Did You Know That These Foods Are Part of Malaysia’s Cultural Heritage List?

As a country, we’re super multi-cultural and harmonious. This is the result of history, people and so many other things that have given us the endless variety of things to choose from. In the present, we have created something that is truly Malaysian.

However, most of you probably don’t know that Malaysia actually has our own cultural heritage list and it’s actually pretty interesting.

Some of the categories that are featured include buildings, traditional games, and even living people. Don’t worry though cos what we’re going to focus on today is our favourite one. Yeap, food!

Here’s just a small selection of the yummy foods featured on our cultural heritage list…

Tau Fu Fa

Source: Info1001

• Also known as Douhua.
• Originally from China during Han Dynasty.
• Best enjoyed during a sweltering hot day (meaning most days in Malaysia).

Mee Mamak

Source: Flickr

• Commonly found at mamak stalls.
• Uses a variety of ingredients such as spices, tomato sauce, potatoes and even sweet soy sauce.
• Easily customisable to suit different tastebuds.

Durian

Source: Lonely Planet

• Musang King, D24 and Black Thorn are the more well-known varieties of Durian available.
• Durian is rich in different types of nutrients.
• The shell of the Durian can have healing properties when processed into an extract.

Sup Tulang

Source: mStar

• Basically, our local version of what is known worldwide as bone broth.
• Did you know that a study has shown that it could potentially significantly improved the speed and quality of healing bones?

Karipap (Curry Puff)

Source: Old Klang Rd. Currypuffs

• Has similarities to the Portugese Empanada and the Indian Samosa.
• The traditional filling is often potato with curry but now more and more people are experimenting with this traditional snack.

Pisang Goreng

Source: Tumis.my

• The humble tea time snack has recently been given an upgrade with the addition of cream cheese and other sweet additions
• Pisang Raja is the most popular choice of bananas to make this
• If you haven’t had it yet, try it with Sambal Kicap, the way people from Johor eat it. It becomes even more addictive!

Roti Canai

Source: The Star

• Adapted from India’s Roti Paratha
• Has many different variations – Roti tampal, roti tsunami, roti milo, etc. It’s gonna take you awhile to get through them all.

Kek Lapis Sarawak

Source: Wikimedia

• The delicious sweet treat is said to be brought over from Betawi, Indonesia and taught to the people in Sarawak.
• New designs and flavours have been added in more recent years.
• Often baked for special ocassions but has now become an everyday tea-time option.

Asam Laksa

Source: Asian Food Channel

• No one can pin point the exact origin but interestingly, the different variation in recipes are thought to have been developed in accordance with the port cities, such as Penang and Melaka, along the spice route.
• Penang Asam Laksa earned the 7th spot in CNN’s World’s 50 Best Foods List.

Muruku

Source: KeepRecipes

• Originally from South India.
• A Malaysian staple snack that has earned its place during different sorts of local celebrations

These are just some of the delicacies that are included and if you’re interested to find out what the others are, you can start looking here. Whatever the case may be, we can all agree that food is definitely a huge part of our cultural heritage and has the power to bring us all together.

Also read: 10 Typical Malaysian Food-Related Things That Are Totally Satisfying