Authentic Malaysian Cuisine

Who's in for some authentic Malaysian cuisine? I know I am! Emm... Yummy!!


Who can resist that? Just by merely looking can make my mouth drool craving for some. Been living in the US for 3 years now, I've certainly had my preference for Malaysian food over western dishes. That's human for you, always wanting something more.

Fact is, here, you obviously can't go out to a mamak or any by-the-road restaurant and order some roti canai or nasi lemak for that matter. Here, you want it, you have to cook it (or suruh orang yg pandai buat).

And that's exactly what I have to do. It comes as a benefit actually. Because now, among the dishes I've cooked so far are, and not limited to: nasi lemak, nasi kerabu, nasi ayam, pulut kuning, masak lemak (ketam, ayam, and udang), gulai, masak merah, tandoori, sayur-mayur goreng, and so forth. Some are good (by my standards) and some are just plain mediocre.

I was surfing my school's friendster group the other day and saw this picture:


A plate of nasi goreng ayam with a bowl of soup (not shown). It automatically brought me back memories of the good old days in Dungun when we used to have have this at the 'Medan Selara' every time going outing. Craving for it, that same night I tried to cook something similar.

I'm not good with baking though. Don't really even dare to do so. That's Dollah's expertise. And jemput2 pisang? Leave that to Qayyum. What an expert he is in that! My next project is cooking nasi beriyani after the finals. Been waiting for the resipi though. hehe..

There's no doubt in the tastiness of Malaysian cuisine. But the question that comes to mind is, why isn't it popular anywhere but Malaysia? No disrespect, but Chinese food are said to be oily and all, but people still do tend to eat it. PF Chang actually even sells Singapore street noodles, which is probably only the same kind of noodles you can find anywhere in Malaysia. Vietnamese restaurants? You can find at least 3 near KNS. Even a particular Laos restaurant we all come to love in Antioch is called Vietnam by the Vandy people. And Thailand restaurants are growing like 'cendawan selepas hujan'. They're everywhere. There was one Ipoh restaurant opened by a Chinese Malaysian here in Nollensville Pike, but that didn't last long. Why are our neighboring countries' food so much more enjoyed by the outsiders compared to our own?

People who have actually lived in Malaysia, or that has at least tasted exotic Malaysian food really liked them very much. They even preferred Malaysian over the more famous Thai. A friend of mine was even asking us the recipe for sate one time.So there's no doubting the taste.


What I think is due to the lack of advertisement. The people of Malaysia, the government and the civilians don't go about promoting their food much compared to other people. This in part comes to the fact that tourism Malaysia isn't as famous as tourism Thailand, or tourism Singapore. Ask anyone, and they'll know Thailand and Singapore. They seem to neglect that piece of land in the middle we all call home.

So here, I'd like to encourage Malaysians all over the world to take pride in Malaysia's rich variety and delicate dishes. Advertise them! Serve authentic Malaysian cuisines to your friends. Let people know the taste that they'll never forget.