Malaysian Cuisine

[Pan]

But what's the difference between the Chinese and Indian styles of rojak? I frankly don't know. And is there also a distinct Malay style?

[JustKay]

There's quite a good Indian rojak in OUG. It's so good with chendol (must have kidney beans for me) that you always see these 2 stalls side by side. There seems to be a good one along the highway outside Damansara Utama; always see a long queue, but somehow haven't tried it yet.

I think I know this one - always have Mercedes and big cars also, right? And a mamak cendol stall beside it? It's alomst nearing to 1 Utama?

There's also another 'pair' of Rojak Mamak & Cendol on LDP near Taman Megah.

My DH has tried the one nearer to 1 Utama. He said it's quite good. I didn't try it coz ... umm ... I'm rather anal about where I eat especially the food preparation part. LOL!

Edited May 28, 2004 by kew (log)

[Tepee]

Pan, you must have missed Kew's description on the difference btw chinese and indian rojak...scroll up a little.

Kew, yes, that's the one! Hah, I've got a weak constitution too, and I don't return to a stall which I've had "problems" with, except for this mamak restaurant near my ex-office. It was the only one around in that area, and I just couldn't bring myself to believe that they were the cause of my grief. The reactions usually come very fast...takes me just from the shop to my office. Besides, now that I'm home-bound, I've been having home-cooked meals which spoils the whole seasoned set-up of my stomach from when I used to eat out a lot.

[Pan]

Pan, you must have missed Kew's description on the difference btw chinese and indian rojak...scroll up a little.

You're right, TP. Sorry, Kew.

[JustKay]

Pan, you must have missed Kew's description on the difference btw chinese and indian rojak...scroll up a little.

Dontcha know? Pan is a forum host, thus he's on a different level ie he doesn't read newbie's and/or non-professional's post. LOL!

Pan - I hope the recipes below will give you some idea.

Ingredients for the sauce for Chinese Rojak/Rojak Buah/Rojak Petis :

1 tsp belacan powder

1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

1-2 tbsp roasted peanuts, pounded

3 tbsp heko or black prawn paste

1 tbsp thick soy sauce

13-14 bird chillies (cilipadi), finely chopped or pounded

1 tbsp chilli paste

7-8 tbsp sugar or to taste

l tsp salt or to taste

1/2 cup lukewarm water

Ingredients for the sauce for Indian Rojak/Rojak Mamak

8 shallots

3 cloves garlic

3 fresh red chillies

3 dried chillies, soaked until soft

3/4 tsp belacan stock granules

75g mashed sweet potatoes

75g gula Melaka

1½ tbsp tamarind, mixed with 50ml water and squeezed for juice

600ml water

125g toasted peanuts, pounded

3/4 tsp salt or to taste

3 tbsp oil

Also, this sauce is cooked.

Oh and look! Newfangled Rojak

And don't forget Rojak Tauhu!

p.s. : TP - my 'problem' isn't so much as to the 'stomach' but more to the gag factor.

Edited May 28, 2004 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

it's quite expensive in the UK! might start saving my pennies for a few pieces though!

Do you get the 'fresh' ones or frozen?

I can always eat some for ya.

Pan and SG - thanks for replying on the fiddlehead ferns. I used to love them cooked Masak Lemak (coconut milk gravy/soup ? dish) but I don't eat them anymore. There are a lot of food I love as a child that I don't enjoy now.

[Pan]

Oh and look! Newfangled Rojak

Apples, really untraditional!

The Malaysian restaurants I've been going to in Flushing, Queens and Manhattan's Chinatown tend to include tofu, jicama, cucumber, and pineapple in their rojak, which is of course Rojak Cina. A bunch of people have come here from Ipoh. I visited Ipoh last August. Beautiful, pleasant city (with delicious food!) but no work.

[su-lin]

Chinese rojak is more fruit based and uses a lot of petis = that nasty smelling but yummy shrimp paste.

Indian rojak or Rojak Mamak is more peanut sauce based. I don't think it has shrimp paste. And it doesn't have fruit in it.

Yup, that about sums it up...there's another name for Indian rojak and I'm going to look it up now...can't find it...is it pasembar? Can anyone confirm or correct this?

