Youtube Video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW4ZPOjOKCk&feature=g-upl

Above, is a link to our new video, please watch it and let us know what you guys think :)

-Derwin, Charlie, Christian, Mel

What to look for in Malaysian Food!

Hi guys, in this post, I'll share with you what I've learned about Malaysian food regarding taste. It is common in Malaysia to judge something by the degree of spiciness, like most Asian countries, Malaysia is one of the many that prides themselves of spicy food, some of which include, curries, Nasi Dagang, pulut,or the sambal belacan served with many rice dishes. Malaysians enjoy using a generous amount of spices coupled with coconut milk as their trademark, this makes up a high percentage of their food with just two ingredients! Nearly every meal is served with rice, rice plays an important part of the meal, it is seen as the ingredient that combines all the flavours together where the fumes of the coconut rice is mixed in with the chilli peppers, onion and galic from most dishes. Lemongrass is commonly used in Malaysian food and can be found in a variety of dishes, the most common of which is featured in Rendang. Rendang is a spicy meat stew that orginated from Christian's home land, Indonesia, but we Malaysians just made it taste better. Also, Malaysians enjoy the sweetness of food, and can be found from their savory and sweet dishes. The peanut satay sauce has a large amount of sugar, used to extract the flavours of the barbequed satay sticks and the onion and cucumber that is served with is used to break the strong flavours, providing a relief of taste. Overall that pretty much sums up the flavours of Malaysia!

-Derwin

Foodception

Hi all! Charlie here again. I was contemplating about the intricacies and mysteries of the universe and thought I'd make a quick post.

So apparently, Malaysian food and Indonesian food are very similar. Some dishes are also very similar to Thai food. Which in turn is quite similar to Vietnamese food. To complete the circle, I've noticed Malaysian and Vietnamese desserts are quite similar, especially the use of 'cendol' and coconut milk.

The point I'm trying to make is that, many cuisines in the South East Asian region are very similar and in many cases overlap. And rightly so, since they are from a similar part of the world and must share many common cultural traits and climate conditions. But the thought I had is, the cuisines we have today for each country is a product of many years of innovation, borrowing ideas from other cuisines and whatnot. That means today we have more dishes than our ancestors did; but also that the next generations are going to have dishes that we haven't even heard of. Jealous!

Anyway...just some food for thought ;). (pun intended)

- Charlie

Food capital of Malaysia

In this post, I would like to talk about something else rather than introducing another malaysian dish. Having enough to know all kinds of mouth watering dishes, but where is the best place to get the most authentic Malaysian food? If you ever get a chance to visit Malaysia, then you must visit Penang.  Personally, I think Penang is the best place to travel and eat! 

Penang is a state in Malaysia, located on the north-west coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. Penang is long known as the food capital of Malaysia, renowned for its good and varied food. Apart from that, it is also ranked among top ten greatest street food cities in Asia according to CNN Go. In Penang, definitely you will be able to taste the most original and authentic food. To name a few, penang assam laksa (In CNN's top 10 yummiest food), char kuey teow, ikan bakar (grilled fish), cendol, prawn mee and hokkien mee. 

Char kuey teow

Hokkien Mee                                                                                             Prawn Mee

Penang Assam Laksa

Most famous cendol stall (Teo Chew Cendol @ Penang road)

 Ikan bakar(grilled fish)

Last but not least before I forget, in Penang , the best food is always served at hawker stalls, remember never go into beautiful fancy restaurants. The most well known hawker stalls is located at Gurney Drive. Also, never leave Penang without trying the local traditional biscuit, tau sar piar (bean paste biscuit). 

Tau sar piar (bean paste biscuit)

-Mel-

Forever neighbors

Hello everyone!

So as explained in our earlier post, Malaysia is influenced by many cultures because of its geographical location and historical events. And as mentioned in the early post that one of our group member is Indonesian, which is me. And geographically, Indonesia and Malaysia are neighbors, and that makes these two countries share similar things as they are located really close from each other. So after looking at some Malaysian food that our group has explore, from the Indonesian point of view I found these food really wonderful and fit my taste bud perfectly. And that is because some of the food have similarities and even some of them share similar name and still with some differences between them

Indonesia and Malaysia

in this post I will show you guys some Malaysian and Indonesian food that share some similarities, in names, or ingredients.

