When comes to cooking,
those vocabulary and terms vary with the region, and often ingredients are called completely different things in different areas.
Let us dive into Malaysia cuisine to see how Malay, English and Chinese speak their recipes.
Read a recipe is not a big deal. 😅
But translating them are really hard and tedious.
You will often see a lot of challenge videos from YouTube that translate a recipe into several different languages and then translate it back to the original language. Most of the meaning are incorrect and some words are weird.
And I believe that the purpose of a recipe is to let everyone have a chance to taste the true smell of the tasty food. Therefore, translation is extremely important !
Below are some Malaysia typical cuisine, and you will also see them in 3 different languages (English, Malay and Chinese).
Nasi Lemak
This is the most popular food in Malaysia.
If you haven’t eaten it, you’ll embarrassed to say that you’ve been to here. We often see many morning markets or restaurants that sell nasi lemak in triangular package. Although the size isn’t that big, the taste makes everyone unforgetable.
I can be the best spokesperson for nasi lemak!
Because I like it so much, remember once I bought 5 packs at a time, and enjoy all alone.
You can download it here.
Roti Canai
Going back to when I was studying abroad,
I realized how much I missed the taste of “Roti Canai”.
Every supper time, I would constantly think about the taste, that crispy feel, and that rich curry smell, but unfortunately I couldn’t have it at that time.
BUT NOW! No matter who you are,
as long as you want to eat, you can easily download here and read the “Roti Canai” recipe I prepared for you, and just cook and try it.
But it is undeniable the best roti is in our Mamak stall ~ 😋
Baozi
The unforgettable taste from my childhood memory.
You definitely able to find it in any Chinatown nearby your place.
Chinese buns have more flavors than you can ever imagine. From sweet to salty, one of these flavors is sure to hit your taste buds. Some common flavors are:
- Red beans
- Peanut
- Lotus seed
- Kaya
- Cabbage
- Char Siew (pork)
- your Baozi recipe
- and many more…
Curry
In Malaysia, everyone loved it no matter what race or skin colour.
Curry is a home-cooked meal in almost every household. Each of them can create its own unique sweet smell. It’s spicy but yummy, even children who don’t eat spicy food are fascinated by it.
There is a funny scene you can see in Malaysia where everyone wipes their sweat with tissues and drink ice water to cool down, but still wolf down the curry.
You can see how much people loves curry.
Ah, great with roti canai too!
😂
To taste all the cuisine in the world,
You must learn to read recipes.
To spread your cuisine to the world,
You need to translate your recipes.
With so many races in Malaysia,
the reason these dishes can spread down generation until now.
There must be a multilingual recipe to back it up.
No matter what,
we have to eat every day, and more or less we discuss about the food on the dining table.
So why not let the food satisfy our hunger, and also let it tell the story of our culture and traditions to the world.