Malaysia’s Most Popular Ramadhan Dishes

We’re almost at the end of the Ramadhan season. Here, we speak to some of MSN Malaysia’s readers to sum up and pay tribute to our favourite buka puasa foods.

Popia: A springroll with usually vegetable fillings such as turnip, horseradish, beansprouts, and cucumber, drizzled with a sweet and spicy plum sauce, then rolled and cut into bite sized portions. Some of these springrolls also contain tiny shrimps. Popular at Ramadhan bazaars are 'popia basah' directly translated from Malay as 'wet springroll', or 'popia goreng' which is fried springroll.

Murtabak: Similar to the regular roti canai, but with a marinated minced meat filling. It's fried on a flat hot pan, like roti canai, and served with curry. Murtabaks are also one of the staples available at most Ramadhan food bazaars.

Ayam Percik: Whole chickens cut into quarters, usually chicken legs and thighs, marinated with local herbs and spices like tamarind, lemongrass, coconut milk, turmeric, candlenuts, chilli and ginger, and then barbecued over hot coal.

Lemang: Glutinous rice soaked in coconut milk are filled inside a hollow bamboo and cooked over an open fire. The bamboo is lined with banana leaves for additional flavour and to prevent the rice from sticking to the inside of the bamboo. After it's cooked, the lemang is rolled out from the bamboo stick, cut up and served with rendang or curry.

Rendang: A very dry curry dish packed with flavourful spices, usually reserved for special occasions as it requires lots of preparation and cooking time. Traditionally prepared with beef or chicken and said to originate from Minangkabau culture. Ingredients include coconut milk, shallots, garlic, lemongrass, galangal, turmeric, ginger, chillies and other ground local spices.

Karipap: 'Karipap' is just the local name for curry puffs, and it's exactly that - a fried puff pastry filled with curry paste, potatos, shredded chicken and sometimes, for the more premium curry puffs, even a piece of hard-boiled egg.

See readers in MSN sum up and pay tribute to their favourite buka puasa foods here.

Source: MSN