The first similar food is the chicken satay. Yes this is a very famous dish in Malaysia and also in Indonesia. In Indonesia we call it “sate ayam” it is literally a translation of chicken satay in Indonesian. Indonesian version of chicken satay is served with peanut sauce and lontong, which is a compressed rice wrapped in banana leaf. These two food are very similar and it is not surprising because both Malaysia and Indonesia are countries that share similar culture and located really close to each other.

Malaysian chicken satay from Mamak

Indonesian sate ayam

Second food is rojak, from earlier post you can see my mates eating rojak in the Mamak restaurant. It is a very beautiful dish that made up of many different ingredients. In Indonesia, it is called rujak, yup just a small differences in the name of the food. In similar with Malaysian rojak, rujak is also a combination of many ingredients that is served with a sauce. The most famous type of rujak is the fruit rujak, which is a combination of several tropical fruits including pineapple, jambu air(water apple), raw mangoes, bengkoang and many other fruits. Fruit rujak in Indonesia is served with sweet and spicy sauce made from tamarind, palm sugar, water, peanuts, and some chilli. It can be really spicy or just sweet.

Malaysian rojak from Mamak

Indonesian fruit rujak

 

Third food that is similar is nasi lemak and nasi uduk. These two foods are a rice dish which is cooked with coconut milk and served with some other side dishes. From its appearance both of these dish look similar. But it is still different from the side dishes that are served with them. In Indonesia nasi uduk is mainly served with boiled egg, fried rice noodles, and some fried onion on top. From these images you can tell that both of these dishes look pretty much the same and both of them tastes really good.

Nasi lemak

Nasi uduk

Neighbors sharing some delicious food with similarities, differences and amazing taste!

Christian

More than just a cup of tea!

Hey readers! After having a cup of teh tarik that day at Mamak, I've been thinking of it on and off, craving for more! So nonetheless I've decided to write more about teh tarik.  I must have forgotten to mention, opposing Charlie (he finds it too sweet for him), teh tarik is my all time favourite drink and I would order teh tarik whenever I eat out in Malaysia.

To start off, teh tarik is of the Malay language, teh refers to tea and tarik means pull.  Teh tarik is a classic Malaysian sweetened tea. To be specific, this beverage comes from the Indian community in Malaysia. It is made out of black tea, condensed milk and evaporated milk.

It is called teh tarik because during the preparation, the mixture will be pulled three to four times between two mugs. By pulling the tea, lower down the temperature so that it is optimal to drink. Also, the tea is pulled in order to create a frothy top. By looking at the top of the drink, can determine whether the cup of drink is good or bad. A good cup of teh tarik should have a thick and frothy foam.

Originating from Malaysia, the goodness of teh tarik has also been spread around the world, especially in Singapore and Indonesia. Various competitions will also be held in Malaysia annually to promote and to enhance the quality of teh tarik. Malaysians are definitely proud of this famous tea drink, perhaps more important than the drink itself is the underlying culture. Teh tarik was recognised by the Malaysian government as an important part of Malaysia's food heritage. Last but not least, the roti canai is the perfect compliment to balance out the sweetness of teh tarik.

 Happily pulling the tea with great skills!

Teh tarik competition

 

A nice cup of teh tarik

The perfect combination!

-Mel-

Dessert!!!

At first I was extremely skeptical about the desserts at Mamak, because the last time I dined there it was an absolute horror. This experience was different, I think going with friends was a better experience than going with a dad whose food expectations are second to none. The dessert at Mamak was very traditional and authentic, except for one, but we'll get to that later.

Our first dessert that we shared as a group was Ais Kacang. This is a traditional Malaysian dessert which is made from agar agar, crushed ice, rose syrup, red beans and sweet corn. This dessert is served throughout Malaysia and is mostly recognised as Kuantan's specialty. Kuantan is the third largest state in Malaysia and is situated on the east cost of Malaysia. As you'd imagine, nothing beats sitting on a beach chair, tanning your problems away with a soothing and refreshing bowl of Ais Kacang to relax your mind. 

