Food in Malaysia

Tags

foodie, Malaysia, Penang

Another place I was excited to visit for its gastronomical note worthiness is Malaysia, with Penang, Malaysia being known as one of the gastronomical capitals of the world. And it did not disappoint. It is a foodie town, aka my kind of town!! Many people visit Penang just on a foodie vacation. Because it is such a foodie town, there are numerous guides and official maps that lay out the best spots for various dishes and I did try to hit up as many of the best dishes as I could :). While I enjoyed the food in Kuala Lumpur, I’d say Penang is even better and generally less expensive.

Malaysian cuisine reflects the multiculturalism of its people and results in amazing flavor combinations. It quite possibly might be my favorite type of food. And it’s available 24/7, be it in the numerous street food stalls, “old time coffee shops–kopitiam” (which are actually these interesting hybrids of many different street stalls operating out of a single “coffee shop”), hawker centers, food courts or even proper restaurants. I don’t understand how the people are so thin given how much they like to snack throughout the day and evening! But the fact the portions are generally nice and small helps, I’m sure. I was happy that they were small so I could justify having two or three things at each meal 😉

I’d recommend any true foodie add Malaysia and specifically Penang to your list of places to visit, and you must have the street food. Street food is very safe in Malaysia, because of this constant scrutiny and because of the high turn over of food. You and your tummy will be quite satisfied.

Sapur, my host in Penang, a lovely lady who took me to wonderful restaurants and was an amazing cook as well. This was some of the tastiest Indian food.

Caramelized banana French toast made by Sapur, it was better than any restaurants. Plus it really reflected the multi-culti of Malaysia, a western type dish of French toast, with the Malay caramelized bananas, and the almonds with Indian topped spices, so good!

Sapur also took us to have Nasi Lemak, a coconut rice, with various toppings, plus a spicy chili sambal sauce, yum!

And also to Roti canai-a grilled flaky Indian flatbread you dip in a curry sauce

Cendol

Penang Laksa, a fish based broth. A funky mix for sure, I loved it!

Ice Kechang or AIS Kechang

Pork and lamb satay with peanut sauce

Street stall heaven on Mccallister Road in Penang

Had never seen a sardine/tuna samosa before

Inside of the samosa, pretty good

Curry Me (Curry noodle soup) and spicy squid Nasi Goreng (fried noodles)

Flower tea, I became very acquainted with coffee and tea shops in Asia, as they were great places to find A/C to beat the 100+ and 90% humidity days. Also free WiFi to boot.

However this stop was not one, the A/C was more like fans and I ordered a hot tea. But it was pretty and tasty

AIS Krim Goreng or Ice Cream fried-aka deep fried Ice Cream!

And it was taro flavored, how could I resist! Had to have the basil seed sour plum drink to go with it 🙂 this was a more pleasant AC rest stop

Indian fried sweet

The best Portuguese egg tart! And a barbecued pork baked bun- so tasty!

Malls in Asia have the best food courts, fresh tasty cooked foods, they must be so disappointed when they come to malls in the US, and it’s over processed fast food, Panda Express and Sbarro’s eww…

This food court was amazing, the owner of the mall was a foodie, so he convinced all his favorite street stalls to open a branch in his food court

One of the more famous street stalls that sells beef two ways, in a soup and as noodles, with a minced beef type gravy, so good!

My beef ball soup and covered beef noodles

My kind of do it yourself, you pick the meat, noodles, tofu, and veggies, plus a soup base, they cook it for you. Mine was a curry base with fish balls, stuffed chili peppers, deep fried tofu, but I forgot veggies… Good thing they add bean sprouts 😉