Malaysian street food
Sampling local street food has become an essential element of overseas travel and indeed offering street food and street food tours is increasingly seen as an important draw for foreign visitors. A brief scan of any of the myriad ‘best street food’ kind of articles includes entries from right across the World with cities as diverse as Taipei, Calcutta, Mexico City, Hong Kong, Sydney and Berlin vying for places on the list. Of course, many of the top rankings are Asian cities and much of the so-called street food sold in the latter two examples at least, is hardly likely to comprise of genuinely traditional local dishes. Predictably and justifiably, Malaysian street food is right up there near the top since in terms of sheer variety, Malaysia has a major advantage over its rivals.
What makes Malaysian street food so good?
The country’s complex history and kaleidoscopic ethnic mix have created a correspondingly rich cuisine. In addition to typical Malay and Malay-Chinese fusion, (Nyonya), fare, there are British, Dutch and Portuguese historical influences as well as dishes originating from neighbouring Thailand and Indonesia. Long-standing, diverse communities from all parts of China and the Indian subcontinent means that Malaysian offerings include not just Indian and Chinese cuisine but Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi and Keralese specialities and Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese influences so, while Mumbai or Shanghai may well have great street grub, Malaysia really has it all. Street markets and food courts in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh or Kuching can justifiably claim to offer ‘the best of Asia’.
People have written entire books on Malaysian street food but, without further ado, here’s a brief rundown of just a few of our favourites, so…in no particular order…
Laksa – a Malaysian signature dish Laksa
Probably the country’s best-loved soup, laksa comes in many variations and local residents regularly argue over, for instance, a Penang laksa versus a Malacca laksa but to our mind, they’re all great. The soup contains fish or seafood and usually rice, but sometimes wheat, noodles, in a spicy and sour coconut broth. (A laksa asam uses tangy tamarind instead of coconut but, as we said, there are infinite variations.) The dish is probably Nyonya in origin – a unique fusion cuisine of Straights Chinese and traditional Malay.
Curry mee
As with a laksa, no two versions of the ubiquitous curry mee – sometimes called curry laksa – are identical, although, again, in our opinion, they’re all pretty good. Mee refers to wheat noodles so the dish is noodles in a curry sauce or stock topped with chicken, prawns or tofu. It’s usually considered a soup although drier versions are also seen.
Hokkien mee – a drier noodle dish Hokkien mee
A drier, fried noodle dish consisting of wheat noodles served in a sauce rather than soup. Logically it’s therefore a sub-category of mee goreng with the commonly seen menu term goreng meaning fried so mee or nasi goreng are fried noodles or fried rice respectively. Chicken, prawns or tofu are common toppings and the sambal, chilli sauce is served separately so, as with most Malaysian street food dishes, it begins life mild and then it’s up to you.
Nasi goreng – simple but delicious fried rice Nasi goreng
The ubiquitous nasi goreng is another, at first glance, simple dish – fried rice with chicken, prawns, vegetables or whatever you prefer. However, Wikipedia does list no less than 90 versions of nasi goreng that are commonly found across Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Classic fried rice is common throughout much of Asia but in this part of the world, it’s been elevated to haute cuisine. In contrast to Thai or Vietnamese fried rice for instance, nasi goreng uses generous helpings of sweet soya sauce, creating a distinctive, smoky and slightly sweet flavour. Note, nasi goreng is intended to be a dish in its own right rather than a simple accompaniment as one might order Cantonese fried rice along with, for example, a sweet and sour dish from your local Chinese takeaway.
Nasi lemak – the national dish Nasi lemak
While widely found in neighbouring Singapore and Indonesia, nasi lemak is considered to be Malaysia’s national dish and once again, every town will have its own style, while every family and grandmother will have their own closely guarded recipe. Basically, the dish is rice cooked in coconut milk (ideally steamed in pandanus leaves), with a variety of accompaniments and garnishes. The most common are peanuts, dried anchovies, hard-boiled egg, sambal sauce and a spoon or two of curry. Nasi lemak rendang is our personal favourite, although myriad regional versions even include a Cameron Highlands offering with strawberries!
World famous satay Satay
Malaysians and Indonesians may debate the origins of world-famous satay, (officially, we believe, it is of Javanese provenance), while the dish is also widely found in Thailand but it certainly is an essential element in any Malaysian food court or night market. Chicken, pork or beef are common while tofu is also regularly on offer. Wonderful as a nibble with drinks or as part of a full meal.
Roti vendor, George Town, Penang Roti canai (chanai)
Roti chanai and a cup of Cameron Highlands tea in a George Town cafe is one of our all time favourite breakfasts. The thin, flaky rotis are fried then dipped into a bowl of curry sauce or dahl. Walk past any Indian cafe in a morning and you’ll see rows of ready-prepared dough balls waiting to be tossed and thinned, (pizza style) and fried in ghee on a griddle. Stuffed versions – murtabaks – are common while sweet rotis including condensed milk and perhaps slices of banana are also regularly see at evening food stalls.
