About Malaysian food

Over the centuries, the Malay Peninsula saw ships arriving from the Middle East, India, Europe, China and Indonesia. This resulted in a melting pot of culture and cuisine that has managed to retain its own unique flavour to this day.

In particular, Malaysian food is heavily influenced by Thai, Chinese, Indonesian and Indian cuisine. These influences extend from the use of the wok to the combinations of spices used in many popular dishes.

Malay food is generally spicy. Dishes are not always necessarily chilli-hot per se, but there will always, at the least, be a chilli-based sambal on hand. Traditional Southeast Asian herbs and spices meet Indian, Middle Eastern and Chinese spices in Malaysian food, leading to fragrant combinations of coriander and cumin (the basis of many Malay curries) with lemongrass, makrut lime leaves, cardamom, star anise and fenugreek.

As elsewhere in Asia, rice is an essential staple. Local or Thai rice is the most common, but Indian basmati is used in biryani dishes. Nasi lemak (‘fatty rice’), a dish of rice steamed with coconut milk and served with dried anchovies (ikan bilis), peanuts, hardboiled eggs, dried shrimp, cucumber and sambal, is considered Malaysia’s national dish and may be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is often served with a choice of curries or a popular spicy meat stew (usually, though not always, beef) known as rendang. Noodles are another popular starch staple, as are Indian breads such as roti canai, idli, puri and dhosa, which are commonly eaten with breakfast.

Malay curry laksa (laksa lemak)

Early Chinese settlers often wed local Malay brides and this gave rise to a generation of mixed Chinese-Malays known as Peranakan. The Malay word "nonya", a term of respect for older women, has become synonymous with the distinctive Malaysian-Chinese cooking style of the Peranakans. The best known example in Australia is the popular spicy noodle soup laksa, of which there are two main types, curry laksa and asam laksa. Curry laksa is a coconut curry soup with noodles, while asam laksa is a sour fish soup with noodles.

Malaysian desserts are wonderfully colourful and creative, including layered rice flour and coconut sweets, multi-layered butter cake known as Lapis Legit, and sweet coconut rice balls. A popular dessert is Kueh Bahulu, mini sponge cakes that are dipped in black coffee.

 

View our Malaysian recipe collection here.

Source: Randy Larcombe Photography