Ais Kacang at Mamak, decorated with Rose syrup and sweet corn.

The second dessert that we had was cendol. Cendol is a dessert that is made from coconut milk, jelly made from rice flour and coloured with green colouring, shaved ice and palm sugar. Cendol is a quintessential part of the the Malaysian cuisine which is often consumed after a heavy meal. I think that the Cendol made at Mamak was extremely refreshing, it had the right balance of sweetness, however, the jelly that it was served with had a very dominant flour taste. Other than that, it wasn't too bad over all.

Cendol with crush iced and coated with palm sugar.

Finally, the last dessert that came out was the Roti Tisu. By the time this came out, we were all extremely full and bloated, I needed to open my button and fly from my jeans just to have enough room to eat this dessert. Over here, it was served with two scoops of vanilla ice-cream, though this is not tradition, it was rather pleasant. Roti Tisu is actually a thinner version of the Roti Canai, mentioned in previous post, and it is shaped in a pyramid. In Malaysia it can be consumed as either sweet or savory, but for the purpose of dessert we had it sweet. It is normally coated with sugar that drips over the entire meal, however, the one Mamak served us lacked authenticity by barely having any sugar. Nonetheless, it was a decent meal to consume and play with after our long day of eating.

Roti Tisu served with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream
or something else? ;)

What Roti Tissue SHOULD look like. Served
at Melissa and I's favourite spot in Malaysia
Kayu Nasi Kandar.

Your homie, Derwin

Food, Food, Food

Hello guys! In previous post my friends show you guys how they gather at Mamak restaurant to try some amazing and delicious Malaysian food. Unfortunately I wasn't able to join them :(. But I still got some Malaysian food for me to try. I went to a restaurant named Malay Village, which is located in Sydney city CBD near Chinatown. To be precise, it is located at Goulburn St and Dixon St.

All my friends went to Mamak Chatswood, but it's not the only Mamak restaurant in sydney. There is one located in Sydney CBD and it is located near Malay Village, the restaurant I visited. Just to show you guys how famous is Mamak at Sydney, I took these amazing pictures!

 

A Long Line

   

A Longer Line



 Talking about Malay Village that I visited, it has 2 dining place, indoor and outdoor. When customer seat outside, they are able to see the kitchen where the cooks create roti canai, and it is some unique\e kind of entertainment to see them make that fabulous roti.

 

So I ordered 2 kinds of food. The first food I ordered was Ayam Pandan. Ayam pandan is a seasoned chicken wrapped in pandan leaf and then fried. The special ingredients here is the pandan leaf, this pandan leaf gives a great aroma, so unique and wonderful. Not only that it has a wonderful aroma but it also has an amazing flavor. It is a great dish for appetizer and worth a try. In a scale of 1 to 10 it deserve a score of 8.

The second food that I ordered is the famous Penang Chicken Laksa. I ordered this because it has a thumbs up picture in the menu and I think I have to try it. The color of this Laksa is bright yellow and look spicy but its not. The flavor is amazing and rich, this rich and savory flavor comes from the coconut milk. Yes it is coconut milk, the important ingredient that has been mentioned a few days ago. The combination of vermicelli, chicken, fried tofu, beansprout, and laksa soup is just amazing. A few personal tips from me when you eat laksa. Rule number 1. be careful with the soup, make sure they don't stain your clothes especially white colored clothing because they are really hard to clean. Rule number 2 remember that this laksa contain coconut milk, which is not really good for your health. So remember not to eat too much even it tastes really amazing. A score of 8 for the amazing Penang Chicken Laksa.

 

More interesting post coming soon guys!

Christian

Makan-ing at Mamak

Hi all! Charlie here. So as you already know, we had our first Malaysian food experience as a group at Mamak. Yeah I know, not very innovative; going to the most popular Malaysian restaraunt in Sydney. But it has to be popular for a reason, right?

So we turned up kind of late, avoiding the peak dinner period, and we got a table straight away. Score! After some idle chit-chat, we all admitted that we were starving and would prefer to order as soon as possible. I let the experts do their magic, myself not knowing half the menu. I'll go through some of the dishes that we ate and what I thought about it. And in an attempt to seem like a boss, I will also give ratings on each dish. The scale will be 1-10, 1 being disgusting and 10 being delicious, simple.

