 Hawker Food
An culinary adventure in Malaysia
Hawker food is rife in Asia. They can be dished out from mobile carts at street corners, much like the American hotdog stand, or more usually collected under one roof called the kopitiam or coffee shop. The arrangement is ingenius. The owner of the kopitiam is the one who serves coffee and other beverages. But, unlike the Starbucks phenomenon, people don't go to the kopitiam just to drink coffee. They go there for breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. So the owner would rent stalls stationed inside the shop to individual hawkers. What you end up with is a food court with each stall operated by specialists in their type of food. Let me walk you around the kopitiam to view the fare.
 Char Koay Teow
This is a dish of flat rice noodles fried with bean sprouts, shrimps, chives, cockles and soy sauce. Eggs and chilli paste are optional but add to the flavor. It looks like pad-thai without the sweetness and crushed peanuts.
 Curry Laksa
A handful of yellow noodles and white rice noodles are dipped into boiling water to cook. A coconut-flavored curry broth is then poured over them with condiments like chicken, fish cake, shrimp and bean sprouts. Chilli paste is optional.
 Hokkien Mee
What makes this a winning dish is the broth which has been boiled with prawn shells for a long time to extract the essence of the prawns. Just like for the Curry Laksa, the yellow and white noodles are boiled and then steeped in the hot broth with shrimps, watercress and bean sprouts and topped with deep fried shallots.
Bak Kut Teh
Although the literal translation of its name is Spare Ribs Tea, it is not a tea. It is a herbal soup cooked with spare ribs, herbs, tofu puffs, dried shitake mushroom and garlic. It comes with a side serving of rice.
Grilled fish
Stingray (or skate) fillets, marinated in spices and wrapped in banana leaves. It is then slowly grilled. The spices seep into the fish as it cooks, giving it a slight curry flavor. You dip it in a sauce.
Satay
This is probably the best known dish as it is served in many Western countries. Skewers of diced chicken or beef, marinated in a mix of spices, are slowly grilled over a charcoal spit. It is served with a peanut sauce dip and cubes of rice and cucumber.
Unfortunately, only the more adventurous tourists will venture into kopitiams because without the help of a local, you would not know which to go to. Not all kopitiams are created equal, even though they serve the same food. Then there is the question of hygiene because you won't see a Food Inspection certificate hanging on the wall. But this is where the locals hang out, the food is individually cooked on the spot (by plate or by bowl) and occasionally the food inspectors eat there, albeit incognito. If you want to get a taste of the delicious hawker food, you could ask your hotel concierge to point you in the right direction.
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