Strange Food - Malaysia
We in Asia share vast range of strange food. I'm not very sure about West Malaysia's strange food. I welcome anyone to take part in this topic. Share with us on the strange food that you know that is uniquely from Malaysia. This post will have a mixture of strange food from around Asia that shares the similarity to Malaysia and those only can be found in Malaysia.
Durian
Here's the photo of the fruit that nnanaa post in "Strange Food - Singapore". Wow... Fear Factor actually asked the contestants to eat durian for one of their stunts! It's going to be an easy one for me, yum... yum...
Chicken Feet
In Asia we have different ways of cooking chicken feet. Yummy, love it! I think for us it's not strange. For those outside of Asia they might feel squimish about it. Really it's nothing, it's just chicken.
Petai
A type of vegetable used in many Malaysian home cooking. It grows in long pods on a very large tree of the Legume family, Parkia speciosa. It smells bad. It can be either cook with belacan(will cover this later) or eaten raw with a type of dipping sauce that made from of belacan, chilies, anchovies instead of western dressings like mayonaise, vinegarate etc. You will get dark brown foul-smelling urine the day after a petai meal. I had never eaten this and dare not to eat it too.
Belacan
Belacan, a Malay variety of shrimp paste, is prepared from fresh tiny shrimp of a species known as geragau in Malay. These are mashed and buried for several months. The fermented shrimp are then dug up, fried and hard-pressed into cakes.Get more details about belacan...
This is the dipping sauce that I mentioned about just now.
Besides using it for Petai, this is served with Sarawak Laksa too. Sarawak Laksa is my favourite food! How can I live without it? *drool*
Another dish that make use of belacan is Belacan Beehoon, you can only get this in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The base of the beehoon(the way "vermicelli" is pronounced in one of our local Chinese dialect). Some people will find the smell unbearable and pungent but for us it's aromatic! *slurp*
These are just some example of food served with belacan, there are more but I don't think I can cover all of them here. The link that I had provided summarised almost all about it already.
Umai(Sarawak raw fish salad)
In Malaysia in the state of Sarawak, umai is a traditional working lunch for the Melanau(an ethnic group in Malaysia) fishermen. It is made mainly of thin slivers of raw fish, thinly sliced and soaked in onions, chilli, salt and the juice of sour fruits like lime or assam. I tasted it before, it isnt' so bad :) our version of sashimi!! Here's the recipe if you are interested.
Last but not least!!!
Sago worms(sago grubs, or siat)
For those of you that had watched Survivor before, I'm sure you know about it. They are found in sago stumps. The grubs were fat, white, with a dark brown head. The taste of the live grub, according to a 1969 article on Bornean cooking in the Sarawak Museum Journal, it's described as "better than umai." It can be eaten alive or lightly fried. Apparently, part of the appeal lay in way the grubs "convulsed," and also in the 'good burst' when crushed by the teeth." I had never tasted this but would love to try however I'm not so sure I dare or not? Maybe the cooked ones will do, not the alive one please. Oh, they also used it as facial mask and hair mask*-_-"*
Awww... this post is making me hungry... Enjoy and don't lose your appetite because of this. I'm not responsible for anything that happened to you after reading this post!*LOL*
~Posted by Sweet Surrender~
Durian
Here's the photo of the fruit that nnanaa post in "Strange Food - Singapore". Wow... Fear Factor actually asked the contestants to eat durian for one of their stunts! It's going to be an easy one for me, yum... yum...Chicken Feet
In Asia we have different ways of cooking chicken feet. Yummy, love it! I think for us it's not strange. For those outside of Asia they might feel squimish about it. Really it's nothing, it's just chicken.Petai
A type of vegetable used in many Malaysian home cooking. It grows in long pods on a very large tree of the Legume family, Parkia speciosa. It smells bad. It can be either cook with belacan(will cover this later) or eaten raw with a type of dipping sauce that made from of belacan, chilies, anchovies instead of western dressings like mayonaise, vinegarate etc. You will get dark brown foul-smelling urine the day after a petai meal. I had never eaten this and dare not to eat it too.Belacan
Belacan, a Malay variety of shrimp paste, is prepared from fresh tiny shrimp of a species known as geragau in Malay. These are mashed and buried for several months. The fermented shrimp are then dug up, fried and hard-pressed into cakes.Get more details about belacan...
