Food carts with table service, tea with scones, fresh strawberries and satay fondue are just a few of the delicious culinary treats that awaited us during our 12 days in Malaysia. Our feast began almost as soon as we landed in Kuala Lumpur.
As in most of Southeast Asia, the street vendors are everywhere offering delicious and affordable food. We found ourselves out wandering the streets looking for a good place for dinner the first night when the skies opened up with a torrential downpour. So we headed under cover and grabbed one of the last free tables out of the rain. As soon as we sat down multiple vendors approached with homemade photo albums with pictures of their food. It was one of the most convenient ways of ordering I had seen yet. The best part was you could order vegetables from one vendor, a main dish from another and beer from a third depending on prices and whose pictures looked the most appetizing. As much as Americans seem to dislike hawkers, I am beginning to see their value. You sit down and they bring all the details and choices to you. The result was a delicious meal of beef in bean sauce, sautéed spinach in oyster sauce and sweet and sour chicken. Decidedly Chinese in influence but as we were learning Malaysian cuisine sits at the cross roads of Malay, China, and Portugal all with a Thai influence. If that sounds delicious you would be right.
We left Kuala Lumpur below us to wind up into the mountains on our way to the Cameron Highlands, the land of 365 days of fresh strawberries. As the only place in Malaysia that has year round strawberries due to the unique climate and high elevation, the Cameron Highlands offered us a break from the heat and humidity of Kuala Lumpur. The food was strongly influenced by the British that colonized the area, but not in the overcooked vegetables and tough tasteless meat kind of way, more of a sophisticated tea and scones influence. As soon as we set foot on the bus Amy was on a quest to have tea and scones. The next day on our Countryside Tour we visited a strawberry farm and took the opportunity to have fresh scones with whipped cream and strawberries along with a cup of the local tea. They were delicious. The scones were more the texture of biscuits vs. traditional British scones, as they were more moist and flaky. Served with fresh cut strawberries and whipped cream there were no complaints, or leftovers.
After leaving the Cameron Highlands we traveled south to Melaka. Here we were introduced to the concept of satay fondue. Imagine a table with a large pot of delicious peanut satay sauce at a slow rolling boil. Then you go to the large cooler in the restaurant and select whatever meat on a stick suits your taste. I evoked my inner Anthony Bourdain and tried pig heart and kidney along with chicken, pork, prawn and vegetables. You then dip the satay sticks into the boiling satay sauce for 3-6 minutes and pull them out to enjoy. The best part is you pay at the end based upon how many sticks you have on your table. (The verdict on the pig organs is that they were chewy and not quite as good as the meat. Guess I am not meant to host a Travel Channel show yet.)
And possibly our best meal in Malaysia was due to some very friendly parents of a friend of a friend of Amy’s from law school. After graciously agreeing to meet us at our hotel and show us around Melaka, they took us to a traditional Malay restaurant that served baba nyonya food. Baba nyonya food is a blending of Chinese, Malay, Thai and Portuguese into a single wonderful cuisine. When we arrived at the restaurant our hosts proceeded to order nearly every dish on the menu so that we could taste it all. From delicious curry fish stew to Mee Siam (Siamese noodles) it was all flavorful and very fresh. The best part was having three locals that graciously explained everything to us so we could have a better understanding of the local cuisine.
Our trip to Malaysia included more than the delicious cuisine highlighted in this post but the food, with its range and history, was definitely a highlight.
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Year round strawberries!!!
STRAWBERRIES-EVERY DAY–HEAVEN. Now that I could get used to. A can of whip cream and ready to pig out.
Keith, you look so tall. Bet you really stand out. Now I have a craving for stawberries!