Different clan comes with different food,
that shows each clan identity.
Be ready to be served with authentic dishes!!!
Cantonese food
Hainanese food
Hakka food
The food is quickly stir-fried with just a touch of oil and the result is crisp and fresh. With Cantonese food, the more people sitting at a meal the better, because dishes are traditionally shared so everyone will manage to sample the greatest variety.
A corollary of this is that Cantonese food should be balanced. A Cantonese specialty is Dim Sum. Dim sum is usually consumed during lunch or as a brunch, popular on weekends.
The dim sum has between 10 to 30 items and includes delights such as Steamed Pork & Shrimp Dumplings, Steamed Pork Riblets, Steamed Vegetable Dumplings, Steamed Soft Noodles with shrimp, Steamed Crabsticks stuffed with fish paste, Deep-fried Dumplings with salted eggs, Steamed Red Bean cakes and delicious desserts of Baked Egg Custard to name a few.
Cantonese cuisine offers dishes such as pricey delicacies like Braised Abalone, Shark's Fin Soup, Bird's Nest Soup to meals on the cheap like Mee (noodles) and Congee (rice porridge).
Hokkien food
Hokkien food has provided the popular Hokkien Fried Mee; thick egg noodles fried with meat, seafood and vegetables in a rich soy sauce.
Another famous Hokkien treat is Popiah or Hokkien Spring Rolls; a vegetable filling of stewed jicama (sengkuang), carrots and bean sprouts are rolled in a rice paper wrapper with minced prawns, fried shallots and lettuce.
A very popular Hokkien herbal soup is Bak kut teh, which in English is translated as 'Pork Rib Pork Bone Tea', traditionally served for breakfast as an invigorating tonic to start the day with Ewe Char Koay (Chinese crullers). Pork ribs are long simmered in a 'tea' of Chinese medicinal herbs and whole cloves of garlic, often with dried shitake mushrooms added for a rich, earthy flavor. A chicken version Chi Kut Teh is also popular.
Throughout Malaysia, one of the most widespread economical meal is Hainan Chicken Rice.
The Hainanese are also famous for Steamboat, an Oriental version of the Swiss Fondue or Japanese Shabu-Shabu. Thin slices of raw meat, seafood and vegetables are cooked at the table in a pot of soup broth heated by hot charcoals. Nowadays 'electric Steamboats' are more the norm especially in restaurants.
Teochew food
Teochew food, from the area around Swatow in China, is another style noted for it's delicate and at the same time robust flavors. This cuisine is famous for it's seafood as well as it's Congee (rice porridge).
Teochew Congee is a simple meal; a bowl of rice porridge is served with a medley of small appetizing side dishes, to pick and choose from.
The most popular Chinese hawker dish is Char kue Teow; flat rice noodles fried with fresh shrimp, cockles, bean sprouts, egg, and chives made hot to taste with a smoky chili paste.
Hakka dishes are also easily found in food centers.
The best known Hakka dish is the Yong Tau Foo. Soy Bean cakes tofu, bitter gourd, whole red chilies and various other vegetables are stuffed with a fish or seafood paste, then steamed or boiled in a broth and served with a chili dipping sauce.
Other special Chinese Cuisine
Moon cakes are a must during the Mid Autumn or Mooncake Festival, when the moon is at it's brightest all year. Rich and sweet, these special celebratory cakes are made with various fillings of sweet red bean paste, white lotus seeds, lotus seed paste and a whole egg yolk, symbolizing the full moon.
In Malaysia, there are countless Chinese restaurants, hawker stalls and Chinese coffee shops "Kopitiams". Kopitiam typically serve customers coffee and other hot or cold beverages. Independent hawker stalls operate in the same way, offering customers a myriad of culinary delights. There are upscale Chinese restaurants offering Chinese specialties and delicacies.
So, what are you waiting for people? shiek fan, lai lai!
