Dine Malaysia Blog

Malay Food | Chinese Food | Indian Food | Nyonya Food

• Malay Cuisine. The Malays have a distinct cuisine and the ingredients are gathered from the environment around them such as coconuts, herbs and spices, Malay cuisine is often spicy and also strongly influenced by Thai and Indian cuisine. Most traditional Malay food varies from state to state, each with its own delicacies. Even the ever-popular satay, which is skewered chicken or beef cooked over hot coals and eaten dipped with a sweet peanut sauce, varies from one state to another. More on Malay Food.

• Chinese Food. Malaysia truly became a melting point of cultures with the arrival of the Chinese during the early days of the Malacca Sultanate and the tin rush which brought junk loads of immigrants from different provinces of China with their own distinct languages and traditions, food and eating habits. There were the Hokkiens, Hakkas, Teochews, Foo Chows and the Hainanese, whose cuisines blended in well with the already existing potpourri. More on Chinese Food.

• Indian cuisine in Malaysia is said to be different to that found in the sub-continent. During the rubber boom of Colonial Malaya, various ethnic Indian groups came in droves such as the Tamils, Malayalees, Punjabis, Bengalis and Sri Lankans among others, who each added their own characteristic cooking styles to the melting pot that the country was already creating. More on Indian Food.

• Nyonya Food or Peranakan cuisine as it is popularly referred to, was formally known as Straits Chinese food. It is an interesting amalgamation of Chinese and Malay dishes thought to have originated from the Peranakan (Straits Chinese) of Malacca over 400 years ago. This was the result of inter-marriages between Chinese immigrants and local Malays, which produced a unique culture which has survived till today. The women are called nyonyas and the men babas. More on Nyonya Food

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