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Images of Malaysian Hawker/Street Food

Tepee
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hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
Posted

I am slightly lost in these recent discussions... must have been sidetracked by the "haam sap lo" thing... :laugh:

Is Rojak the same as Lobak? And Rujak (per spaghetttti)? Are they 3 different things?

I thought I was seeing some crepes and sweet things... and I suddenly see some tofu and savory items.

Does "Lobak" have a Chinese origin? (If so, is it Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, or???) Or is it uniquely Malaysian?

Rojak, Rujak, Lobak... I lost my orientation!

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
trillium

trillium

Posted
Posted

Rojack and Rujak are the same thing. Lobak in terms of Singaporean (and I'm guessing M'sian) means a meat roll wrapped in bean curd skin and then deepfried (and according to TP, anything else the lobak vendor), but also means daikon or long turnip (like lobak ko, the savory cake, a derivative of which gets called carrot cake in Singapore). Er, hope that helps.

regards,

trillium

torakris

torakris

Posted
Posted

It all looks so good but I am getting confused too...

When I finally get to Malaysia I am going to want to order rojak and all I am going to remember is haam sap lo. :raz:

The sauces seem almost savory with prawn paste, prawn crackers, etc but it is served with fruit are these dessert type snacks? or aren't they really classified like that?

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted

Rojak isn't a dessert. It's more like a salad. Rojak also means a bunch of things thrown together.

Michael aka "Pan"

 

Shiewie

Shiewie

Posted
Posted
I am slightly lost in these recent discussions... must have been sidetracked by the "haam sap lo" thing...  :laugh:

Is Rojak the same as Lobak?  And Rujak (per spaghetttti)?  Are they 3 different things?

I thought I was seeing some crepes and sweet things... and I suddenly see some tofu and savory items.

Does "Lobak" have a Chinese origin?  (If so, is it Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakka, or???)  Or is it uniquely Malaysian?

Rojak, Rujak, Lobak...  I lost my orientation!

Rojack and Rujak are the same thing.  Lobak in terms of Singaporean (and I'm guessing M'sian) means a meat roll wrapped in bean curd skin and then deepfried (and according to TP, anything else the lobak vendor), but also means daikon or long turnip (like lobak ko, the savory cake, a derivative of which gets called carrot cake in Singapore). Er, hope that helps.

regards,

trillium

Lobak the meat roll, is Chinese in origin. It's Hokkien (Fujian) and translates to lowe yuk (Cantonese) or lu rou (Mandarin) i.e. braised meat. The meat roll is usually seasoned with 5-spice powder so the full name for the bean curd meat roll is "ngor hiang lor bak" (literally translates 5 fragrant braised meat) - it's sometimes served as one of the items for a Chinese New Year dinner.

Hang on ... but where's the braising bit in a lobak / lor bak / loh bak (no standardised spelling for it) :hmmm: ?!! Had a short discussion with a Hokkien colleague and we figured that it could be the gooey sauce that's served with lobak ... not sure how the sauce is prepared but the gooey bit comes from tapioca flour. We arrived at this conclusion based on lor meen - a goeey dish of stewed/braised fat Hokkien noodles eaten with black vinegar.

Help ... any food historians around ? Will try and check more and revert later.

On the other hand, lobak as in white radish / daikon is based on the Cantonese lor pak (pak lor pak for daikon and hoong lor pak for carrots) and has since been adopted into Bahasa Malaysia for daikon.

Hope this doesn't confuse things further :laugh:.

hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
Posted
Lobak the meat roll, is Chinese in origin. It's Hokkien (Fujian) and translates to lowe yuk (Cantonese) or lu rou (Mandarin) i.e. braised meat....

...Hang on ... but where's the braising bit in a lobak / lor bak / loh bak (no standardised spelling for it)  :hmmm: ?!! Had a short discussion with a Hokkien colleague and we figured that it could be the gooey sauce that's served with lobak

... On the other hand, lobak as in white radish / daikon is based on the Cantonese lor pak (pak lor pak for daikon and hoong lor pak for carrots) and has since been adopted into Bahasa Malaysia for daikon.

Thanks for the clarifications, Shiewie. I think my confusions came from:

(1) Ms TP switched subject mid-stream from Rojak to Lobak. I missed the transition mark.

(2) How can the term "Lobak" (which I understand as daikon in Cantonese) would mean a meat roll. I was thinking: Huh??? Meat is suddenly called "Lobak"? :laugh::laugh:

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
JC

JC

Posted
Posted
It all looks so good but I am getting confused too...

When I finally get to Malaysia I am going to want to order rojak and all I am going to remember is haam sap lo. :raz:

The sauces seem almost savory with prawn paste, prawn crackers, etc but it is served with fruit are these dessert type snacks? or aren't they really classified like that?

And apart from the rojak above (which we normally call Penang rojak) you should also try the mamak rojak (a very different style but delicious in its own way).

Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Hawker centres offer a very wide range of refreshment. Here's Fruit Juice and ABC or Ais Kacang.

ABC:

A = air (water)

B = batu (stone)

AB = air batu (ice)

C = campur (mix)

-------> mixed (shaved) ice

Ais Kacang:

ais, air batu = ice

kacang = beans, nuts

ABC is a shaved ice dessert which has lots of goodies in them. The fineness of the shaved ice varies from stall to stall. I like this over-the-top one which has a generous helping of cincau /leong fun/black grass jelly, cendol/green bean strings, agar-agar jelly, creamed corn, red beans, atap chee and coco de nato (both palm fruit derivatives), and a dollop of vanilla ice-cream. The only thing missing in this version is palm sugar syrup. This one is only drizzled with rose syrup and evaporated milk...but what a treat!