The food came out pretty fast, so points to that aspect; the first dish to come out was Maggi Goreng.

From what I was told, this is a very popular dish and it's basically a Malaysian fried noodle dish; I assume, using Maggi noodles. This was pretty damn good. The noodles were well cooked and chewy and the flavour was a kind of spicy tangy combination. I liked it - 8/10.

Almost immediately after, the waiter brought out this intriguing dish called Rojak.

What is this strange mountain you ask? Well it was actually a salad topped with peanut sauce and topped again with fried wonton skin (forgive me if I'm wrong...). The peanut sauce complemented the fresh salad very tasteful way; there was this sweet aftertaste from both the veges and sauce. The wonton skin was good as usual; just fried wonton skin (always good). I liked this dish even more - 9/10.

The third one came out shortly after we demolished the first 2, and it was a simple curry chicken and coconut rice dish called Nasi Lemak. To be completely honest I am very impressed with myself for remembering all the names.

As you can see, it is curry chicken, anchovies, satay sauce, peanuts and cucumbers. It is amazing how good it tastes when you eat all these ingredients together. This is actually thinking on another level. Whoever thought of eating peanuts with anchovies? Must be a genius of some sort. The flavours were all very simple, yet complex with together. 8/10.

The last 2 dishes came. As I said in a previous post, I always order roti and satay... I didn't lie.

Roti was fluffy. Curry was fragrant. Satay sauce was good. Meat was good. Nuff said. 9/10. 

In terms of drink, I was egged on to try a malaysian milk tea called Teh Tarik. To be honest, I didn't like it. The texture was fluffy and smooth, but it was just WAY too sweet. Being not much of a sweet tooth, I opted to giving away my drink to Derwin. 

There were also desserts! But I'll give someone else the opportunity to talk about it. Cue Derwin. 

Charlie checkin out. 

Feast!

Today, we gathered and 'makan'! Being away from home for so long, I've always missed malaysian food. This time, we checked in at Mamak Chatswood, a rather well- known malaysian restaurant in Sydney.

I would say there are a few differences in terms of the taste of food and environment. To start off, Mamak refers to food stalls operate by Malaysia's Indian- muslim community, and  mamak stalls are usually along streets or any random corners and is open aired.  To mention a few mamak signatures are roti, satay, maggi goreng, tandoori chicken and teh tarik.

In Malaysia, mamak is a place where people like to hang around with friends late at night and have supper. Also, it is quite a culture where football fans will gather at mamak to watch football matches! Whereas the 'mamak' we visited today is more like a proper restaurant.

Speaking of food, I would say the dishes served are very similar to those in Malaysia. Just that the food are not as spicy and some are altered to suit the locals. For instance, the rojak is quite different in compare to Malaysian rojak.

Overall, it was great food with great people! I had fun and most importantly my craves for malaysian food is satisfied! =)))

Mamak stall in Malaysia

Watching football- The malaysian way! 

Rojak

Malaysia style vs Sydney style

-Mel-

Just a post to say hello

Hello! Charlie checkin' in. As everyone has demonstrated their sound knowledge of malaysian food, and I in no way can match that, I feel that it is obligatory to take a different approach and introduce my experiences with malaysian food.

I am rather ashamed to say that although I do love malaysian food, I haven't had enough love for it in the past (there was love, but not enough). I've been to Malaysian restaurants here and there, I am in love with their satay sticks and roti. If I go to a malaysian restaraunt I would definitely have to order a couple sticks and some of that heavenly bread. 

Not to mention that the most exposure to malaysian food I have had is at the food court next to U-bar at our own Macquarie University (YEAH!). The food is fast, it's cheap (relatively) and it's good enough for me. 

This is a Nasi Goreng from the Malay/ Indo Restaraunt next to the Ubar. It was a bit saucy and salty. I thought it was pretty good though, my malaysian friend kept saying it was unauthentic and inferior to real malaysian food. I casually brushed those comments aside...until something happened. Read below to be enlightened... I know I was. 

