Malaysian cuisine
Is influenced by various cultures from all around the world. Malaysia's population is made up mainly of 3 main ethnics -Malays, Chinese and Indians, with a number of other ethnic groups living together mostly in harmony. As a result of historical migrations and Malaysia's geographical advantage, Malaysia's culinary style is a mixture of Malays, Chinese, Indians, Thais and Arabian cuisines - to name a few. This resulted in a symphony of flavors, making Malaysian cuisines highly exotic albeit a touch underrated as compared to some of its neighbouring counterparts.
Rice
A popular dish based on rice in Malaysia is nasi lemak: rice steamed with coconut milk to give it a rich fragrance, and served with fried anchovies, peanuts, sliced cucumber, hard boiled eggs and a spicy chilli paste known as sambal. For a more substantial meal, nasi lemak can also be served with a choice of curries, or a spicy meat stew called rendang. Of Malay origin, nasi lemak is often called the national dish.[1] Although it is traditionally a breakfast dish, because of the versatility of nasi lemak in being able to be served in a variety of ways, it is now often eaten at any time of the day. TheMalaysian Indian variety of the sambal tends to be not very spicy, and the Malay sambal in a nasi lemak tends to be a bit sweeter. Nasi lemak should not be confused with nasi dagang, which is sold on the east coast of Malaysia — Terengganu and Kelantan — although both nasi lemak and nasi dagang can usually be found sold side-by-side for breakfast.
Desserts
Desserts in Malaysia tend to make use of generous amounts of coconut milk. A distinctive addition is gula melaka (palm sugar). Some common desserts include:
- Cendol. Smooth green rice noodles in chilled coconut milk and gula melaka (coconut palm sugar).
- Ais kacang (also known as air batu campur or just ABC. "'air batu' is ice in Malay") Sweet corn, red beans and cincau (grass jelly) topped with shaved ice, colourful syrups and condensed milk.
- Pulut hitam. Black glutinous rice porridge cooked with sago and served hot with coconut milk.
- Bubur cha cha. Yam and sweet potato cubes served in coconut milk and sago, served hot or cold.
- Honeydew sago. Honeydew melon cubes served in chilled coconut milk and sago.
- Pengat (Tapioca and Banana) a thick brown sugar mixed together with coconut milk, the fruits mentioned and boiled.
- Sago Gula Melaka (Sago, Coconut Cream and Palm Sugar) Cooked translucent sago with coconut cream topped with palm sugar syrup.
- Pineapple tart
A huge variety of tropical fruits are commonly served as desserts in Malaysia. The most famous is possibly the durian. Other popular fruits local to Malaysia include mango *http://www.mangochacha.com/malaysia, pineapple, watermelon, jackfruit, papaya, langsat, rambutan, star fruit, banana andmangosteen.
Some of the foods are similar to the food of its neighbouring countries. Due to its diversity in cultures, there is a wide variety of different foods available
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