This is the dipping sauce that I mentioned about just now. Besides using it for Petai, this is served with Sarawak Laksa too. Sarawak Laksa is my favourite food! How can I live without it? *drool* Another dish that make use of belacan is Belacan Beehoon, you can only get this in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. The base of the beehoon(the way "vermicelli" is pronounced in one of our local Chinese dialect). Some people will find the smell unbearable and pungent but for us it's aromatic! *slurp*These are just some example of food served with belacan, there are more but I don't think I can cover all of them here. The link that I had provided summarised almost all about it already.
Umai(Sarawak raw fish salad)
In Malaysia in the state of Sarawak, umai is a traditional working lunch for the Melanau(an ethnic group in Malaysia) fishermen. It is made mainly of thin slivers of raw fish, thinly sliced and soaked in onions, chilli, salt and the juice of sour fruits like lime or assam. I tasted it before, it isnt' so bad :) our version of sashimi!! Here's the recipe if you are interested.Last but not least!!!
Sago worms(sago grubs, or siat)
For those of you that had watched Survivor before, I'm sure you know about it. They are found in sago stumps. The grubs were fat, white, with a dark brown head. The taste of the live grub, according to a 1969 article on Bornean cooking in the Sarawak Museum Journal, it's described as "better than umai." It can be eaten alive or lightly fried. Apparently, part of the appeal lay in way the grubs "convulsed," and also in the 'good burst' when crushed by the teeth." I had never tasted this but would love to try however I'm not so sure I dare or not? Maybe the cooked ones will do, not the alive one please. Oh, they also used it as facial mask and hair mask*-_-"*Awww... this post is making me hungry... Enjoy and don't lose your appetite because of this. I'm not responsible for anything that happened to you after reading this post!*LOL*
~Posted by Sweet Surrender~
11 Comments:
nnanaa, :) Hehehe... we all love belacan!!! I had never tried any worms before haahaha...
worms....um, no thanks unless they are candy gummy worms. ick.
Keep up the good work, Miss Blog Ambassador of Malaysia.
drnerp
hahaha! durian, which is a native where for my mom, is so pungent, even she can't eat it!...me i don't mind...though it stinks up hotels and i believe in some places, it is not allowed to be brought in!
petai, hmmmm...i never liked it. uhhhh, it even makes your sweat smells like it...hahahahah!
i heard chicken feet is the most high in calcium and when made into soup base, is good for pregnant ladiez!
i don't think i can try those grub unless they were cooked....something about it moving in your mouth gives me the jibbbies-jibbies!
other than that, i got electrocuted from licking the food on my screen!
OUCH!
Enjoy the food everybody hehehe...
Cole, actually I really don't know I dare to eat or not. Might chicken out at the end haahah...
drnerp, Wow... new title for me :P Thanks.
Kuntry Konfession, I'm actually craving for them now :P though had just eaten my dinner.
I hope you are offended by this but... chicken feet look awful
Rebelde, not at all :) I knew some will think it's awful hahaha... at the end it's still chicken for us :P in Aisa, we eat every single part of the chicken.
hmm... the chicken feet and the sago worms do look so very unappealing! But then... I suppose that maybe we in North America look rather wasteful as we do not consume all the parts that are deemed edible (nor all the critters) by some other countries.
Fred Linardi and Desiree, :) These aren't the worst yet. If you go to The Phillipines or Thailand, they have even more strange food. -_-" Not only strange but BIZZARE!!
irene, you should tell them abt the "chow tau foo" (i hope its spelled correct), in english words, Smelly taofu, that things stinks to the core but yet so tasty.
Munak, "chow tau foo" this one eheheh... we don't have it here in Kuching. I thought it's from Hong Kong. I had never eaten it before and really curious how "chow"(smelly) it is? KL might have it but not in Kuching. You had it before? Thanks for adding in heheheh...
Post a Comment
<< Home