What Are Malaysia's Best Ramadan Food?

In Asian cultures, especially in Malay where there is a melting pot of so many races and religions, food is always a central focus during festive events. This is evident when it comes to Raya where people will call it once-a-year Raya food that you just cannot miss! What are the best for us here at Mis Claire? Let's look at the list!

1. Lemang

Photo credit to Hafiz Ismail

Lemang is a Southeast Asia traditional food that made from glutinous rice, coconut milk and salt, it is cooked in a bamboo stick with banana leaves in order to prevent the rice from sticking to the bamboo. We love eating this with rendang, masak lemak dishes, serunding and other savoury dishes!

2. Rendang

Image from butterkicap.com

Rendang is piece of meat (most commonly beef) slow cooked and braised in coconut milk and spice mixture, well until the liquids evaporates and the meat turns dark brown, tender, caramelized, infused with rich spices. This combination with lemang is a total win! It does not look appealing, but this is a very well-loved dish among locals.

3. Serunding

Image from asianinspirations.com.au

In Malaysia, the term serunding refers to meat floss, it can be mixed with grated coconut or not. While in Indonesia, meat floss is called abon, and serundeng refers to the spiced and sauteed grated coconut. There are lots of variations to this, even fish serunding. You can eat it with anything even to accompany your rice dishes.

4. Ketupat

Ketupat is a type of dumpling made from rice packed inside a diamond-shaped container of woven palm leaf pouch. Its cultural significance - the crossed weaving of palm leaves symbolises mistakes and sins committed by human beings, and the inner whitish rice cake symbolise purity and deliverance from sins after observing Ramadan fast, prayer and rituals.

5. Dodol

Image credit to Nurul Adila on Flickr

In Muslim majority countries, such as Indonesia and Malaysia, dodol is commonly served during festivals, such as Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as sweet treats for children. Dodol is made from coconut milk, jaggery, and rice flour, and is sticky, thick, and sweet. The cooking process would reduce the contents up to half as the liquid evaporates. It normally takes up to 9 hours to cook.

All the information above is from Wikipedia ;) What is your favourite Raya food?