Malaysian cuisine

Malaysian cooking is three cuisines side by side — Malay, Chinese and Indian — which mixed over a century without dissolving into one another.

Rempah, a spice paste pounded in a mortar, is the foundation of the Malay half. It is fried to the point called pecah minyak, when the oil separates: before that the flavour stays raw.

Peranakan or Nyonya cooking grew out of marriages between Chinese settlers and Malay women. Chinese technique meets Malay spices in it, and laksa is its best-known result.