I recall all my Chinese rojaks containing tofu, jicama, cucumber, pineapple...there's probably more...oh yeah, peanuts on top too.

Indian rojaks are fritter based...lots of deep fried goodies...tofu, prawn fritters, just plain ol' flour fritters...all topped with that peanut based sauce that....well...reminds me of satay sauce in texture but NOT taste. Topped with some shredded veg...I recall cucumber and jicama... Hard boiled egg and boiled sotong (squid) optional. I think there can be some potato...

Hey, there's another favourite! Satay! I love pork satay but during my recent trip to KL, my uncle and I couldn't find a Chinese satay vendor...

Pohpia! Sorry, I just keep thinking of different dishes as I go along...

I thought I'd share some food porn...there's a photo of Indian rojak there somewhere...

[su-lin]

Do you get the 'fresh' ones or frozen?

We can find the fresh ones in Chinatown and I can also find it in my local Thai shop. Whole or sections on styrofoam trays, shrink wrapped.

Come to think of it, I see more fresh durian around than fresh jackfruit.

[Gul_Dekar]

Hey, there's another favourite! Satay! I love pork satay but during my recent trip to KL, my uncle and I couldn't find a Chinese satay vendor...

There used to be one in Brickfield's near the YMCA. Not sure if the guy is still there anymore tho. Also go to Malacca to have it, in Tanjong Kling if I remember correctly.

[PCL]

Just read this entire thread and thought I'd share the following...

- mouth watering thread...

- feeling a little homesick (Ipoh born boy here, back in Australia now, was living in London for a couple years...)

- durian season? woo hoo!!... will be in KL in a week or so... can't wait...

- Pan, you're an inspiration... Tourism Malaysia should get you on board to promote the east coast.

and a question... no mentions of Nasi Lemak??... that stalwart of convenience and good taste??...

how do you like your nasi lemak? I'm a biasa kind of guy, a bit of sambal, egg, ikan bilis and peanuts... although a good dollop of sotong never goes astray...

[Pan]

You said it about the sotong.

And my mother hates fish and doesn't relate to the ikan bilis, but I love it.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but my favorite Malaysian dish was the Chili Udang Galah I used to get in Chinatown in Kuala Terengganu. The udang galah they caught in the 1970s were collosal and when they had the eggs in their heads! MMMmmmmmmmm!

But Malaysian udang galah is still excellent. Last July, Shiewie and Maukitten took me to a place in PJ that served excellent udang galah and other seafood. Thanks, gals.

Another wonderful dish I used to have was a Cantonese dish in a great banquet restaurant in the Hotel Malaysia, again in the 70s, called the Imperial Room: Pigeon with Peanuts. That was always our first dish whenever we ate there.

But regardless of my remarks about 70s food, the general quality of Terengganu food is much better now than it was then, especially in the kampungs - partly because people are richer and can afford better ingredients and partly because of the influence of Thai food. I've heard complaints that much more sugar is used nowadays, and that that may be partly responsible for the huge increase in diabetes (though I think the lack of exercise in many parts of Malaysia is a much bigger culprit), but if true, that didn't bother me in terms of taste. In other places like KL, the food has always been wonderful and remains wonderful.

[JustKay]

- durian season? woo hoo!!... will be in KL in a week or so... can't wait...

I have durians in my house now. I had durians for breakfast, and lunch. Certainly a good time to come back for durians!

[Tepee]

If you like 101 durians (thick reddish flesh and small seeds), you can get 3 for RM10 at the Bandar Sunway/Puchong toll, so says my brother who ate some last week and said it was the best he had ever tasted. Highly recommended...need I say more??

[JustKay]

If you like 101 durians (thick reddish flesh and small seeds), you can get 3 for RM10 at the Bandar Sunway/Puchong toll, so says my brother who ate some last week and said it was the best he had ever tasted. Highly recommended...need I say more??

I bought those from Malacca yesterday - cost RM4 per kg and I thought that was cheap! But I prefer D24 best. Only sometimes, the D24 isn't really 'authentic' D24s. Sigh! Thanks for the heads-up anyways.

