We Eat Local - The 3 Sides of Food in Malaysia: Indian, Malay, Chinese
Kuala Lumpur is one of the best food cities of all time. Yeah, I said it. A big part of this is the mix of cultures that the city is made up of. The Malay people make up just under 50% of the population. Chinese immigrants take up another large chunk - about 43%. Indians, most of which came over when Britain needed cheap labor during the period of colonization, make up over 10%.
In many ways, Kuala Lumpur is like a recipe. A cultural mix that comes together to make the city an unbelievably tasty place.
In this video, we're eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 3 very different venues.
Breakfast features Indian food with a twist. We head to the Ali Food Corner (a chain that seems to be everywhere in KL) to eat some Canai Roti, a Southeast Asian take on Indian flat bread. It's made with lots of oil or butter, and it comes with a delicious dhal (lentil) curry for dipping. There are a ton of ways to order canai roti (pronounced Che-nai). I go with the telur version - an egg is scrambled in the roti. Sara prefers the sweet taste of a banana filled roti. We also get a masala dosa - a fermented batter crepe that's filled with potatoes covered in masala spices. This is a killer breakfast. It's not exactly healthy, but it's dang delicious. With a cup of coffee or tea, you'll be 100% satisfied.
For lunch, we make our way to the ICC Pudu food hawker center. It's one of the best places to go for food in the city. It's possible to get all three types of food here, but I'm eating Nasi Lemak, which is so Malaysian that it was named their national dish. Traditionally, nasi lemak was a breakfast. It was simply some rice cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in a pandan leaf, and steamed to perfection. It would often include some anchovies or other dry fish, plus some sambal. You'd unwrap the leaf and scarf it down. At lunch though, you want something a bit more substantial. Nasi lemak goes big at lunch time. I got mine with a fried chicken leg, plus some onion sambal, some cockles in a savory sauce, and a bit of curry sauce to eat with the rice. It also comes with a fried up peanut and little fish combo that adds texture and taste. This massive meal only cost 9 ringgit, about $2.15. It was incredible, but I have to say the best part was the fried chicken. Malaysia might have the best chicken in Southeast Asia - maybe in all of Asia. The skin was crispy. The meat was juicy and tender. So goooood!
Finally, it's dinner time, and it's time for Chinese food. In Malaysia, Chinese food usually comes from one of a few regions - most of which are located in southern China. There's the Hakka people, who are kind of the Roma of Asia. There are many Fujian people who offer some incredible seafood dishes. We stuck with Cantonese food in this video, but there are many varieties of Chinese food in Kuala Lumpur. I think there's actually more variety in the city's Chinese food than there is in the Malay food.
Of course, you know Cantonese food because it's the type of Chinese food that seems to be everywhere in the world. We stuck with some classics: roasted pork fried rice, sweet and sour pork, and then we mixed it up with some incredible eggplant cooked with ground pork in a gravy-like sauce. Chinese food in Kuala Lumpur is best served from a Kedai Kopi. This translates to coffee shop, but these places are closer to cafeterias, or food hawker centers. They're usually populated by a variety of stalls. You order what you want and they deliver it to you. You pay for each thing separately, including the drinks (which are usually sold by the landlord).
This was one of the best days for food that we've ever had. Kuala Lumpur is awesome. It will fill you up with a diverse selection of food and keep you coming back for more.
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I live in China and am constantly exploring and traveling the country and other parts of Asia. Subscribe to my channel to watch more adventures... and to learn a bit about food, cultures, and more.
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