Malaysian Food Asam Pedas

By Sfire Ling

Asam Pedas Fish also known as Ikan Asam Pedas in Malay. This is a Malaysian fish stew dish where a fresh fish is cooked in a tamarind juice. Asam Pedas is so much famous dish that it is commonly said that a trip to Melaka is not completed until this dish is tasted.

The literal meaning of this dish is something hot and spicy and is basically a dish of fish prepared in curry. The cooking procedure of this dish involves soaking the pulp of the fruit and then squeezing it until the juice is extracted. Then the fish is cooked in this juice. To add in more taste, various vegetables like brinjals okra and tomatoes are also added. The fish which are generally used in this dish are red snapper or mackerel. Fish heads are also used to make the stew tasty and spicy. For serving, it is important that a fish remains intact therefore it is added in last. Bengali called this dish as macher tak which means a sour fish. There are varieties in this dish and is served with beef at some places.

The mostly used components of this dish are, shallots, galangal, garlic, belacan, dried chillies, daun kesum, and tamarind juice. Ginger fresh turmeric, bunga kantan, lemon grass and asam gelugor (Garcinia atroviridis) are also used by some in their dishes.

Shallots and garlic are mixed together for the preparation of Asam Pedas. Bunga kantan is sliced quarterly and the dried chilies and shrimp paste are mixed together through grinding. These grounded ingredients are then placed in a jar until it becomes aromatic. At the end Tamarind juice is added to give the dish a sour taste. Vietnamese coriander also known as laksa leaf is widely used in Asam Pedas fish. These are used for garnishing the dish. This dish has a odor similar to coriander with a lemony taste.

Asam Pedas fish is generally cooked with tomatoes, lady fingers, chilies and spices. Tamarind used in this dish is basically a souring agent and adds in flavor to the dish. It is sour and sweet at a time. Sourness is usually added in the dishes so that appetite can be increased. Asam Pedas fish is an integral part of Malay heritage and continuous improvements have been made ever since its evolution. The taste varies according to the tastes of the local people. When it is served in clay pot, the taste becomes marvelous. It is often served with rice and salted eggs.

The food heritage of Malaysia is very rich and people love to taste the traditional dishes of Malaysia especially when they are in the country during vacation and at festivals.

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The Malaysian Food Experience: Nasi Lemak

By Claudia Looi

My own experience

When we close our eyes

And imagine

Food,

Glorious good....

Hot sausage and mustard..

Remember those words from the movie, Oliver?

When I think of Malaysia, I think about all those glorious food.

The varieties,

The spices,

The texture,

The fragrance,

Everything!

Malaysia in brief

Malaysia is a country with three major diverse cultures. They are 51% Malays, 24% Chinese, 11% various indigenous groups, 7% Indians and 7% that are categorized as others. It is a country that has a population of 28 million people. Its capital city is called Kuala Lumpur. It consists of two regions, the West Malaysia (which was called Malaya years ago by the British) that borders with Thailand and Singapore. The East Malaysia (which is also known as Borneo) that borders with Brunei and Indonesia. English is widely spoken in Malaysia and sounds almost similar to Singlish (Singapore English). The official language of Malaysia is the Bahasa Malaysia, the Malay language which is very similar to the Bahasa Indonesia.

Food in Malaysia: Nasi lemak

Each people group brings out different flavors to the table. There is a huge difference between these people in the way they prepare their food, usage of ingredients and the distinct flavors.

One of the greatest dishes ever created in Malaysia is the nasi lemak. The word nasi in Malay means rice and the word lemak literally translated means fat. It is a dish that originates from the Malay, the largest ethnic group in Malaysia.

Nasi lemak is served all over the country. You can find it in fine exclusive dining room in hotels in large cities. You can also find it in the street corners of a dirt covered road in the villages.

There are many varieties to this dish but the basic ingredients are still the same through the centuries. The basic ingredients are:

Rice cooked in coconut milk

Screwpine leaves or known locally as pandan leaves

Anchovies

Cucumber

Roasted peanuts

Boiled eggs

Chili paste (or sambal in Malay)

The chili paste is where the variation begins. Each family has passed down their own secret spices to the chili paste. It is the chili paste that sets the mark for the best rated nasi lemak.

