I was in Malaysia a couple of months ago. The country is a mixture of malay, indian, and Chinese ethnic groups. The Malays are the largest group, and most of them are Muslim, so there is respect for Muslim traditions but they are not enforced on everyone.
For example, in stores they sold beer (very expensive) but there were signs saying that Muslims were not to buy it. I don’t know if that is enforced in any way.
My Chinese sister-in-law, who is very biased towards China, will admit that Malaysia has the best food in Asia, because of the above-mentioned fusion of cultures. And I can confirm that the food is spectacular!
I took my wife (who has not traveled very much) to Malaysia because it is different enough from Canada to be exotic, but still has enough comforts and is developed enough not to be intimidating. She found it far too hot and humid, but other than that enjoyed it.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 18 hours ago
A few fun fact about Malaysia:
it’s a country with Islam being the official religion, but everyone (except muslim) are free to practice other religion.
pork are allowed to be sold everywhere, and muslim themselves need to know whether the establishment sell pork or not. They can pick restaurant that is halal certified to be safe, but restaurant isn’t required to have halal certified to operate, thus non-muslim can eat the haram meat without restriction.
the 3 ethnicity that share the largest population are: Malay, Chinese, and Indian, then kadazan-dusun for Sabah and Iban for Sarawak. There is a lot of other ethnic minority, including indigenous people. We of course allowed to practice our own culture without hindrance, to the point we celebrate it together, with no worry about cultural appropriation.
while Malaysia is a religious country, it’s not full-on theocracy(yet). Here we practice the Westminster parliamentary system, inherited from british, while similarly we also have royalty placed above the parliament(which we call Agong, akin to King), which mostly serve a ceremonial role. As of yesterday, the parliament is now an independent entity that doesn’t need the involvement of royalty.
Agong is basically a role take on by Sultan, which they take turn to be on that role every 5 years. We have 9 Sultans.
while the official language is Malay, english is widely spoken among the city folks, as well as mandarin and tamil.
Machinist@lemmy.world 13 hours ago
Neato. Thanks!
That whole Sultanate thing sounds even more complicated than European aristocracy.
Should I ever get the chance to try Malay food, what should I try?
psx_crab@lemmy.zip 1 hour ago
Like the other person said. I would also recommend Nasi Lemak, it’s the national dish after all. The rest kinda depend on where you are.
minyakcurry@monyet.cc 7 hours ago
It’s quite a common misunderstanding of the word “Malay”, but no biggie. In Malaysia, “Malay” specifically refers to the ethnic group. I think you meant to ask about Malaysian food instead, which comprises Malay, Chinese, Indian, various other ethnicities, and even combinations of ethnicities.
If you do specifically want Malay food, I think nasi lemak is a must try.
Then again, different states have different niches. The state I’m from is famous for Peranakan (Chinese+Malay) food, and I would highly recommend that.