Cooking like a local in Malaysia

Thats a lot of questions to answer!

But I'll try a few.

1) The advantage to cooking yourself is the No.1 thing. You know whats in the dish and you know the hygiene used.  Kitchens in restaurants wouldnt pass many tests and getting sick is the common complaint of people. And, you shopped for fresh ingredients yourself and didnt play games with additives to disguise taste, including those to extend the life of ingredients that should have been thrown away. Also, whether or not its cheaper to cook yourself is debatable. Some dishes I cook cost a lot more than a restaurant because I dont benefit from wholesale purchasing and have to buy all sorts of ingredients I might not use again for a long time.

2) Since the overall taste in the country is spicy, chili paste and raw chillies of all varieties are the most common ingredient to get the heat factor up.  I should add that westerners use herbs such as rosemary, dill, thyme, oregano, whereas this part of the world uses spices such as cinnamon, coriander and the vast array you see for sale at places like Mydin. All spices there, no herbs. Also, Malaysia like strong tastes like durian and belacan, whereas westerners like calmer, blander tastes. A westerner can eat a bowl of mashed potatoes, whereas a Malaysian will be looking for a way to add chili and sambal and shrimp paste to it because alone it has no taste. If I cook red or white or dry spaghetti for a local, and I really and truly made it well, the first, middle and final comment Im going to get back is, "no flavor!"

3) For learning how to cook, forget classes. Make a friend. Malaysians love to show off their cooking and consider themselves permanently in competition with each other. Making friends could quickly and easily result in being invited to their homes where they are more than happy to teach you dishes. As an example of this, I was in a restaurant and complimented the owner on the delicious fish curry. I asked how she and her husband make it. She took me in the kitchen where I stayed for an hour while she showed me step by step how to make a restaurant sized pot of it.  Another time, I was just walking down a street in a house neighborhood around dinner time and smelled something delicious. The homeowner was outside watering her plants and I commented. She said she was too busy today but could I please come for dinner the next day and she would show me all?  Ive said before in this forum that once I was in Tesco and asked a customer how some ingredient is used in cooking and within three minutes I had an invitation to dinner at their home to learn more. THAT is how to learn--not to mention making new and needed friends. Malaysians are tops in this category of friendliness. Express sincere interest in them and their activities and opinions and they will open their hearts, minds and homes to you. What more could you ever possibly want?

4) A comment about technique (although there are many!). My tries at local cooking failed until I learned one thing which made the difference. Dry ingredients need to be heated in the pan or pot BEFORE adding wet ingredients. Western cooking is the opposite which is all i knew. Heat releases the flavor of spices, and the bare spices on the bare bottom of the hot pan is the way to get that flavor.

5) Its extremely easy to make mediocre dishes at home, great dishes take years of practice and special senses. Its sad the uncles and aunties are dying off because their kids dont know how to cook and do not want to take over restaurant businesses, for example. Worse yet, the parents are not handing down great recipes and techniques largely because the kids never cared to learn. This is why you see mostly foreigners now doing the cooking in restaurants, and the kids are the customers instead of cooking at home.

More as I think of things.......

Wow, looks like the above has been well answered. Yes, as you make friends and go to each other's place for a meal, perhaps, there's where you can learn a thing or two.

Jonathan100 wrote:

Wow, looks like the above has been well answered. Yes, as you make friends and go to each other's place for a meal, perhaps, there's where you can learn a thing or two.

Yes and not just learning but making the friend. We need friends, we need help, we need all kinds of things. Since Malaysians No.1 pre-occupation is food, thats the easiest way to start something.

But having said that, I never go searching for friends, whatever friends I made came from accidents like having a "hello" chat with a stranger in a hypermarket aisle or at a train stop or in a postal queue. You never know what can come of such accidental meetings. You can meet a total stranger and in 10 minutes you are on your way to sit and have a drink. Its as simple as that.

I actually can cook a number of the local dishes, but my Malay wife won't eat them. No matter how close you get to the original dish, most people will never master local dishes where they taste like 'mom's' cooking. Of course that's the same with western dishes, very few (actually none that I've had) local restaurants can master typical American dishes like meatloaf or chicken fried steak (they call it chicken chop).

