Eating in East Malaysia

A typical open-air restaurant in Sarawak

Dining in Southeast Asia requires a sense of adventure. For outsiders, such things as eating shrimp with the shells still on with chopsticks can be a bit overwhelming. Those with strong negative feelings about either chili pepper or garlic will not get terribly far with many cuisines of the region. Boldness of appearance, smell, and taste is valued. Yet as with so many things in the Asian context, this boldness is held in productive tension with balance between sweet, sour, spicy, bitter, and other flavors.

The influence of Chinese cuisine and cooking techniques is felt throughout the region. In East Malaysia, it is the interplay between various traditions of south Chinese cookery, Malay-Indonesian cuisine, and local Sarawaki traditions that I find most intriguing. I’ve had some fine Chinese food – including wonderful steamed freshwater fish. Sometimes, the dishes take on just a bit of a Malay hint, with the addition of coconut or some element of “curry”.

Sarawak-style laksa

Malay cooking has been especially prominent at breakfast time. As in much of Southeast Asia, breakfast often centers around soup. While Vietnamese pho is becoming well known in the US (although certainly not for breakfast), Malay laksa is something I’ve not experienced elsewhere. Laksa is hard to pin down, as it differs wildly from region to region and, I suspect, cook to cook. Penang-style laksa is heavy on fermented fish sauce and lime, while Sarawaki laksa includes generous amounts of coconut milk and chili pepper. All forms include noodles and are garnished with various fresh condiments like chili peppers, dried fish, bean sprouts, and boiled or fermented egg. Laksa is served at numerous open-air restaurants every morning.

Malaysian and Indonesian cooking has no fear of fresh garlic or chili. Both are eaten with gusto. Anytime that I’ve been served mee, or noodles, a small sauce dish is placed on the side of each place. Each diner mixes his or her own blend of fresh raw garlic, fresh raw red chilis, soy sauce, and/or vinegar together. An elaborate dance of chop sticks, a Chinese spoon, noodles, and sauce commences.

The indigenous cooking of Sarawak showed up most prominently at a cookout in Miri tonight. A large wood grill stood at the center of the circle, near a table laden with all kinds of dishes, with plastic chairs forming a circle. Other than the Chinese lanterns hanging from the trees, it could have been a Midwestern fourth of July picnic. But the food was far from Midwestern. Many of the students at the school I am visiting contributed a dish. One of the teachers contributed python snake cooked with chili pepper and greens. Vegetables that I’d never seen before like four-sided beans (looks a bit like cactus) joined more familiar fare like okra. Rice is of the utmost importance, with many touting the special nature of rice from their region. In this region of Sarawak, glutinous rice is often steamed in bamboo shells with coconut milk, giving a lovely perfumed sweetness.

I can’t speak of Malaysian food without mentioning drinks. I’ve never had lemonade/limeade finer than that served in Southeast Asia, which usually includes little bits of cane sugar still crunching in the bottom. But the variety of juices is breathtaking. Fresh carrot juice is popular here, mixed with coconut milk. Yesterday I had a wonderful concoction of sugar cane juice, lemon, and salt-preserved dates that quenched thirst while a tropic rain poured down outside.

Everything finishes with fruits. Most meals here end with assorted colors and varieties of melons and/or pineapple.  One meal, served in a very simple open-air canopy outside a home, finished with purple dragon fruit. While I’ve had white dragon fruit numerous times, this was my first experience of a purple variety.

Purple dragon fruit

 I remember well a great-aunt saying that one of the greatest joys in life was food. I clearly inherited this gusto. I’m also fortunate to do a job that involves a lot of conversations. Good work happens over food.