Now I am going to go into a life changing (legitimately) experience I had at Derwin's house (a fellow blog member). This memory was sparked by his post, especially the pictures of his Dad making the roti. Previous to this, I thought I had experienced the best of roti and satay; I mean, how much better could it get? Alot, apparently. The difference between authentic food, and your average restaraunt food is unfathomable. Not only was the meat on his satay sticks TENDER, and FRAGANT, the sauce was out of this world. I was tempted to put some in a bottle and bring it home. Eating it right after it had been barbequed in front of you, while it is still hot adn you can still taste the flames is amazing. Watching him make the roti was a performance, it wasn't hard to tell he was extremely skilled by the way he flipped the dough. The dough of the roti was so fluffy due to the many layers, yet crispy on the outside. 

I might stop there in fear that my diet (yes...I am a guy on a diet) will be ruined because thinking about it makes me hungry. And I also feel a little angry that I haven't been invited over for such a feast in a while, Derwin. Don't worry, just a couple containers of that sauce and you will be forgiven.

I am extremely excited to try different malaysian foods while this blog is still active and letting you guys know what I think. I may be a noob, but sometimes that makes it more legit. ;)

Charlie checkin' out

Learn more about amazing ingredient

What makes a good food? To make a good food we need 2 mostly important elements, which are good recipes and good ingredients. A good ingredients is a very important part because it will have great impact on the food texture and taste.

One of the most commonly know Malaysian food is nasi lemak and Malaysian curry. Both of these food have great texture and taste. But what gave them that incredible texture and taste. For example nasi lemak, basically it is a rice but it has great and fabulous flavors, what makes it so tasty.

The answer is coconut milk. Coconut milk maybe one of the most common ingredients found in Malaysian food. Coconut milk is one of the ingredient to create a curry and nasi lemak. Basically, coconut milk is the liquid that come from the grated meat of a coconut. One simple way to make your own coconut milk is to grate the coconut meat and ad few cup pf water and put them all inside a food processor and let it blend until it thickens. With this fantastic ingredients, food will become more creamy in texture and gain rich flavours. The texture of the food will become more thick and freamy with coconut milk.

Coconut used to make coconut milk

Coconut milk

Ayam brand coconut milk. Available in Malaysia and Indonesia

However, despite the fact that this ingredients is very tasty and useful, it has a bad effect to the body. Because of high level of saturated fat inside coconut milk, consuming too much coconut milk will cause a high cholesterol level in human body. It is not healthy to consume to many coconut milk so beware.

But do not worry because there is always a substitute of this amazing ingredient. For some food, we can substitute coconut milk with other ingredients. One ingredient that I know and is useable as a substitute for a coconut milk is milk. Yes, milk. This is a personal experience as my mother uses milk instead of a coconut milk to avoid the fat in coconut milk. It may look a little bit weird but it is still quite tasty using milk as a substitute of coconut milk. Even though milk is a great substitute, coconut milk is still one unique and fabulous ingredient to use.

Rumah - (Home)

As mentioned before in the previous posts, Malaysian food has been influenced from a variety of cultures. Coming from a Chinese-Malaysian background, my family has a tendency to eat the 'main stream' Malaysian food such as Nasi Lemak, Roti Canai or Dosa. Nonetheless, having a dad whose culinary expertise surpass 30 years, allows me to experience the side of Malaysian cuisine not many people know about.

From my frequent travels to Malaysia as a young boy, I have noticed that the lifestyle in Malaysia is extremely different to our home town of Sydney Australia. Malaysians would eat dinner around 5:30pm and have another 2-3 meals after until the early hours of the morning. The Malaysian cuisine is apart of the lifestyle, it's an art, it allows people to express themselves by being creative and inventive, in saying that, from time to time, my dad enjoys busting his moves and flipping his own Roti Canai. It's hard to replicate good Malaysian food, and currently, I have yet to find any restaurant who can replicate the authenticity of REAL Malaysian food. Hopefully, embarking on this adventure with my class mates will allow me to find a restaurant that can give us real Malaysian food.

- Derwin

This is my dad flipping Roti Canai
(an Indian influenced flat bread) he thinks he's the greatest.

Above is my dad's home made Nasi Lemak,
served with anchovies, cucumber, egg,
chicken curry and sambal belacan.