They do pretty good with hamburgers, pizza, fried chicken (although my mother and grandmother are from Kentucky and KFC doesn't come close to their fried chicken which I consider REAL Kentucky Fried Chicken and the mashed potatoes/gravy is really BAD at KFC).   

I get by with my wife's cooking, but I've grown to love the spicy taste along with shrimp paste. Actually she's the one that has to tone down the spiciness for her tastes. I gave up trying to cook local dishes unless it's only for myself. I never come close enough to the local tastes, but she doesn't attempt to cook western meals. So the rule around our house, if I want American/European food I cook, if we want Malay/Asian she cooks. Right now I'm still working so she cooks most of the time, but I retire the end of June so the amount I cood will probably go up.

Iskandar, its about the same in my house too. Malaysians dont trust an outsider like me to get it right, even if i did! No, they raise their noses! Even if I get it right, they will say, well it needs more of this or less of that. They say it just for the sake of saying it. Welllll its OK lah but of course not as good as mine...or mothers ....or grandmothers....

That said, i've also ruined lots of dishes and thrown the entire pot out.  If I cant stand to eat it, even the alley cats wont touch it either.

So youre from the South so yes, youd know fried chicken. Personally, I cannot stand to eat KFC and the mashed potatoes are instant, as far as I can see. If thats a real potatoe in there i'll eat my hat!

Ive also taught malaysians how to make american dishes that they thought were difficult but are so simple, like apple turnovers, peach pie, potatoe salad, chicken gravy, garlic bread, cooked red cabbage, and for that matter, REAL COFFEE.

Malaysian dishes require a lot of steps, something youd do just for the love of cooking. Even though I make them, i dont have the patience for sambal, indian dahl and these things. Traditional kuey, the colored diamond shaped layered pieces, Ive never attempted because of all the steps. I like simple, rugged food that can be made with minimum steps.

Like other countries around here, coconut is also a prime ingredient. I've eaten more coconut in Malaysia than any other time in my life.

cvco wrote:

So youre from the South so yes, youd know fried chicken. Personally, I cannot stand to eat KFC and the mashed potatoes are instant, as far as I can see. If thats a real potatoe in there i'll eat my hat!

I grew up in Minnesota, so I don't consider myself from the south. But mother spent most here life trying to hide her 'hillbilly' roots, however it didn't work. But the fact didn't work when she started cooking, and I did learn a lot of 'hillbilly' dishes from her and my grandmother. Actually I don't know any Minnesota dishes, not a lot of dishes are famous from Minnesota anyway.

Seriously, I don't get the point of the majority of your rabble-rousing topics that can be "easily" found on the internet with a basic Google search, such as most useful mobile apps in Malaysia, How to cook Malaysian dishes and what would be a good amount to sleep over the weekend in Malaysia. I am not sure if I've even ever seen you taking part in any of the discussions you stir.

That said, I'd love to learn about the ultimate secret of cooking the perfect Rendang Daging, at 150 Calories per serving or less.

Priscilla is on the Expat.com Team - it's her job to raise topics and engage discussion.

Gravitas wrote:

Priscilla is on the Expat.com Team - it's her job to raise topics and engage discussion.

Thanks for the clarification.

I’m a wife of Malaysian and I can cook many Malaysian dishes even those originated from Terengganu. I’ve learned to cook them myself by using YouTube and Facebook videos.

HTTP404 wrote:

Gravitas wrote:

Priscilla is on the Expat.com Team - it's her job to raise topics and engage discussion.

Thanks for the clarification.

I'll go further to explain. Expats are a lazy lot, or something, and dont introduce enough topics. Its easier for many to reply to a topic than to introduce a new one. But which topic? From managements point of view, the choices are benign topics that dont divide or infuriate members and the questions asked in here are the same as asked in the other country threads. Priscilla is management and is trying to keep the interest and discussion moving. She wouldnt do that if members introduced more topics that one believed would be of interest to the group. Its not so easy.

