asia expat guides: mouthwatering malaysian dishes
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Moving to a new, foreign country is a daunting task which many expats find very overwhelming. At Asia Expat Guides, we understand your concerns and your specific needs as an expat. We routinely share articles and expat tips about moving to Asia at http://asiaexpatguides.com/expat-tips/. In this particular slide, we compile our top picks of Malaysian food for new expats in Malaysia.TRANSCRIPT
Mouthwatering Malaysian DishesA Guide for New Expats in Malaysia
By: Asia Expat Guides
Nasi lemak could be consider-ed as Malaysia's national dish,
which includes coconut rice with spicy sambal, crunchy dried anchovies (ikan bilis),
roasted peanuts, cucumber, and egg
(sometimes sliced of hard-boiled, sometimes cooked
like a flat omelet). While considered classic comfort
food, it's a showcase of flavors and textures, from
the delicate coconut to the brash belacan, the tender
bite of rice and the salty crunch of anchovies. It's
often eaten as a breakfast food, but can be a snack at any time of the day, and to
bulk it up, it might be served with a seafood or
chicken curry, or vegetables, or beef
rendang.
Nasi Lemak
There are so many versions of Hokkien Mee (Chinese
style fried yellow noodles) in Malaysia. If you’re in Kuala Lumpur, you will
most likely meet the Hokkien Char mee, which
is a dish of thick yellow noodles braised in thick
dark soy sauce with pork, squid, fish-cake and
cabbage as the main ingredients and cubes of crispy fried pork lard as
garnishing. Did you know what the most fantastic
part of the dish is? Definitely the fried pork
lard, as many would attest to!
Hokkien Mee
There are endless varitions of laksa, Malaysia's beloved
noodle soup, but there are two major categories: asam laksa
and curry laksa. Asam laksa has a tart tamarind-based
broth and is generally cooked with a flaky white fish. It
consists of noodles on the bottom, cucumber and
pineapple and the bitter torch ginger flower to top. On the
other hand, curry laksa is the richer member of the laksa
family, thanks to coconut. The scrumptious curry laksa
consists of noodles topped with shrimp, tofu puffs,
cucumber, fish balls, and eggs, soaked in coconut milk broth
with distinctive flavor of turmeric and ginger and lemongrass, chilies and
belacan. It is just impossible to decide which one of the two
variations is better.
Laksa
Roti canai is a classic Malaysian breakfast of
Indian derivation, though this flaky finger food is good any time of day.
This dough of flour, egg, and ghee (clarified
butter) is incredibly elastic; it's stretched
quickly into a tissue-thin sheet, like pizza dough
but even more dramatic, then folded back up and
griddled. In its best form, right off the griddle, it's
flaky and crisp like a good croissant on the
outside, soft and steaming and a little bit chewy on the inside. It's
also served with curry, often lentil dal; other
versions are cooked with egg, or onion, or
sardines. Definitely a must-try!
Roti Canai
Although satay is a dish that can be found in other places like the
neighboring countries Thailand and Indonesia, Malaysians will proudly declare that they have the best satay. Satays are skewered chicken, beef, mutton or pork,
served with a spicy peanut sauce dip, or
peanut gravy, slivers of onions and cucumbers,
and ketupat (rice cakes). Next time you see towering piles of
skewers in hawker stalls, don’t miss them.
Satay
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