Malaysian Cookbook

[amitlaud]

Just wondering if you guys have any recommendations for Malaysian cookbooks. I am looking for something which is relatively classical and comprehensive.

Cheers. 

[huiray]

Try these for starters.

 

The Epigram "Heritage Cookbook Series" - "madam choy's cantonese recipes", "madam krishnan's south indian recipes", "uncle lau's teochew recipes", "irene's peranakan recipes", "robin's eurasian recipes". (Yes, the book titles use all lower case letters as printed on the covers)  You can get these via Amazon.

 

"nonya flavours: A complete guide to Penang Straits Chinese Cuisine".  You can get this in the USA via Abe Books [which is actually a Canadian organization], amongst other sources.  (I got my copy from the Penang Bookshelf via Abe Books)

 

"The Hakka Cookbook: Chinese Soul Food from around the World" (Anusassananan) has a useful section (IMO) on dishes found in Malaysia & Singapore in the Hakka tradition.  Available via Amazon.

 

In case you are wondering, "Malaysian" (the nationality) does NOT equal "Malay" (the ethnicity). "Malaysian Cuisine" encompasses the melting pot of Chinese/Indian/European/general SE Asian/British (because of its colonial past)** as well as Malay/Indonesian/etc influences and different cuisines, not just Malay cuisine.  If you are specifically looking for MALAY cuisine, there are cookbooks for that too.  I don't really have recommendations for that, however; and I suspect the classical ones would be in Malay, not English.  Peranakan cuisine, however, is heavily influenced by Malay cuisine, as one might expect from the history of the culture & community.

 

But perhaps you know all this already.  If so, then please disregard the last paragraph. :-) 

 

** An example of a classic Malaysian dish with British Colonial origins is 'Hainanese Pork Chop'.  Google it.  ;-) 

Edited July 21, 2014 by huiray (log)

[huiray]

p.s. I would mention that of the Heritage series, the Cantonese and Teochew ones are probably the ones with the least "Malaysian"/("Singaporean") influence, and many (if not most) of the recipes could be read as simply Chinese recipes, but as practiced in Malaysia & Singapore, with use of local ingredients as appropriate (e.g. local fishes) and with some local color.