No. 1 : Nasi Lemak
Fragrance rice cooked with coconut milk and commonly served with anchovy paste or sambal bilis, fried peanuts, cucumber and hard-boiled egg. However other varieties like rendang daging and sambal sotong are available to suit your taste buds.
No. 2 : Roti Canai
Originally called Roti Chennai due to its origin in Chennai, India. Usually enjoyed early in the morning with a glass of Teh Tarik. However, most mamak stalls serve it around the clock and can be taken as snack.
3. Asam Laksa
A particular pride of Malaysia's now that it's been placed in the top 10 foods in the entire world, asam laksa is a fragrant
broth flavored with tamarinds, with plenty of mackarel fish flakes, mint, pineapple, lettuce, and usually thick rice noodles. Savored all over Malaysia, there are many different varieties that use different combinations of ingredients, making this a truly Malaysian cuisine.
4. Bah Kut Teh
Essentially meat bone tea, this Chinese delicacy is exceedingly popular among KL-ites, and usually comes in chicken and pork variants, though many will swear that pork is far superior. The constant though, is the savory tea base, with many spices, including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, fennel seeds and garlic, in which the meat is simmered. Eaten with rice or noodles, Bah Kut Teh stalls are usually found chock full of happy eaters.
5. Chicken Rice
There are many kinds of chicken rice out there, from the Hainanese variant with smooth steamed chicken, to the Malay
chicken rice with it's fragrant herbs, roast chicken, honey chicken, and many others. Good chicken rice is something of a
delicacy, albeit an extremely affordable one. While Ipoh's chicken rice is much heralded as the best in Malaysia, there
are plenty of great places to be found in every city.
6. Rojak
A fruit/vege salad with dark, thick prawn paste and yau char quai, rojak can be bought from street vendors everywhere, and like many other Malaysian foods, available in different variants, so there's plenty of choice for everyone.
7. Satay
Ah, Satay. Sticks of marinated, grilled meat, served with a sweet chilli or peanut sauce, often with ketupat, rice that's been wrapped in pandan leaves and cooked in it. There's no real rule to what eat you can use for satay- you most commonly see chicken and beef, but some stalls offer deer meat, roast boar, and any other meat you can imagine on a stick.
8. Lontong
Think of lontong as vanilla- it's not really that appetizing on it's own, but when brought together with other flavors, the resulting combination is incredible. Lontong itself is rice, rolled in banana leaves and steamed before being cut into
cakes, and then eaten with a variety of different sauces and dishes. Used in Soto, Gado Gado, and even with Satay, Lontong is a versatile must-have for Malaysia's many savory foods.
9. Nasi Dagang
Literally 'Trade Rice', Nasi Dagang is rice steamed in coconut milk and eaten with fish curry and picked vegetables, hard-boiled eggs, and a variety of different meat dishes. Primarily hailing from the Eastern coast of Malaysia, Nasi Dagang is a genuinely Malaysian dish all can enjoy.
10. Char Koay Teow
In it's purest form, rice cake strips fried in soy sauce, chilli, prawns, belacan, beansprouts, chives, and cockles, Char Koay Teow has seen popularity all over Malaysia, with a halal version sold by traders everywhere, and a non-halal version that sees additions like Chinese sausage, and croutons of pork lard. Nonetheless, char koay teow has inspired migrations of people to popular spots, and will continue to do so as long as we Malaysians love food.
