used. Noodles (mee) flavoured with chillies, and rich curries made from rice floor and coconut cream, are common. A popular dish is laksa,
noodles in spicy coconut soup served with seafood and finely chopped beansprouts, lemon grass, pineapple, pepper, lime leaves and chilli; asam laksha is the version served in Penang, which has a hot and sour flavour. Other popular Nyonya dishes include ayam buah keluak, chicken cooked with Indonesian "black nuts"; and otak-otak, fish mashed with coconut milk and chilli paste wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed or barbecued.
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Chinese
Food
Chinese food dominates in Singapore and Malaysia, with perhaps only the cooking in Hong Kong reaching a higher standard. Fish and seafood is nearly always outstanding, with prawns, crab, squid and a variety of fish on offer almost everywhere. Noodles, too, are ubiquitous, and come in wonderful variations - thin, flat, round, served in soup (wet) or fried (dry).
The dominant style of Chinese cookery, at least in terms of restaurant numbers, is Cantonese - as it is in most foreign countries, echoing the pattern of immigration from southern China - but later groups of settlers from other regions of China spread Foochow, Hokkien, Hainanese, Teochow and Szechuan dishes throughout Peninsular Malaysia, East Malaysia and Singapore. Of these, Hokkien and Teochow are dominant, especially in Singapore where Hokkien fried mee (noodles with pork, prawn and vegetables) and char kuey teow (spicy flat noodles mixed with meat, fish and egg) are available almost everywhere. The classic Cantonese lunch is dim sum (literally "to touch the heart"). Diners select a variety of steamed and fried dumplings and other titbits served in bamboo baskets. Other popular lunch dishes are Hainan chicken rice (rice cooked in chicken stock and topped with tender steamed or fried chicken) or rice topped with char siew (roast pork); while standard dishes available everywhere include chicken in chilli or with cashew nuts; buttered prawns, or prawns served with a sweet and sour sauce; spare ribs; and mixed vegetables with tofu (beancurd) and beansprouts. Another popular variation in Chinese restaurants is steamboat. Served in specialist restaurants, a gas cooker with a pot of boiling stock will be brought to the table for you to add your choice of leaves, vegetables, egg and seafood. You keep adding and adding and eating and eating and the stock becomes tastier and tastier. Last of all people add noodles and eat them with the stock as a soup. You could also try claypot dishes -meat, fish or shellfish cooked over a fire in an earthenware pot.
Seven of the Best
Below is a selection of some of the culinary highlights of visiting Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei. All taste much better at street stalls when you can savour the flavor of the country and its people as well as that of the food.
Nasi Lemak: Call it breakfast call it lunch or supper; a Malaysian dish that everyone here has an opinion on; rice cooked in coconut milk with a garnish of peanuts, tiny fried anchovies, cucumber, boiled egg and a spicy sauce.
Roti Canai: Indian-inspired griddle -"cooked flat bread served with dhal or fish curry dips.
Nasi Goreng: Fried rice with vegetables, often with prawns and/or chicken added.
Mee Goreng: Indian-influenced fried noodles in a spicy sauce with greens and seafood.
Satay: Barbecued chicken or beef served on a wooden skewer and served with a spicy peanut sauce.
Laksa: Seafood soup with a crunchy vegetable garnish; the nyonya version from Melaka is coconutty, the asam version from Penang hot and sour.
Ikan Bakar: Fish marinated and covered in spices and baked.
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Pescatarians, Vegetarians and Vegans
Food do's and don'ts are well understood in Malaysia in the context of religious behavior so simply state your preference and you should be able to find some alternatives.
Those who eat fish and seafood but not meat can have a wonderful time. There are plenty of restaurants specializing in seafood, although, it is worth remembering that saying "I don't eat meat" may result in pieces of chicken finding their way into your food. It's best to be specific and say, "I do not eat chicken" (Saya tidak makan daging dan ayam).
Vegetarians will find specialist Chinese and Indian restaurants in larger towns and cities the best bet; details are given in the text. Otherwise, things can be tricky, particularly in the more remote areas. It's wise to say "I only eat vegetables" (in Malay: "Saya hanya makan sayuran."). Most hawker stalls make their food on the spot, so nasi goreng (fried rice) or mee goreng (fried noodles) should be easily produced without any meat or dairy, if you ask.
Vegans should be more than fine with the vegetables and pulses that are widely available supplemented, by plentiful tofu dishes, but to make things clear explain "I do not eat dairy products or meat" (Saya tidak makan yang di perbuat dari susu atau daging).
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Indian Food
In the same way as the Chinese, immigrants from North and South India brought their own cuisines with them, which vary in emphasis and ingredients, though all utilize daal (lentils), chutneys, yogurts and sweet or sour lassis (yogurt drinks). North Indian food tends to rely more on meat, especially mut¬ton and chicken (neither North nor South Indians eat beef), and uses breads - naan, chapatis, parathas and rotis - rather than rice.
The most famous style of North Indian cooking is tandoori - named after the clay oven in which the food is cooked; you'll commonly come across tandoori chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and then baked.
