food
Essential Malaysian food to bring along when you travel
Spice up your life with the unique combination of Malaysian spices.What do you ship off to your loved ones, or pack into your suitcase whenever you leave our beautiful “tanah air”?
The world is getting smaller, with more flights being made each day and advances made on SpaceX programmes to commercialise space travel. Even today, students go overseas, busy workers make frequent business trips, and people find their life partners online.
Everyone has a reason to take a piece of home with them, whether for personal reasons, to share with loved ones, or pure bragging rights when you introduce someone to real Malaysian food for the first time.
Either way, here are HungryGoWhere’s top picks of things that should go into your Malaysian care package.
Sambal, the best condiment from the best continent.Sambal
As a Malaysian in Scotland once complained, even though there is Malaysian food in other countries, it lacks “petis udang”. So fill the void in their hearts and kitchen pantries, and send them a bottle or jar of this spicy, shrimpy goodness.
Just make sure it is tightly sealed, after all, it smacks of pure, concentrated “Malaysia”, much like the thorny durian – requiring a certain “je ne sais quoi” to appreciate it. Your flight mates might not like you very much if it leaks.
Pastes and spices
Put down your protest signs, we understand that sambal is a paste. But we set it apart because we also think that pre-mixed spice blends or pre-made cooking pastes deserve their own section.
Easy as tossing into the slow-cooker with chicken or into the wok with your beef, it is not quite your mother’s or grandmother’s cooking, but it will still reek and taste of your favourite local dishes.
Besides, it is a quick fix when you are expected to contribute to a potluck or a pesky International Understanding day. By the way, we also have some easy Malaysian recipes that will help with that.
A must-have when enjoying fries and fried chicken.Chilli sauce
There is not a word created yet to describe the disappointment you get when you grab a french fry or a greasy drumstick to begin the dipping, and find that you have no chilli sauce.
We should invent said word at some point, but in the meantime, make sure you carry around your bottle of sweet and spicy love like the towel in “ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy”, or that sauce that hipsters everywhere cling to irrevocably. That rooster sauce, that.. Sriracha thing.
Don’t judge! Bites of sugar here are different from the bites of sugar there.Candy
Raid the rotiman. Take some time to get to know the tireless messenger of proper meal-time wreckers. There are childhood treasures still in the dangling plastic bags, perched precariously upon the two-wheeled revving roadster.
Milky White Rabbits that still puzzle the tongue with it is melt-in-your-mouth wrappers, Kopiko candies that kids really shouldn’t have such easy access to, mouth-puckering Haw flakes, and tongue-putty Sugus. Just portion yourself accordingly please, you are an adult, right?
Drinks
This is a no-brainer, powdered beverages are suitable for consumption during any time of the day or occasion.
You don’t even need to follow instructions any more, forget the water and sprinkle Milo liberally on buttered bread or condensed milk desserts. Use teh tarik packets to sharpen your flair skills and impress your new foreign friends who have no clue how to pull tea.
Recreate the mamak experience no matter where you go, it is also open 24 hours.However you do it, these powders are a lightweight way to make almost any meal one that transports you back to your old kitchen table or busy mamak.
Eh? Where are the bricks of Maggi or Indomee you wrap your sweaters around? The Malaysian artisan spreads of acar buah?
Fear not, they are all included in the full packing list of “The Essential Malaysian Care Package,” perfect for those leaving on trips, or to be mailed off to those overseas that need it oh-so badly.
Appreciate Malaysia while you are here. So download our new HungryGoWhere app which shows you what places are around your current location up to a radius of 5km.
Or you can just look up any location, and see what's popular among fellow foodies. Share your suggestions too! Now available on iTunes and Google Play. – January 1, 2016.
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