Traditionally, nasi lemak is served on a banana leaf. When rice is served hot on a banana leaf, it gives out a unique fragrance to the rice. Can you imagine how eco-friendly and economical this is? Sadly, with modernization and the need for convenience, most nasi lemak are now served in plastic wares and beautiful china.

Although it is a traditional Malay dish, the local Chinese and Indians have improvised the dish to suit their taste. You can find nasi lemak with various vegetables, seafood such as cuttlefish, sundried fish, salted fish and shell fish, fried chicken, curry chicken, sausages and mutton and goat curry.

Nasi lemak is served at all times of the day in restaurants, hotels and food courts in airports and shopping malls. But the traditional corner food stand, also known as hawker stall in the small villages and little towns still serve it only in the mornings for breakfast.

Food for thought

When in Malaysia be very cautious where you eat out. Food comes in different prices and different hygiene standards. If you are not used to having food at a hawker stall, out in the country. Think twice before you try the nasi lemak. Most of them are cooked early in the morning and displayed for a few hours in the open air without refrigeration. Your best bet will be to eat nasi lemak in restaurants, food courts or hotels.

Claudia is a mother of 2, wife and stay at home and work from home mom for 16 years. She desires to see parents stepping up to be their best and raising up a generation of uncompromising, relevant and purposed driven adults. She believes traveling, volunteering and learning another language in addition to English are important tools for educating children.

You can find her at http://www.uncommongeneration.com. You can download a FREE REPORT: 7 Little Known Strategies the Elite Few Use to Educate their Children without Breaking the Bank!

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Penang Malaysian Food: Acar

By Sfire Ling

One of the popular dishes of Malaysia is Acar. It is a salad that is usually made in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. It is prepared from various vegetables such as yard long beans, carrots and cabbage. These vegetables are pickled in dried chilies and vinegar. Then these are tossed with ground peanuts. The dish is easy to make and can be served readily.

There are variations of acar salad such as Nyonya acar, and Malay acar. Nyona acar is usually known as Acar Awak and it is a more elaborated dish containing variety of vegetables such as eggplants and aromatic spices pickled in vinegar.

It is usually served as an appetizer or as a condiment to be eaten with main course. Indonesians make acar in a slight different way. Small chunks of cucumber, carrot, shallot and pineapple, marinated in sour vinegar and sweet sugary solution are added. Lemongrass and ginger are also included to spice up the taste.

This salad is also added in a Thai Cuisine where it is known as ACHAT where it is served with red chillies, red onions, shallots, vinegar, sugar and salt. In Thai Cuisine it is served as a side dish.

As the salad contains the pickle, after some time when it is cooled down it gives its full taste. This can be stored as long as you want whether in an air tight container or in fridge and serve it whenever you like. As the vinegar act as a preserving agent, thus it can be stored as long as you want. The salad can be made sour by adding the vinegar accordingly. Pineapple can be added to make it tastier.

Acar salad is generally prepared by Malay, Chinese and Indians. As the taste of each region is different, it is also observed in their salad. People generally prefer eating salad with their normal course of food. In restaurants, salads and their variety are the most appealing factors. The taste of these salads varies according to the culture of the origin.

The importance of salads in a diet can not be ignored. These are low in calories and too low to be a meal. All the ingredients of the Acar salad are rich in nutrients and healthy. The freshness, delicacy and taste of this salad is irresistible. The success and failure of any salad does not only depend on the ingredients only but on the way its dressing is prepared also. Acar is a complete blend of finest ingredients and a perfect dressing. Malay simply loves it and is one of the popular item that is served with their meals.

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Malaysian Food - Mee Rebus

By Sfire Ling

Malaysian cuisine is the most popular cuisine in world for their unique taste. Local community is a big fan of its delicious cuisine. The visitors are just would like to come Malay to taste its food. The very healthy and unique recipes are found in Malay. The Spice dishes are very apatite. Mee Rebus is one of them famous dishes, which are counted very rich and popular for its enthusiastic taste.

