As usual, some of the best foodstuffs are not to be found in expensive restaurants, but way down on the street levels, in the local stalls and night markets. This is where you can really dig into the malaysian multi-ethnic cuisine, with fork, spoon and chopsticks. Start your lavish meal with a few satays, the absolute malay speciality (delicious small meat kebabs on skewers, served with peanut sauce - the recipe varies from place to place), skip through the variety of rice, noodle and fried dishes. Need to be full fast? Get a murtabak, a malay-style meat-and-curry-filled crepé - a single one is bound to keep you going for hours. Start your day with a nasi lemak, the favourite malay rice dish or end it with a penang laksa, a strong fish gravy with steamed local-style noodles.
Still hungry? How about some deserts? Choose between the huge variety of more-or-less usual cakes, sweetmeats and fruit products or something more suprising, like the aiskrim goreng (fried ice-cream). Made by rolling a ball of rock-hard, deep-frozen ice-cream in sweet dough and dumping it into boiling oil for half a minute, aiskrim goreng is worth a taste. Too heavy for your stomach? Well, hit a bowl of Chendol, a delicious icy red-bean-and-jelly desert (the best ones are definitely to be found in Penang, but trust Kualaites to make a worthy copy).
Wash it all down with some sugarcane juice, soybean milk, coconut water or one of the many fruit juices. Be sure to grab a teh tarik, a smooth, sweet, creamy tea on your way out and pick up some local fruits, if you against all likehood should experience the hunger pangs during the night.
And should your senses suddenly be assaulted by a strong smell of sewage, don't despair - it's merely the local durian seller, pushing its foul-smelling royal fruits to the local audience. Taste it at your own risk.