As a multiracial society and as a country which is open to ideas from all over the world, visitors will have plenty of opportunities to savour a wide variety of foods which are home grown or have their origins from other countries near and far. With Malays, Chinese and Indians being the major racial groups, their cuisines are naturally the most popular, but since these groups have lived along side each other for so long, one can often see and taste the influence they have on each others food.
Malay foods often are spicy (but not the "killer spice" kind)and are rich in coconut contents (coconut cream, coconut meat or coconut oil). Fish and other seafood are common dishes, as Malaysia is almost surrounded by the sea and fishing has been one of the main occupations for people living in rural areas. Poultry and animal meat, except pork, are made into various dishes. Rice is the main staple grain.
A popular dish is the satay, which is made of marinated meat slivers on bamboo or wooden skewers, cooked over charcoal, and served with pieces of onion, cucumber or rice cake together with a sauce made of chili and peanut. It is a simple but delicious dish liked by all meat-loving people. Other well known Malay dishes are laksa (noodles in spicy fish soup with fish cake and, may be, other seafood such as cockles), nasi goreng (fried rice with fried egg, satay, peanuts, ikan bilis, and chili paste), tatu goreng (deep-fried bean curds with bean sprouts), mee rubus (boiled noodles), and nasi lemak (coconut-flavoured rice, served with thick and creamy curry chicken, sambal and egg).
Chinese food of all kinds are served; but since most Malaysian Chinese trace their ancestry to the southeastern parts of China, the Chinese cuisines tend to bear the characteristics from this region. Apart from
Cantonese cusines, one can find dishes such as Hainanese chicken rice (rice cooked with chicken stock sometimes touched up with some chicken oil or coconut cream, together with steamed chicken), Hokkien mee (fried yellow noodles with meat or seafood, with or without chili) and Bak Kut Teh (a soup cooked with herbs, garlic and pork ribs which have been boiled for many hours and has a fantastic aroma).
One can also find Nonya dishes, which originated from descendents of Chinese people mainly from the Malacca area who married Malay women. They have largely been assimilated into the Malay way of life, but still practise a mix of Malay and Chinese customs. Over the years they have created their own culture, and see themselves to be separate from the ethnic Chinese. They have their own style of cooking which uses mainly Chinese ingredients but mixed with various kinds of local spices such as lemon grass, turmeric, chillies and sambal, as well as coconut milk. Examples are Nonya laksa (laksa with a lot more fresh herbs added to the soup) and otak otak (a fish cake grilled in banana leaf wrapping). One can easily find restaurants which serve Nonya cusines, as their signboards usually display the word "Nonya".
Indian food in Malaysia is similar to that in India. Thosai or Dosai is a batter made from lentils and rice and water and left to ferment overnight, and then fried in a pan until it becomes golden brown, folded and served with curry and coconut chutney. Putu Mayam is rice noodles with grated coconut and jaggery, and hence has a sweet taste. Biryani is made from a mixture of spices, basmati rice, meat, vegetables and yogurt.
Malaysia desserts are a different world altogether, with a lot of choices, colours and tastes, often spread out on display counters in food courts or hawker centres. It doesn't really matter whether they came originally from the Malay, Chinese or Indian communities, as many desserts are made by all because they are everyone's favourites. Just to name a few: cendol (shaved ice doused with brown palm syrup and cendol which is strands of dough made from rice and tapioca flour and a lot of coconut milk); roti kaya (kaya, a greenish-coloured coconut jam, spread between 2 pieces of bread, sometimes served with an unhealthy layer of butter; soya cincau (a soyabean drink with strips of grass jelly); and bo-bo cha cha (a hot or cold dessert made of sweet potato and yam cubes, in coconut milk and sago).
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