Probably my favourite meal here in Malaysia has been Roti Bakar. I’ve been working my way through the Malaysian staples like Nasi Lemak (coconut rice), Hokkien Mee (charcoal fried noodles), and banana leaf curry (see below), but Roti Bakar is the only meal I keep coming back to. Which is strange, because it’s nothing more than two thick pieces of toast with kaya jam (and occasionally an unholy amount of cold butter) between them, accompanied by two soft-boiled eggs and a cup of Malaysian coffee. I don’t have any pictures, unfortunately, but if I snap one I’ll edit it in here.
Here’s how you eat it, something I learned the hard way: You get two dishes: one plate with the toast on it and a small bowl of two whole eggs, still hot, with a small spoon. The eggs have been just barely cooked, so using the spoon to crack the shell, empty the eggs into the bowl. Then add a bit of soy sauce and white pepper and stir. Then dip your toast in and enjoy, using the spoon to eat the leftover eggs when the toast is gone. It’s a fantastic combination of salt, carbs, protein, and sugar that Western breakfast food usually tries to segregate – unless you’re willing to fork out money for novelty combination breakfasts at Cora’s (which I’m not too ashamed to admit I have).
On a similar note, I frigging love Malaysian coffee. I don’t consider myself a coffee snob, but North American coffee always felt like it was missing an essential “coffee” taste that I found again in Malaysia. Fancy coffees in Canada tend to go towards a weird, thin, fruity taste that I always assumed I was too uncouth to appreciate. But, as always, I’m right and my critics are fools (title of my new autobiography). Malaysian coffee is apparently roasted in butter, which gives it a deep, rich, almost chocolate taste, and is sweetened with condensed milk. I can’t get enough of it.
In my time not spent eating I’ve been exploring the city. It’s still too hot, so I’ve spent more time than I would have liked in malls. They are very impressive malls, though, and there are lots of them, so I guess that makes it okay. And it’s not like I haven’t gotten outside at all.
Malaysians drive on the opposite side of the road, which I wouldn’t have noticed except for the strange side effects. Escalators, for example. Malaysians on escalators stand on the left and walk on the right – even the signage asks them to. So I’m constantly switching sides when I realize that I’m standing in the wrong place. I had to message a friend to confirm that Canadian escalator etiquette is walk left, stand right, because I was starting to question my own reality. I also have a suspicion that pedestrians keep to the left while walking, but that’s harder to verify because Malaysian pedestrians are the embodiments of chaos.
Case in point: Jaywalking. In North America, the car is king. If I’m crossing the street outside of a marked crosswalk, a single headlight on the horizon can spook me back onto the sidewalk. Malaysians, meanwhile, bow to no car. Cars in motion just barely have dominion over the five feet in front of them; when the car is stopped, pedestrians would happily vault over the hood if they thought it would save them time. I’ve learned that the real indicator of when it’s safe to cross is rarely the pedestrian signals, but the closest locals: once they start crossing, it’s time to follow them.
Finally, Malaysians are polite to the point that I wonder if Canadians have an unearned reputation. It turns out we’re not the only ones who say “Sorry” when we’re trying to get through a crowd – Malaysians do it too. And they’re capable of apologizing with so much more gusto than Canadians. I was trying to get past a woman in a narrow corridor and she accidentally tapped me with her hand while pointing. When she realized what she’d done it was like I’d pulled a gun on her.
“SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!” she shouted, waving her hands palm forward at me. Her daughter appeared over her shoulder, making the same gesture: “SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!”
I wouldn’t expect that level of contrition from a Canadian unless they’d hit me with their car…and then backed up over me before they realized what had happened.
Anyway, I’ve changed my plans a bit and cutting my time in Kuala Lumpur down. I’m heading to Singapore at the end of the week! So let’s see how that goes.
Harmon Moon 