Get a Taste of the Real Malaysia with A Chef’s Tour

I love Malaysian food. Nasi lemak is one of my favorite dishes in the world while satay is always the sidekick to my 640 ml bottle of Skol beer.

But to be honest, I didn’t know much beyond that. Sure, we’ve eaten our way through Langkawi and Penang, but those experiences didn’t give me a good enough grasp of Malaysian cuisine to understand its nuances. I couldn’t distinguish between nasi campur and nasi kandar and I couldn’t confidently tell you which dishes were truly Malaysian and which were more Chinese, Indian, or Peranakan.

Even more confusing was its striking resemblance to Singaporean cuisine. Many dishes seemed to cross over. Favorites like nasi lemak, laksa, popiah, murtabak, and roti appeared to be equally popular in both Malaysia and Singapore, making me wonder: “What exactly is Malaysian cuisine? Which dishes truly are Malaysian?”

As eager for answers as I was for Malaysian food, this is what I set out to learn tonight when I went on this Kuala Lumpur food…