8 Must-Try Foods When Travelling To Malaysia

Malaysia is a beautiful country, with a mix of the beach life and the city life. If you love Indian and Chinese food then you’ll love Malaysia with influences from both countries. You’ll also find a lot of similarities from Indonesia food if you’ve visited there before.  

We only spent a short amount of time in Malaysia, which meant that we didn’t get to try as many different foods as we wanted. However, in that short amount of time we made sure we had about 4 meals a day to try as much as we could do. So if you’ve only got a couple days visiting Malaysia, make sure to try out these dishes. 

Dishes To Try In Malaysia

In this blog I will discuss some dishes that I fell in love with whilst visiting Malaysia and what you should definitely try during your travels. 

Nasi Lemak 

 This is a popular dish to have at breakfast and let me tell you now it certainly fills you up for the day. With every nasi lemak dish you get a serving of coconut rice, half a boiled egg, sambal, dry roasted peanuts and anchovies. You then can pick one or a few dishes to go with this. It can be rendang curry, fried chicken, marinated meat - the possibilities are endless. The great thing about this is that each vendor you go to will all have different options of what they serve with the nasi lemak, so each one is very unique. There is so much flavour and textures packed into this simply dish. You have the salty crunch of the peanuts and anchovies, you’ve got the creaminess from the rice and the heat from the sambal. It’s a great way to set you up for a day exploring around Malaysia.  

Murtabek  

Now this dish isn’t for the faint hearted, it is huge!! I would recommend sharing this dish with another person but if you do tackle it on your own then good on you! It’s a a huge roti wrapped around curried minced and egg typically but there can be other things stuffed inside. It is then served with a variety of different chutneys and curry sauce.  This is a heavy and dirty dish, so a great one to have if you’ve had too many beers! 

Teh Ais  

Now I have to mention this drink, as it was so addictive and I had it multiple times in those few days. I’ve also not seen it anywhere else again. It is essentially tea and coffee that is mixed together with ice and condensed milk. Sounds like a weird combo and for something so simple why haven’t we recreated it in the UK? But maybe they just make it differently over there which is why it tastes so good. It’s a great way to cut through the rich spice in your food. And it’s also a great drink to cool you down in the boiling heat of Malaysia. 

Laska  

Now this is my ultimate favourite dish from Malaysia. I’ll never forget the best laska I ever had. It was the last night of our time in Malaysia and we were searching around for what felt like hours for the perfect place. We were in Kula Lumpur which is filled with a lot of generic westernised restaurants so it takes some searching to find the right restaurant . Then we found this small restaurant filled with locals and we knew we found the one. I will always remember and crave that laska. Laska is a creamy coconut curry noodle soup. It’s usually served with thin egg noodles. You’ll have chicken on the bone, different vegetables and tofu puffs. The tofu puffs may be the best part because they soak up all that lovely broth giving you such a flavour hit when you bite into them. It’s rich, it’s creamy and has so much flavour for a noodle soup. I’ve tried them in the UK since and they are not quite the same as the ones in Malaysia.  

Hokkien Mee 

This  is such a delicious stir fry noodle dish. The dish is usually made with thick egg noodles. The sauce it is coated in is a lovely dark black colour from dark soy sauce. It typically has a pork, prawns, egg and vegetables in the dish. It is stir fried over a charcoal fire or an extremely hot wok to get a lovely smoky flavour. A great dish to grab from a street vendor and wander along the streets of Malaysia. 

Satay 

 Now this dish you’ll practically find all over South East Asia but it doesn’t mean you should take a pass on the dish. As each country has their own unique take on the dish and let’s face it it’s absolutely delicious. Who can’t resist peanut butter!? For those of you who haven’t tried this dish, it’s basically skewers of meat marinated in spices and soy. It is then barbecued over a charcoal and served with peanut sauce. The satay in Malaysia tends to be more heavily spiced with lemongrass and herbs, the sauce will also be a lot thicker and will be served with cucumber. A tasty little snack to pick up from street vendors. 

Sambal  

You are going to want to buy buckets of this to take back home with you. The great thing is every auntie will make their sambal slightly different. It certainly packs a lot of flavour and will have your tastebuds dancing. It will be served with pretty much every dish in Malaysia. It is made from a variety of different ingredients but the main flavour profiles are chilli, lemongrass, shrimp paste and lime. You’ll also find sambal in other parts of South East Asia, but I do think Malaysia does it best. 

Chilli Crab  

 This dish is more common in Singapore but you’ll also find it all over Malaysia. It’s a huge crab steamed. And served with a spicy chilli sauce served all over the crab. It’s going to get messy and you’ll have the chilli sauce dripping all down your arm but it’s going to be so tasty! It is a bit in the higher price range but so worth it if your budget can afford it. 

Conclusion

All over the Malaysia you’ll find Hawker centres. These are a collection of stalls who serve their one specialty dish and you’ll be able to find everything there from sugarcane juice to nasi lemak to rendang curry. The great thing about these places is they are aunties who have been cooking these dishes for years and perfected the recipes down to a T. Often a lot of Malaysians will eat here in the hawker centres rather than eating at home because it’s cheaper and tastier. However, the sad reality is these hawker centres are dying out. Usually family members would take over the stall and learn the recipes from a young age. But now younger Malaysians are getting other jobs rather than taking over the family stall. You need to get to these hawker centres and try the amazing food whilst you can. It’s also great for the budget, as the food is extremely cheap!  

I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog and it will help with your travels to Malaysia. If you did like this blog make sure to send to your friends and family, so it can help them with their foodie adventures as well!