7 instant foods that give away your Malaysian-ness.
It’s all about instant gratification these days as we want things fast and expect quick responses for every situation. Likewise, we love instant food as it’s less hassle in the kitchen and it cuts cooking time.
Well, Asians have long had a love affair with instant noodles, something which many Westerners probably find hard to understand. At a glance, the noodles seem to be no more than empty calories with very little nutrients and just a quick carbohydrate fix.
However, instant noodles mean more than what’s contained in the packet. Besides the fact that it’s cheap and convenient when it comes to quelling hunger pangs, it offers a hot bowl of comfort, especially when you’re in a cold climate country. And, thanks to the many Asian-ised flavours available, it’s also a taste of home when you’re feeling a little homesick. If you’ve watched enough Korean dramas, you would know that an invitation to eat ramen together at home also implies something else!
Here are some other instant foods which remind us of the wonderful flavours of Malaysia – you might want to stash some away in your cupboard!
The unique taste of teh tarik in an instant. — Filepic
1 Instant teh tarik
Teh tarik (“pulled” tea) is milk tea, which mamak stalls and some restaurants have perfected into fine art. The tea is poured from one tin container into another a few times until you get a layer of froth. The pouring process helps to cool the tea, and they say the greater the height the tea is pulled from, the better it tastes. Food product manufacturers have cleverly packaged this into 3-in-1 sachets containing tea, creamer and sugar, and you just need to add hot water. The jury is out on whether this tastes any different from the real McCoy, but perhaps if you “pull” it, the taste might come close!
Now rendang can be bought ready-packed with pieces of meat inside. — Filepic
2 Instant rendang
There’s no doubt that rendang – usually beef, slow-cooked and braised with herbs and spices along with coconut milk – is a firm favourite of most Malaysians. Now you can buy this ready packed, containing rendang marinade and actual pieces of beef. Just pour this onto a plate and heat it up in the microwave, or if you don’t have access to a kitchen, just heat up the whole pack (unopened) in hot water. Voila! You get rendang in a flash and it tastes quite good too!
Not easy to make your own ketupat. — Filepic
3 Instant ketupat
Making ketupat – compacted rice cakes cooked inside a diamond-shaped woven leaf casing – takes skill to weave the leaves for wrapping the uncooked rice grains. If you don’t do it properly, everything will spill out when it’s being cooked. Now it’s so easy as you can buy this ready packed in the supermarkets. Just pop the little rice packets, which are in small rectangular plastic bags, into boiling water and wait for it to cook. You will get perfectly shaped ketupat every time!
It’s rare to find someone outside of Malaysia who can flip roti canai. — Filepic
4 Instant roti canai
One of the hardest things to get overseas used to be roti canai. There’s no way you’re going to find a guy tossing and flipping the dough like the experts in a mamak shop. But since commercially frozen roti canai became available, it has been a real game-changer. Some say it’s even better than the real deal as anyone can cook it with enough oil on the pan, and it’s always crisp and fluffy.
Just add water to the instant vada mix for delicious vada. — Filepic
5 Instant vada
A popular South Indian street snack, the fritter or doughnut is made from lentils. Deep-fried and fragrant with embedded spices, vada or vadai feels like too much trouble to make yourself as you have to grind the beans and stand over a hot stove for long periods. It’s much easier to just buy this from a vendor. But if you’re abroad and can’t get all the ingredients, you can just add water to the pre-mixed flour to make a quick batter and fry the vada.
The latest instant cendol comes pre-packed with everything inside.
6 Instant cendol
This much-loved drink consisting of green rice flour jelly in coconut milk and palm sugar is the quintessential Malaysian dessert. While it’s easy enough to find the green rice jelly pre-packed in supermarkets, you still have to prepare your own coconut milk and palm sugar concoction. But now, a version containing all three elements have been made available (using non-dairy creamer instead of coconut milk), thanks to the ingenuity of entrepreneur S. Vathumalai, and it’s doing so well that it’s exported to markets abroad too. The drink, named Cendolah, is packed in a sealed pouch that’s been treated at high temperatures so the contents can stay commercially sterile for a long time. And it even comes with red beans! To enjoy this cendol, just pour out the packet’s contents into a bowl, it’s that easy!
Many versions of instant sambal are available. — filepic.
7 Instant sambal
A spicy condiment that will perk up any meal, the chilli paste usually also contains other ingredients such as shrimp paste, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar and, sometimes, lime juice. Recently, content creator Khairul Aming made headlines when his Sambal Nyet sold out online in record time. Using basic ingredients of shallots, chilli, garlic, cooking oil, sugar, salt and flavoured pepper, you’ll have to ask him what his secret ingredient is that makes it so popular. That aside, there are plenty of other bottled versions of Malaysian sambal in the market to provide the spiciness and zing which you miss!
