Malaysia is such a diverse country in terms of culture, so the cuisine is incredibly good, top tier in my opinion. With many delicious and different flavors and dishes to offer with Malaysian, Indian and Chinese influences. My parents are both Malaysian-Chinese immigrants, so I feel really privileged to get to taste the most amazing food every time I go to my parents their house.

When I was traveling through Malaysia I was never hungry. Either my family made sure I ate and prepared meal after meal for me, or I would go wandering the streets and stop at every food vendor. In this blog I will show you everything I ate to give you some inspiration on what to eat when you're in Malaysia in no particular order.

1. Roti Canai

Roti canai is a flatbread that is made by flattening the dough until very thin. They do this while throwing the dough in a spinning motion in the air. It's really fun to watch. After the dough is flattened, the sides will be folded in. These layers make the roti canai super fluffy, perfect with the crispy exterior. The roti canai is then cooked in Ghee on a flat, iron cooking plate. You also have the option to add an egg, cheese or sugar for the sweet variant. It's served with a curry that you can pick yourself, like chicken curry, lamb curry or beef curry.

2. Roti tissue

Roti tissue is similiar to roti canai, but it's crispier and sweet due to the sugar. It stands tall like a tissue and is often pretty big. Perfect for sharing!

3. Nasi Lemak

Nasi Lemak is Malaysias national dish and is a must try. It's traditionally eaten as breakfast, and most of the time will be sold out when it gets to noon. It's a rice dish with a lot of complimentary elements. The rice is cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaves, which make it incredible fragrant. It's served with spicy sambal, fried anchovies, an egg and cucumber on the side. Sometimes you can also opt for (and I'd highly recommend) is fried chicken!

4. Durian

Durian, or should I say, the king of fruits is something you have to try when you're in Malaysia. It's an interesting fruit in a spiky exterior. It has a very pungent smell, you'll be able to recognize it in no time. Because of the smell, this fruit is prohibited in a lot of public areas.

Don't let the smell scare you away, cause this fruit is actually delicious. The texture is creamy, kind of custardy and depending on the kind of durian you're getting, it's either sweet or a little bit bitter. My favorite kind is the Musang king.

Durian is a very popular fruit in Malaysia and is used as a flavoring for a lot of things, such as candy, cakes and drinks!

5. Bak Kut Teh

Bak kut teh is a pork dish that consists of a herbal pork broth made from pork ribs and sometimes pork intestines are added too. There's a variety of spices added such as star anise and cloves.

It's served with rice and a soy and chilli dipping sauce and a you tiao (fried dough). I love to dip the you tiao in until it soaks up all of that delicous broth!

6. Saté Ayam

Saté ayam or chicken skewers are well marinated and grilled served with a peanut sauce. This is also very popular in the Netherlands, but the sauce is much more fragrant in Malaysia.

7. Har mee (Prawn noodles)

I love prawn noodles. The broth has been cooked with prawns heads and shells, to extract all of that flavor and then pork or chicken broth is added. It's topped with fried shallots and bean sprouts. This, to me is perfection in a bowl.

8. Hokkien mee

Hokkien mee is another noodle dish braised in a thick dark sauce with pork lard which gives it an amazing depth of flavor. Pork and shrimp is added and sometimes fish cakes too.

9. Ais kacang

Ice kacang is shaved ice topped with various toppings like red beans, sweet corn, cendol, grass jelly and a sweet syrup. A perfect dessert to cool down a bit in the Malaysian heat.

10. Rojak

Rojak is a cold salad with fried, crispy tofu, cucumber and pineapple tossed in a sticky tangy, sweet and spicy sauce. Everything goes really well together, the rich sauce, the different textures and the freshness of the cucumber and pineapple. It's perfect to eat as a snack or as an appetizer.

Pan mee is a hand pulled noodle dish and can be eated dry and tossed in a sauce, in a thick gravy sauce or in an anchovy based broth. It's often topped with green onions, fried anchovies,

Pan mee is a dish I grew up eating. My mom used to spent an entire day in the kitchen to make the best pan mee by hand in her home made broth, with hand minced pork, fried in a thick flavorful sauce with shiitake mushrooms. To this day, I still always get excited when my mom makes pan mee for me.

I've talked about You Tiao earlier in this article, but here's another way to enjoy this fried dough. We got a pandan and kaya sauce to dip in, and this was a perfect dessert for me.

Pandan is a plant and its leaves are often used for cooking in Asian countries. The leaves have a very distinct smell, kind of nutty and like caramel. It's used as a flavoring in a lot of desserts, and with a good reason. It's delicous.

Kaya is a coconut, pandan based thick spread, traditionally eaten as breakfast accompanied by plain white toast and a soft boiled egg on the side.

13. Cha Sieuw Mee

Cha Sieuw mee are noodles in a dark soy based sauce with cha sieuw. Cha sieuw is roasted pork in a marinade that is made of hoi sin, honey, sugar, five spice powder, garlic and ginger. It's served with wonton soup on the side

Char Kway Teoy is a dish that consists of flat, chewy rice noodles fried on a high heat wok, with chicken egg or duck egg and a protein of choice. In Penang there's a popular food stall that serves it with oyster.