What Is Malaysian Food?

Jalan Alor is a popular food haven in the city. I was there one evening with some food buddies. Picture a long stretch of road filled with people, cars and food vendors operating from restaurants that spilled onto the streets. A hive of activity? Definitely...with smells of food wafting through the cool evening air. Tourists will have quite a task deciding what to eat given the vast choices available. And for some, it's just plain confusing. Most of these tourists are most likely keen to try out Malaysian food. A tourist couple stopped right in front of our table and busied themselves checking out what was offered by the food vendors. A waiter (from one of the many stalls) went up to the couple and asked if they would like to try the food offered in this section of the street. The man asked what's available here. I was aghast at the waiter's response which went like " oh..over here we have Chinese food". I was thinking if I should interject and say "Malaysian Chinese food"!!..but decided against it. The couple having been "misinformed", walked off in search of the real Malaysian food. Arrgh..I should have opened my mouth. I was disappointed by the waiter's lack of knowledge or maybe it was just the wrong choice of words.So, what is Malaysian food? Very simply, it's made up of Malay, Chinese and Indian cooking styles...and not forgetting other minority groups, we also have the Nyonya and Eurasian cooking. Today's post features a popular Malaysian Malay dish known as ayam masak merah (red cooked chicken). According to MalaysianFood.Net, ayam masak merah is similar to chicken cacciatore (Italian dish) except that the former's spicy. Chicken pieces are fried till golden brown and simmered in a hot tomato sauce. This dish is usually eaten with nasi tomato (tomato rice).

Recipe for this dish is available from MalaysianFood.Net