There are many tasty dishes in Malaysia! Despite the variety of flavors and ingredients, most dishes have a few common components, namely rice and spice! Some of my favorite dishes include nasi ayam (rice chicken), fried chicken soaked in a scrumptious brown sauce flavored with ginger and garlic, laid on a bed of rice and served with cucumber and tomato; telur dadar (egg omelet), eggs mixed with chili boh, onions and salt, fried in oil and served hot; and roti canai (bread), a flat round bread cooked fresh to order on a large stove and typically served with dal, a savory sauce made from lentils. Although I have many favorites, my most favorite dish is kurma.
For three months of my stay in Malaysia, I lived at a turtle sanctuary on a small island in the South East China Sea called Pulau Redang. Each day I helped lead the volunteer program based at Chagar Hutang and collected sand samples for my research. Around dusk, I would be lured back to the research base by the aroma od wonderful dishes simmering away. It was there at Chagar Hutang were I tried a variety of traditional Malay dishes for the pertama kali (first time), and it was there where I fell in love with kurma.
