World Cuisine - Malaysia

As I am doing research for Malaysian cuisine, I noticed that when people talk about Malaysian food, they seem to get a bit carried away. Their favorite Malaysian food cannot be contained to just 10, it usually gets into a list of 30-40. I can’t think of other cuisines that have such a variety of popular foods that people go nuts about.

Take this article on CNN for example.  This has a list of 40 dishes that we absolutely must try when in Malaysia! The reason for the variety of food that is unique and tasty may be that Malaysia is a cultural melting pot, they took the best of Chinese, Indian, Indonesian Thai and Malay influence and continued to innovate their own cuisine. The climate and geography also allows for pretty much any ingredient to be fresh and abundant.

We will take Mee Goreng Mamak and figure out how to make it today. Mee Goreng Mamak is often served in food stalls in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. It is made with Chinese thin yellow noodles, but the flavor influence is more from India. Since this is a Muslim dish, usually the dish is cooked without pork. These are spicy, savory hearty fried noodles with so much flavor it will leave you so satisfied. Here is a recipe that looks reasonable with most available ingredients. 

If you would like to experience the taste of Malaysia, look for a Penang Malaysian restaurant near you. There are a number of Penang restaurants in New Jersey, and New York.