page_title: Malay cuisine
section_title: Food preparation
hierarchical_section_title: Malay cuisine / Terminologies / Food preparation
caption_attribution_description: English: Malay festive staples.
context_page_description: Malay cuisine is the cooking tradition of ethnic Malays of Southeast Asia, residing in modern-day Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Southern Thailand and the Philippines as well as in Cocos Islands, Sri Lanka and South Africa.
context_section_description: In Malay food preparation, varieties of ingredients used are often described as spicy and flavorful as it is melting pot of spices, herbs and roots. Strong, tangy and flavorful fresh herbs, spices and ingredients such as serai (lemon grass), pandan (screwpine), kemangi (a type of basil), kesum (polygonum), buah pala (nutmeg), kunyit (turmeric) and bunga kantan (wild ginger buds), biji sawi (mustard seeds) and halba (fenugreek) are often used. Apart from the Malay ingredients terminologies, another important aspect for Malay food terminologies is the equipment and utensils used. Several traditional Malay cooking equipments including several types of grinders called lesung batu (pestle and mortar), batu giling (stone roller), and the batu boh (mill) used for preparing spices and pastes. Vegetables are diced on a landas (wooden board); while a coconut scraper or kukur niyur is indispensable in making both curries and sweets. Pastries are also made for desserts and for this a torak (rolling pin) and papan penorak (pastry board) are considered essential. Besides the preparation and the cooking methods, food names also play an important role in Malay food terminologies. There is an abundance of unique food names that can be found for Malay delicacies that typically are named after the appearance of the food, the way food is prepared, places, people and by certain event or incident. Some of the famous and unique Malay food names include buah melaka, lompat tikam, badak berendam, tahi itik, cek mek molek, serabe, beriani gam, cakar ayam, nasi dagang and many more.
caption: Typical festive fare during Hari Raya Puasa or Hari Raya Haji (clockwise from bottom left): beef soup, nasi himpit (compressed rice cubes), beef rendang and sayur lodeh.
exif: {}