Mee Rebus is a Noodles dish. It's very famous in Indonesian Malaysia and Singapore. Its meaning in English is boiled noodles. This dish is very healthy and served hot.

In Penang It is available easily at any where. As the Peanag is situated at coastal area, people do prefer to make it with seafood. It has gravy which is made by some vegetables like potatoes. It also has dry shrimps, peanuts and salted soybean.

Its one best companion is satay, which is the best combination of Mee Rebus.

This aromatic and delicious food has Varity of combination by which it can be served like with green chillies, Chinese celery, shallots etc.

In very early time mobile sell it in baskets. They have a stove and a pan where there they served it hot. They people are available today also in small towns of Penang.

Now days it is also known as Mee Jawa.

Now I am going to share the secret of Mee Rebus! 

Just follow the recipe and you will get the same kind of taste.

Ingredients are required for making Mee Rebus

400 gm noodle (yellow) 

200 gm Meat 

200 gm Chicken 

200 gm Prawns 

Salt to taste 

4 tsp Cooking oil 

1 tbsp Chili puree 

2 garlic cloves 

4 Onion chopped 

2 cup chicken stock 

1/2 tbsp palm sugar 

3 tbsp peanut crushed 

1/2 tbsp curry powder 

1 Piece of sweet potato mashed

How to make Mee Rebus

Before stating cooking settle down garnishing and boil noodle also prepare gravy. 

Pore the onion into pain and add prawn and garlic, add peanut and chili paste. 

Mix it then add curry powder and cook it till the aroma begins. 

Now add stock, meat and sugar and let it boil. After boiling add mashed potatoes and salt to taste. 

Boil the noodles and drain it in cool water. 

In very last mix all things in pain and cook it for 5 minutes and then remove the heat. 

Garnish it with herbs and crushed peanuts. 

When start serving add bean sprouts, in individual bowl. 

Pore the gravy hot in it and serve it Hot!

Preparation Time is 30 minute for serving of 5-6 serves.

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Malaysia Foods - Introduction of Malaysia Famous Food

By Lau Chen Hung

In the gourmet paradise of Malaysia, you can taste the various kinds of food, especially in Penang and Malacca. The population in Malaysia comprises the majority of Malay, Chinese, Indian and minority of others ethnic communities, where they are integrated together. Malaysia has many kinds of excellent and inexpensive food and restaurants almost everywhere in the towns and cities. There are many Malay, Indian, Chinese, Thai, Korea, Japan restaurants and many more. The food available here ranges from Malay food, Chinese food, Indian food and Straits Chinese food.

Penang was once the world merchant gathering port. Therefore the ingredients can be easily obtained. Malaysian cooking from different parts of the country, have different style and taste. Take for example the Straits Chinese food; those in Malacca prefer a sweeter taste. While in the Northern region, such as Penang, they prefer sour and spicier taste, due to influences by the Thai cooking styles. The spices are used not only as food seasoning, but they also contain some health benefits as well.

Popular Indian foods or dishes such as Flat Bread usually serve together with Pulling Tea. Most of the Indian food is usually hot and spicy. They are eaten with their hands and utensils are kept to a minimum.

Malay famous food is Steamed rice. Steamed rice is where white rice is steamed with coconut milk and serves with curry fishes, chickens, prawns, eggs, onions, cucumbers and spicy chili paste.

Chinese food is not so spicy compare to Malay and Indian foods. But cooking incorporates with different ingredients, seasoning and flavors. Very popular foods is Penang Fried Flat rice noodles which is stir-fried in a wok together with black soy sauce, chili, prawns, eggs, cockles and bean sprouts.

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By: Lau Chen Hung

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The Most Famous Food From Sarawak

By Sandy S K

If you love hot and spicy food, then on your next trip to Sarawak, especially to the capital city of Kuching, you must not miss the famous Sarawak Laksa. what food is it actually?

Well, it is actually rice vermicelli mixed with prawn or shrimp paste, topped with fried eggs that are cut into thin slices, blanched bean sprouts, steamed soft chicken slices and juicy tender prawns. Once all the ingredients are mixed together with thick Laksa gravy poured over it and ready to be served, you may want to squeeze a little lime over it and garnished with coriander leaves. You may also want to add in some "belachan" (spicy shrimp paste) before you consume it.