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

hzrt8w

hzrt8w

Posted
Posted
Hawker centres offer a very wide range of refreshment. Here's Fruit Juice and ABC or Ais Kacang.

Nice! Being in the Tropics, these treats must be a year-round favorites?

W.K. Leung ("Ah Leung") aka "hzrt8w"
Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Before I forget Yetty's request...here' a pic of a hawker centre. This particular one, called Asia Cafe (in USJ) is humongous, with over 100 stalls. There are dozens of stalls dedicated to drinks and desserts alone. Of course, hawker food is not confined to centres alone, you can find them in 'coffee shops' or they come as stand-alone stalls on streets.

And, yes, Ah Leung Gaw, it's available all year round.

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

  • 1 month later...
ecr

ecr

Posted
Posted

Tepee, I think you are the one to ask ... have you ever made sang har meen at home? Or is it perhaps just something that one can only have out (a good version, that is...)?

Er, um, to toot my own blog, more pics of Malaysian hawker and stall food here. As far as food goes, Malaysia truly is heaven on earth!

Eating Asia
Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Hey, ecr, look time no hear from you! Loving your blog!

Oh sure, I used to make sang har meen at home when I manage to get some gorgeous big prawns at the market...now with more heads, there's more noodles to fry, so I get a little bit lazy. Recipe. If you prefer the MSG taste, use the Maggi granules. I use concentrated homemade stock.

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

  • 1 month later...
Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Time to spice up the thread. Had Indian Muslim Rojak/Mamak Rojak for a light lunch today. RM2.50. Bought this from a van vendor nearby. The peanutty sauce was a bit sweet, and one of the crunchy stuff lacked crunch...but overall, it was good.

Ever since I saw somebody eating this, I had been coveting it. Curry Laksa from the famous OUG Penang Laksa (go figure) coffee shop. This curry laksa is the real deal...it has even got pork skin in it on top of the regular cockles, ribs, bean sprouts and tau kwa (fried bean puffs).

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted

Gosh, Austin...great pix! You make me miss Penang food so much. Hubby goes on biz trips to Penang so often that he has scrapped it off potential local holiday destinations for the family. Did you drink cendol? I once visited 3 stalls consecutively. :rolleyes: How about the seafood? That's it! I must stop torturing myself!

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

His Nibs

His Nibs

Posted
Posted

Dunno about cendol but us singaporeans have chendol. Chendol is a shaved ice dessert. It is flavoured with coconut milk and gula melaka syrup, topped with green noodles and a form of red bean paste. Very tasty!

Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted
Gee, thanks!  Always nice to receive compliments. Nope, never tried cendol (a drink of some kind, I assume?).  I did, however, "discover" nutmeg juice!  Have any of you tried this?  Amazing stuff...

Austin

Cendol

Austin, did you have the nutmeg juice in Penang? Never tried that before, but it sounds good. More details, please. Any pix?

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

Pan

Pan

Posted
Posted
Dunno about cendol but us singaporeans have chendol.[...]

Just a parenthetical note on orthography: In Malay "ejaan baru" ("new spelling"), which I believe was introduced in the late 1960s or so, "ch" became "c", "sh" became "sy", and there were changes in some vowels before final "h" and "k". So chendol is cendol is chendol, or vice versa. :laugh:

Michael aka "Pan"

 

His Nibs

His Nibs

Posted
Posted

Well... just for the curious, I went out and had laska and chendol at one of my favorite hawker centres. Good thing it's near a public library too (kill 2 birds with 1 stone... borrow books and eating!) Hope this is not considered a thread hijack... but

a) Singapore and Malaysia share a common history

b) it's good hawker fare :biggrin:

and I hope using imageshack to host the images is ok with the mods...

Laska (no.. I wasn't brave enough to order it with the si ham "blood cockles")

laska17ci.th.jpg

Chendol (before mixing)

chendol15fb.th.jpg

Chendol (before I eat it :raz: )

chendol25qw.th.jpg

Tepee

Tepee

Posted
  • Topic Starter
Posted (edited)

Nope, not a hijack at all. Tks for posting your pix.

One thing though, (...and I hope it doesn't offend too much...)

a) Singapore and Malaysia share a common history

b) it's good hawker fare  :biggrin:

Although there's some truth in the above quote, there are a LOT of differences in both our fare. For instance, this cendol that you posted....I've a major problem with the noodles being so artificially coloured. Cendol noodles in Malaysia are naturally flavoured and coloured with real pandan juice.

Edited by Tepee (log)

TPcal!

Food Pix (plus others)

Please take pictures of all the food you get to try (and if you can, the food at the next tables)............................Dejah

His Nibs

His Nibs

Posted
Posted

No offence taken. It's a sad affair because I remember them noodles not being this shade of radioactive green (back in the 80s). However, in the rush for profitability, most stalls have followed suit with this type of colouring. This stall is still quite traditional. The coconut milk is freshly squeezed (not the kara type) and the balance between the coconut and gula melaka is spot on. Some stalls scrimp on the syrup and don't give enough while others use really thin coconut milk :(

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