Commonly, Malays happen to be sea-faring people and so, they comprise lots of seafood in their diet. Prawns, squids, fish, and crabs remain present in the Malay dishes and so are common mutton, beef, and chicken. Malaysians do marinate with special mixtures of spices and herbs before they cook food. Commonly, vegetables are stir-fried though this is also a common thing to eat some vegetables raw plus dipped in a spicy chilly condiment, named sambalbelachan. Many roots and fresh herbs that are usually grown in the region of Southeast Asia are used in Malay cooking.
Shallots, lemongrass, chilies, garlic, and ginger are considered the common compounds that are mixed before they are sautéed for making chili paste or sambal sauce, which is a condiment that habitually accompanies the meals of Malay food. Other herbs, such as turmeric, galangal, laksa leaves, kaffir lime leaves, torch ginger, wild ginger flower buds, and screwpine leaves add zest and flavor to meat, seafood, and poultry. In fact, dried spices too become vital components of Malay cooking. A city of Malacca happened to be one of the high trading centers that dealt with spice trade during the 15th century. It has benefitted Malay cooking a lot with spices, like cumin, fennel, cardamom, coriander, star anise, cloves, cinnamon sticks, mustard seeds, nutmeg, and fenugreek that are commonly used in different Malay curries and soups.
The use of coconut in Malay foods
Coconut is highly used in Malaysian food recipes and it has become a huge favorite with the people of this region. This is since coconut trees do thrive in the tropical weather of Malaysia. Coconut milk includes a creamy richness to the Malaysian curries, named Lemak in the local parlance, thus, providing them their characteristic Malaysian flavor. Malaysian people use different parts of the coconuts in their food and surprisingly, they don’t waste a thing! People drink the juice and use the flesh of old coconuts by grating and eating with customary cakes of Malaysia.
The effect of the geographical location
Due to the geographical location of Malaysia, numerous dishes received their methods within many years besides turning into one of the highly popular cuisines. It is commonly the outcome of historical migrations of people to Malaysia from the neighboring countries. Because of those migrations, individuals brought with them their food traditions and culture and this way, the food culture of Malaysia became so varied.