Murtabak with a curry dipping sauce Murtabak
Although traditionally served in Malaysia’s Muslim Indian cafes, these stuffed, savoury pancakes are actually said to be of Arab – possibly Yemeni – origin. (Another theory has murtabak originating in Kerala.) The pancakes are fried on a griddle and stuffed and folded with eggs, onions and minced meat although vegetarian options are common. (Apparently, the name murtabak derives from the Arab word muṭabbaq, meaning to fold.) The resulting square is usually then cut into bite-sized pieces and served with either a curry sauce or dahl. Murtabak is right up there with roti canai on the list of the World’s greatest breakfasts but equally makes for a great lunch or evening snack.
Lok Lok
A common sight on street stalls or in hawker markets are the rows of skewers of meatballs, fishballs, prawns, tofu, vegetables, sausages etcetera known as lok lok. You choose the skewers which are then plunged into boiling water and eaten with a choice of dipping sauces. Makes for an ideal beer snack or something to nibble on as you peruse a street market.
Yong tau fu or stuffed tofu Yong tau fu
We might not be a huge tofu fan but this versatile, Hakka Chinese, stuffed tofu concoction has become a consistent fave of ours in Malaysian cafes. The tofu can be stuffed with minced pork or fish and either served dry, in a sauce or in a soup.
Malaysian street food – a few honourable mentions
Our list could be a lot longer and the above are just a few faves that sprang to mind, (and ones that we have half decent pics of.) A shout out to the very popular ‘steamboats’ – a cook your own dinner with an array of vegetables, meat, seafood and so on which you plunge into a steaming pot of stock or broth placed in the centre of your table. (In our experience, things can get a bit warm so this is one we usually save for the Cameron Highlands.) Another iconic dish is the Hokkien-style bakuteh – or bak kut teh – a rich pork rib and mushroom soup – which apparently received recognition as an ‘object of national (Malaysian) heritage no less, in 2024.
Where to find street food
As with our recent post on Cambodian street food, we’re using the term to cover pavement and market stalls as well as hawker markets, food courts and local cafes. (We do, however draw the line at the fancy, air-con restaurants advertising street food at inflated prices as – in our opinion – street is the defining word.) Hawker markets come in two formats – either temporary pavement stands lining a road or grouped together in open-air, food court-style areas. In the latter case, chairs and tables are arranged in the centre with food stands around the edge so you pick a spot and food from whichever stands you choose will be brought to your table. They’ll also be waiting staff taking orders for juices or beers and some of the large courts may even have live music. The surrounding stalls will offer a wide range of food including most of our above faves along with an inevitable Thai stand or two, and increasingly a few international offerings such as pizzas or burgers. (Yes, Malaysians like pizza too!) Also commonly seen will be the ‘steamboat’, hotpot style, cook your own dinners.
Al fresco dining in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown Such food courts are generally evening affairs although smaller ones open at midday to serve office workers and the like while similar set-ups are now common features of motorway service stations.
Morning options include Chinese coffee shops with perhaps some dim sum or breakfast choices on their menus and the ubiquitous Indian-run cafes. The latter are definitely cafes – rather than cafés – and to our minds the Malaysian equivalent of the old English-style ‘greasy spoon’ albeit lacking chips and the condensation-covered windows. A large griddle generally faces the pavement covered with murtabaks and rotis in various stages of cooking and there’s generally a choice of pavement or interior seating. Menus will incliude a variety of other dishes including perhspoa biryani, thalis or curry on rice.
More satay – can’t have too much satay Malaysian street food on our tours
As we began the piece by saying, discovering the local food is an important element to discovering a culture and our small group tours to Malaysia reflect this. Our Peninsula tours begin in KL’s Chinatown, an ideal spot to try some of our Chinese-style listings with an abundance of pavement cafes offering such dishes as Hokkien mee, steamboat, bakuteh etc while stands selling clothes and electronic tat are interspersed with satay and lok lok stands as well as juice and ice cream bars.
Our second day includes a tour of Kampung Baru – a curiously overlooked, low-rise district in the shadow of KL’s Petronas Towers which has since become something of a foodie destination for locals.
George Town, Penang however is certainly one of the best culinary destinations in the country with its sprawling Chinatown, Little India and vibrant hawker markets. Our stay in Penang includes a walking tour of the famous New Lane Street market and an evening food court meal as well as dinner at a Nyonya restaurant.
Our longer West Malaysia tour, the Malay Peninsula – Highlights of Malaysia, extends the tour to Ipoh – a lesser-known destination for overseas visitors – but locally famous for its food. A steamboat in the cool Cameron Highlands follows after which it’s a return to KL’s Chinatown for our farewell dinner.