To your post, I dont count calories in Malaysian cooking because its pointless. Aside from flavors, the diet is heavy in oil, sugar and salt. Its the same with ice cream. Whats the point of trying to make 10 or zero calorie ice cream? If a person is restricted, then dont have it at all but if youre going to eat it, eat the real thing, the 3000 calorie version and ENJOY it.

Two things that are true about local food. Its very fattening to outsiders, a westerner isnt used to it the way locals are. Second, in regard to local-US fast food, Malaysians would be thinner if they stuck to their original diet. Now they are gaining weight like americans. But westerners have a harder time still because they not only cant eat McDonalds and Pizza Hut everyday to reduce calories, they cant eat the local diet either--unless they do what, triple their exercise maybe.

If one is going to fully enjoy local food, take it like it is. If restricted, then how about steam broccoli at home?  Ive easily gained 30lbs eating local food and its extremely hard to drop it again. But Im not angry for there not being a lo-cal beef rendang version. If Im serious about controlling weight, as i should be, i shouldnt eat it at all because a lo-cal version wont be be rendang anymore, it will be something else and then we might as well be back to steam broccoli again.

That said, a good thing westerners can do here to help compensate is to stop sugar drinks, all local snacks and severely reduce rice and noodles. Otherwise, ENJOY!

bagty wrote:

I’m a wife of Malaysian and I can cook many Malaysian dishes even those originated from Terengganu. I’ve learned to cook them myself by using YouTube and Facebook videos.

Yes...there is an indian cook on Youtube. She cooks really well and i've learned a lot from her especially about the use of spices and timing of adding ingredients. I dont expect to ever be a great cook at local foods. I figure Im doing OK if I could stand to eat it and still alive the next morning.

Is there anything that stands out that you like to cook and cook well?

Ive first learned the names of the spices through local culinary books in English and I started to cook my first malaysian dishes following resipies from those books then later when I’m familiar with the spices I started to watch the YouTube videos by Malaysians. Some of them speaks English. Some of them speak Malay but if you know the name of the spices and ingredients then it’s easy to understand. I may recommend here few YouTube videos/channels like Dapur Bujang (he cooks both Malaysian and western dishes), Try Masak/ iCook Asia (I’ve learned many recipes from their videos), Dapur Filzah (her videos mostly in English), also the Facebook group MAHN( masak apa hari ini) they share many recipes everyday. I’ve few friends who married to Malaysians and most of them learned to cook Malaysian dishes by themselves by watching YouTube videos. I myself can cook many dishes and my husband said that it’s taste the same as his mother cooks. The dishes I can cook are nasi Minyak, ikan singgang, ikan/ayam/daging Kari, nasi lemak, ikan 3 rasa, kuey teow goreng, mee goreng, nasi goreng, sup daging/ayam, asam pedas, mee udang, mee rebus, laksa Terengganu, nasi ayam, cucur udang/bilis, meehoon, masak lemak and many more..

I also can make local deserts and drinks which I love so much like dadih, puding jagung, agar2, pulut mangga/durian, puding caramel, air sirap etc..I don’t remember all)

Regarding the healthiness of local food I would say yes it’s full of fat and sugar, but it tastes so good) But I don’t cook Malaysian food everyday as I know it’s not healthy to eat like that everyday so I do cook some russian and Turkmen food and I drink tehtarik once a while but not everyday. There are few Malay dishes which are healthy and low in calories like ikan singgang, ayam /ikan panggang (grilled chicken/fish), sup sayur( vegetable soup), Kari ayam (with lowfat milk) and others..these food I ate during pantang(confinement)

I cant eat the malay diet 7 days, too unhealthy. About 60% of the time I cook simple western stuff at home so i can control sugar, oil and salt. AND MSG, which seems to be in everything.  It makes me ill. These days, i must cut weight and I can only do it with western cooking where we're going to roast, steam, broil more, plus raw.

Reminds me, I've gotten to like raw spring rolls. Sure we like the fried version but no! I buy spring roll wraps at the market and stuff them with various raw or cooked veg. Then dip in something and eat. No cooking.  Ive gotten used to the non-fry, they taste great.