Belachan is a popular ingredient in South East Asia. It is commonly used in South East Asia and Southern Chinese cuisines as a shrimp paste or shrimp sauce. In Indonesia, belachan is known as terasi, ngapi in Burma, kapi in Thailand and mam tom in Vietnam.

A bowl of Sarawak laksa depending on whether it is a large bowl or a small bowl costs around rm4 to rm6 . (rm3.6=usd1). This Laksa is so delicious that after eating it, it may even send you licking the bowl too. You may even order a second bowl thereafter. This dish will definitely warms up your stomach for the whole day.

When you are in Kuching, you can easily find Laksa being sold in many coffee shops. However, the well known coffee shops that sent people waiting and queuing up for hours are the coffee shops at Tabuan Laru, another stall at Bormill third mile and in the city centre located beside Grand Continental hotel. My favourite Sarawak Laksa stall is at Foody Goody coffee shop at Tabuan Laru vicinity. I would patiently wait for at least half an hour on Sundays as there were just too many customers waiting for their bowl of Laksa.

The Sarawak Laksa is available only on mornings as they would be sold out by lunch time. The best and most delicious Sarawak Laksa in the whole region of Sarawak is still in Kuching city.

You should go check it out if you are in Kuching for work, business or leisure.

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Malaysian Cooking - Basic Ingredients

By Kelvin Ryan

Malaysia is a monarchy in Southeast Asia and is surrounded by ocean. Because of the location, it's easy to figure out that many Malaysia recipes consist of rice and seafood. The culture is a bit split. (Muslims, non-Muslim, Hindu) Because of the different groups people in the area tend to eat a little bit differently than each other. Muslims in Malaysia do not eat pork, Hindus will not touch beef. Those who are not associated with either sect feel free to enjoy all the foods of the land. An important note is that the poultry is handled to measure up to halal standards. Halal, in the case of meat, means that it is not covered in blood or served bloody. The slaughter must be clean, much like kosher standards.

Rice

Rice is the most common food in Malaysian recipes. Rice is usually steamed, but also prepared in other ways. Fried rice made with pineapple is a popular dish. Coconut rice, rice noodles and rice pudding are commonly made. Rice is an economical and filling ingredient.

Poultry, Seafood and Meats

Poultry is prepared according to Halal standards, ensuring it is clean. Chicken is a very common ingredient and can be prepared in so many different ways. Chicken Satay is a savory dish that has a peanut sauce. Peanut sauce tends to be very rich and a little spicy. Curry is often added to chicken dishes as well and served over a bed of rice. Curry is usually yellow in color and very spicy. Sometimes the chicken is fried and sometimes people add it to pizza.

Beef is eaten by most of the culture, excluding the Hindus and some Buddhist monks. Beef is commonly found in stews, rice dishes and pasta recipes. Malaysian recipes also include curry beef and roasted beef. Beef also has to comply with Halal standards.

Pork is not eaten by the Muslim communities as it is a forbidden food. Much like the Old Testament in the Western church forbids Pork for culture reasons; the Muslim law also refrains from it. The pig is often stir fried or served with rice. Pork ribs are a common dish as well and very savory. Sometimes the meat is breaded and fried, but not usually. It is more likely to find pork marinated in some type of sauce.

Seafood and fish are an important staple in Malaysian recipes because it is readily available. Since Malaysia is surrounded by ocean waters fish is an economical way to feed a family. Shrimp in spicy coconut milk, curry fish and shrimp, clams and prawn pad Thai are all examples of the type of meals that come from the sea.

Spices: The Reason behind the Flavor

The reason why so many Malaysian recipes turn out so fantastic is because of the spices the people use. Tumeric, cumin and anise are what give the foods a nice smoky and curry like flavor. Cloves, peppercorns, cardamon and cinnamon are widely cooked with as well. Malaysians use a lot of strong flavors in their cooking. Fresh chili peppers and coconut have a place on the table as well.

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