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Perak's Cuisine
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Indian Cuisine
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Indian
Cuisine in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia |
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Like the
Malays, the Indians use their spices liberally.
Indian
food in Malaysia can be broadly classified under three
categories - North Indian, South Indian and Indian
Muslim.
Dishes prepared by North Indians make more
subtle use of spices and yogurt, while South Indian food is
blatantly spicy and hearty.
The Indian Muslims make up a
sizable population here and over the years their dishes have been
"Malaysianised" to suit local taste. A popular
Indian Muslim meal is Nasi Kandar. Nasi is the Malay word for
rice while kandar is a pole slung across the shoulders, and this was
the way the meal used to be sold.
While the Chinese sometimes substitute their rice meal for noodles,
bread is a popular alternative with the Indians. They come in
various forms and are eaten with a combination of lentil curries,
spicy ladies fingers and aubergine, potato curries, piquant
chutneys, and the ubiquitous pappadam.
Watching roti canai being made is a fascinating experience.
Balls of uncharacteristically elastic dough are flattened out, then
picked up and whirled around a few times to stretch them out paper
thin, then slapped down on an oiled iron griddle, folded and fried
crisp.
A banana leaf meal is another not-to-be -missed experience.
You get as much rice as you want, and generous helpings of curry
chicken, mutton or fish all heaped on a banana leaf instead of a
plate. Banana leaf rice is traditionally eaten with the
fingers and the 'hot' meal is usually washed down with a glass of
fresh yogurt. |
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