Southern Indian (and Sri Lankan) food tends to be spicier and more reliant on vegetables. Its staple is the dosai or thosai (pancake), often served at breakfast time as a masala dosai. Stuffed with onions, vegetables and chutney. Indian Muslims (dubbed Mamaks) serve the similar murtabak, a grilled roti pancake with egg, onion and minced meat. It's best washed down with teh tank, literally "pulled tea". The tea is left to stew and then mixed with sweet condensed milk and poured from pot to pot to froth and aerate it. Another variation is teh ais
(teh tarik with ice) which is wonderfully refreshing.
Many South Indian cafes turn to serving daun pisang (literally, banana leaf) at lunchtime, usually a vegetarian meal where rice is served on banana leaves and small, replenishable heaps of various vegetable curries are placed alongside; in some places, meat and fish side dishes are on offer, too. It's normal to eat a banana-leaf meal with your right hand, though restaurants will always have cutlery if you can't manage. As with the other immigrant cuisines, the Indian food available in Malaysia and Singapore has adapted to Malay tastes and to the availability of ingredients over the years: banana-leaf curry, for example, is more widely available in Malaysia and Singapore than in India, while another Malay/Indian staple, mee goreng - fried egg noodles with spices and chillies - isn't known at all in India.
Anyone who stays in Malaysia for any length of time should make a point of trying roti canai (pronounced "roti chanai"). Roti canai is an Indian dish that evolved in Malaysia and is a thin piece of dough spread out on an oiled surface and folded and then worked out thinly time and again. It's then cooked on a hot griddle and served piping hot with side dishes of thin daal or fish curry to dip it in. Variations include roti pisang (sweet with banana), roti bom (sweet and crispy cooked with lots of butter), roti bawang (with onion) and roti telur (with egg). It's best washed down with teh tarik or teh ice.
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Hawker stalls
To eat inexpensively in Malaysia or Singapore you go to hawker stalls, traditionally simple, wooden stalls on the roadside, with a few stools to sit at. In Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and some other major cities, the trend is to corral hawker stalls in neat, often air-conditioned food centres where you can pick different dishes from a variety of stalls, but in most of Malaysia the old-style stalls still dominate the streets.
Wherever you find the stalls, you don't have to worry too much about hygiene: most are scrupulously clean, with the food cooked instantly in front of you. Avoid dishes that look as if they've been standing around for a while, or have been reheated, and you should be fine. The standard of cooking at hawker stalls is high and they are very popular; politicians and pop stars crowd in with the locals to eat at the cramped tables.
Most hawker stalls serve standard Malay noodle and rice dishes, satay and, in many places, more obscure regional delicacies. The influence of the region's immigrants also means you'll encounter Chinese noodle and seafood dishes, Indian specialties and Indonesian food. At modern food centres, particularly in Singapore and KL, you'll increasingly come across Western food like burgers, and steak and eggs, or even Japanese and Korean food. Hawker centres usually have a hot and cold drinks stall on hand; in Singapore and most Malaysian cities, you'll nearly always be able to get a beer, too.
Hawker stalls don't have menus, though most have signs in English detailing their specialities; otherwise you order by pointing at anything you like the look of. You don't have to sit close to the stall you're patronizing: find a free table, and the vendor will track you down when your food is ready. You generally pay for your meal when it's brought to your table, though you're sometimes asked to pay when you order.
Many hawker stalls are closed at breakfast time, as Malays tend to eat before they go to work, and Chinese and Indians head for the coffee houses and cafes. That said, you should be able to track down an early starter knocking out Asian breakfasts. Most outdoor stalls open instead at around 10am, usually offering the day's nasi campur selection; prices are determined by the number of dishes you choose on top of your rice. Hawker stalls usually close well before midnight; any open after this time will be limited to fried noodles and soups.
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Kedai Kopis
Few streets exist without a kedai kopi, or coffee shop, usually run by Chinese or Indians. Most open at 8am or 9am, though some - especially the Chinese-owned ones, which offer early-morning tea and dim sum -are up and running at dawn; closing times vary from 6pm to midnight. Basic Chinese coffee shops serve noodle and rice dishes all day. and feature a decent selection of cakes and cookies. The culinary standard is never spectacularly high, but you're unlikely to spend more than small change for a filling one-plate meal. Some cafes are a little more adventurous and serve full meals of meat, seafood and vegetables, for which you'll pay from around RM5/S$5 per person; Malay-run cafes, where you can find them, usually serve a midday spread of nasi campur dishes. Indian cafes tend to be a bit livelier and -especially in the Indian quarters of Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Georgetown and Melaka - decidedly theatrical. You can watch Muslim mamak men at work, making the frothy teh tarik (tea) by pouring liquid from a height from one vessel into another, and pounding and moulding the roti into an oily, bubble-filled shape.
It's worth noting that the Chinese-run kedai kopis are often the only places you'll be able to get a beer In the evening; this is especially true in towns along Malaysia's largely Muslim east coast.
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