[PCL]

If you like 101 durians (thick reddish flesh and small seeds), you can get 3 for RM10 at the Bandar Sunway/Puchong toll, so says my brother who ate some last week and said it was the best he had ever tasted. Highly recommended...need I say more??

That's near my parent's place in TTDI, easily accessible by the new LDP!!... wow... gotta head down there... they, my folks, generally get their Durian from a stall in PJ, near SS2, guess everyone's got their favourite supplier... the old family favorite is actually in Ipoh, in Tambun opposite the Tambun cemetery... the old guy has been selling since day dot and now his daughter and grand children help out... right by a nursery and under the old tree... a scene out of paradise I say...

...hmmm... I sense a thread evolving from this....

... and Mike, oops, Pan, any chance of correcting the title of THIS thread?? I just noticed they spellt Malaysia wrong!!

[Editor's comment: The title of this thread has been corrected shortly after midnight on June 1, 2004]

[JustKay]

... and Mike, oops, Pan, any chance of correcting the title of THIS thread?? I just noticed they spellt Malaysia wrong!!

I go ... everytime I see the Maylasian too. I was hoping the person who started the thread would request the spelling correction after I pointed it out. But it seems s/he's not been back here, and we've hijacked the thread from her/him.

[Pan]

My superpowers don't extend to changing the names of threads outside of the New York Forum, but it's definitely high time the misspelling was corrected, so I asked for that by clicking "report this post." Feel free to click that yourselves any time you see something that should be changed or is otherwise objectionable.

[PCL]

Wow, it's so cool when Pan goes into "Official" mode... he's your man when the going demands a cool, calibrated, countenanced mind...

I believe Roger McShane is the person nominally in charge of these pages. A PM will be sent.

Also, c'mon guys!!! NASI LEMAK!! where are your favs? Especially in the KL region, I'm arriving next Thursday and I'm thinking I need to expand my Nasi Lemak boundaries, let alone my waist line!!

[Shiewie]

Hi PCL

Here's a link to a Malaysian site whereh you can find a list of the popular Nasi Lemak stalls in KL. I haven't tried all of them of the list thoguh only Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa, Nasi Lemak Tanglin and Nasi Lemak Cikgu.

There are a couple of others that I like that are not on the list:

- stall in front of the old clock tower on Lebuh Pasar Besar - it's near the HSBC Bank and down the road from Central Market - there's no place to sit down - it's purely 'bungkus' (take-away) for the people who work in the offices in that area - breakfast only

- stall at coffee shop on Jalan Dang Wangi (what used to be Campbell Road) near the bridge - it's breakfast only as well - can't remember the name of the shop (it's opposite this other coffee shop called Yut Kee). However you can spot it quite easily as the there's a huge wooden container (at breakfast time only, of course) which the rice is served out of.

[markk]

I just noticed they spellt Malaysia wrong!!... I was hoping the person who started the thread would request the spelling correction after I pointed it out. But it seems s/he's not been back here, and we've hijacked the thread from her/him.

More than you will ever know, I regret mispelling the word "Malaysian" more deeply, and more sincerely, than perhaps any mistake I have ever made in my entire life. I cannot apologize more for this error nor humble myself before you more than I do with this posting.

However, I don't know how to change the title of the thread. If this is something that only I, as the originator of the thread can do, I pray that you will tell me how to do this, and I pray that you will consider forgiveness for me for this horrendous, horrendous mitsake.

[Pan]

You can't change the title of a thread; only the forum host for this forum and site managers can change thread titles. Oh, looks like there's no forum host for this forum...I'll PM a site manager.

[Tepee]

Hmm, methinks it's time to appoint a Forum Host. I've got a couple of candidates in mind....

[JustKay]

markk - you've mangled my quote and PCL's! I had to read twice something I don't think I quite wrote. LOL!

That's ok. I am glad that you're back to read all the replies.

I hope we've given you a glimpse of Malaysian cuisine. There are a whole lot more to share, so don't stay away.

Edited June 1, 2004 by kew (log)

[JustKay]

Hmm, methinks it's time to appoint a Forum Host. I've got a couple of candidates in mind....

I vote for Pan and Shiewie, but then the forum owners might have some prerequisites to being elevated from a mere member to Forum Host.

Edited June 1, 2004 by kew (log)