Malaysian

Packed with shrimp, bean sprouts, and tofu puffs, this Malaysian-style laksa noodle soup is the revivifying post-holiday balm you’ll crave.

Now all you need is a steaming bowl of Malaysian chicken curry to go with it…

A coconutty Malaysian rice bowl topped with crispy-crunchy crumbles of teeny little fried anchovies dressed in a sweet-spicy sambal.

Newly expanded Kopitiam has the Malaysian food we crave at a shockingly affordable price.

The chef brings home lessons from Southeast Asian roadside stands to teach you how to turn up the heat even when you dial down the flame

The Jungle Bird is one of the few tiki drinks to feature amaro—in this case, Campari.

This rose-scented kuih lapis is popular in the Malay community, served either as an evening snack or for breakfast and making an appearance at special events.

Rendang is a slow-cooked dish that requires hours of stovetop nursing. It was only when I bought an Instant Pot that I even entertained the idea of making it myself.

This dish is made with an Indonesian chili paste for a deep, comforting, and rich curry.

This creamy custard is popular in Southeast Asia, especially Malaysia and Singapore, where it's slathered onto toasted fluffy white bread and served with poached eggs as a morning snack. Often called the vanilla of Southeast Asia, the long, narrow, vibrant green pandan leaves give the jam its signature aromatic flavor.

Leftover rice is not only acceptable here but practically mandatory: fresh or warm rice does not fry well, but clumps together and sticks to the wok. You need cold, stale rice, which separates during cooking. If you have neither roast pork (even the Cuban Lechon Asado, page 375, will work) nor Chinese sausage, ham is a fine substitute. No meat at all is fine, too, of course; see the variations.

The rich, intense flavor base of this traditional Malaysian dish comes from the rempah, or curry paste, that is made from scratch and infused into the oil before cooking the remaining ingredients. This recipe uses whole chickens that have been broken down into 10 pieces (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 wings, and 4 breast pieces each). If you're not comfortable cutting up a chicken yourself, you can ask your butcher to do it or buy chicken pieces.

Although this dessert is not traditional (Nonya sweets typically call for unusual ingredients that are not readily available in the U.S.), you'd likely find a version of it at a contemporary Malaysian restaurant. It's extremely important to use very ripe mangoes — it's their fresh flavor that makes these puddings so delicious.

Nasi Kerabu
Make sure to buy the larger dried shrimp and select those that are bright pink or pink-orange (they brown and harden with age). Lesser grades of dried shrimp tend to be unpleasantly pungent. It's also important to use a fine-quality rice — what you can buy at most supermarkets will yield mediocre results.

This three-in-one dish (chicken, rice, and soup) originated in Hainan, a tropical island off China's southern coast, and has become a culinary staple in Malaysian culture.