OH...THE JOY OF MALAYSIAN FOOD!!!

Now there is one thing, I am sure Malaysians all over the world agree with me - we MISS our glorious Malaysian food! Eating out is a favourite Malaysian past-time. In fact, with a whole array of  local and international cuisine available in Malaysia, it is not until one leaves our country to live elsewhere that we realize that we MISS our local hawker food the most! It is cheap, wonderfully delicious, and most of all, we miss the friendly chatter of all the other diners of different races around us just having a good time over a meal. It is a snapshot of joy of our daily Malaysian life. There is no need to dress up - it is all a very relaxed affair.

 

HOKKIEN MEE



As a child, I remember how excited I was when my dad would take us out for hawkers' food. There was this evening hawkers' stalls just opposite the Diamond Jubilee Hall in Kluang. I loved having Hokkien Mee KL-style - yes, the dark sauce variety. It took me over two months when I first went to work in Singapore years later to realize Singapore Hokkien Mee is a bland soupish variety. At the risk of all my SIngaporean friends' wrath, I have to say - our KL Hokkien Mee beats theirs hands down. :)    

  



CHILLI CRAB

I am pretty fussy about the type of fish I eat but there is one seafood dish I absolutely crave for because it is over ten years since I have last had it - Chili Crab! Now this is one dish that is also a speciality in Singapore. I have no idea why but for some reason, despite my countless visits  home and to Singapore, I still have not had it. This is not a meal to have in a pastel coloured outfit. This is the finger-licking variety type of food....probably why I have not got around to it. I want to have this leisurely in the confines of my own dining table.  I do not have to worry how messy I get. Chili crab for me is alway associated as a communal meal - it is definitely not for a single diner. Well, ten years is a LONG time and I intend to drag my childhood schoolmate, SY, who has promised we'd have chili crab on my next trip home and that is next month in June! I won't have to worry about my clothes or how I look - we were teenagers together and seen ourselves at our worst already.

BAK KUT TEH

Now this is rather strange.  I have been in India for 7 years and the one dish I miss when it is rainy and cool or when I just feel I cannot face another curry meal is my favourite comfort food  - Bak Kut Teh. The hours I have fantasized about this one dish in India is amazing. To my surprise, I found out on a fantastic food blog, Rasa Malaysia, that there is a great Bak Kut Teh restaurant in my own hometown, Kluang. I never ever knew that! I had to read about it from a 2011 blog post by Rasa Malaysia's author Bee Yinn Low who is based in USA. Talk about not knowing my own hometown! Well, I plan to have a great time when I meet another wonderful ex-schoolmate, Winnie, who has promised to take me there.  Bee Yinn's mouth-watering food photos and posts have really made me miss Malaysian food even more than ever before (sigh). All  the food photos I have used here are from Rasa Malaysia with Bee Yinn's kind permission.

MEE SIAM

I love beehooon (vermicilli noodles). One Malaysian dish I could eat endless plates in a single meal was when my Mum cooked Mee Siam. Just thinking of this childhood memory brings back such warm memories of family meals together and especially of my mother's fabulous cooking. I can only marvel at her great love for all of us - there was my dad and eight of us, kids. It must haver been like feeding a mini army...and all of us expecting  our favourite version of the food. Whenever I read the bible verse - "Better to eat vegetables with people you love than to eat the finest meal where thers is hate." (Proverbs 15:17), I think of my family meals. We did not have lavish meals but there was more than enough and it had the best ingredients  - LOVE & LAUGHTER!  

 

Well, there are so many types of great food, I have just scraped the surface. All of us have our own favourite Malaysian dishes. Yet there is one Malaysian dish that is universally liked by ALL self-respectiing Malaysians...our national dish - NASI LEMAK! I have yet to meet a single Malaysian who does not like Nasi Lemak. It is even better when it is wrapped up in banana leaf. Goodness! If I could have the exquisite ikan bilis sambal here in India right now, I would be halfway to Paradise! Till then the photo will have to do...

NASI LEMAK

On a serious note, it is not so much the food itself that I miss, it is the wonderful memories of meals with family, friends, colleagues filled with joy and love and support that makes me miss my country, Malaysia. The people of Malaysia are truly warm and friendly - and I have heard many foreign friends marvel at the warm hospitality of Malaysians. It is a trait that I hope will always be an intrinsic part of my country - Malaysia.

"But life's joys are only joys if they can be shared."

Ravi Zacharias

(Walking from East to West: God in the Shadows)