Malaysia is the best eating country in Southeast Asia and I'll defend this: Penang, KL, and the Cameron Highlands
Mika Soren
I have eaten better in Malaysia than in almost any other country.
I say this having been to Japan. Having been to Italy. Having been to Mexico.
Malaysia has a food culture that I think is underrepresented in global conversations about cuisine, and every day I spend there I find something new to be embarrassingly enthusiastic about.
It’s also significantly cheaper than all of those places.
Penang: the food city
George Town, the capital of Penang island, is where I’d send anyone who asked me for a food destination in Southeast Asia. UNESCO heritage town, the most vibrant street food scene in the region, hawker centres that operate at every hour of the day, a culture collision of Malay, Chinese, and Indian cooking traditions that produces things none of those traditions produces alone.
The hawker culture. Penang hawker food operates at the highest level I’ve found outside Singapore and is significantly cheaper. The major hawker centres: Gurney Drive Hawker Centre (on the waterfront, evenings, large and good), New Lane Hawker Centre (locals mostly, evenings), the air wells of the shophouses in the old city where tables are set up at night.
The dishes you need: Char kway teow (Penang style is different from Singapore: darker soy, wok hei, cockles if you eat them, no sweet sauce). Assam laksa (the Penang version: tamarind-based, sour, with mackerel, not the coconut version, very specifically Penang): this is the dish that regularly appears on lists of the world’s best foods and it earns the placement. Nasi kandar (rice with curry ladles over it, originally served by Indian Muslim hawkers carrying the rice in baskets balanced on poles): the Nasi Kandar stalls at Line Clear in Penang are open 24 hours and I have eaten there at every possible meal time. Rojak (fruit and vegetable salad with a thick prawn paste and peanut sauce).
The UNESCO old city. George Town’s colonial core: Chinese clan houses, Indian temples, mosques and churches within a few streets of each other, the famous street art installations by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic integrated into the walls and buildings of the old city. The trishaw drivers that navigate the old streets. The Penang Peranakan Mansion (the extraordinary Straits-Chinese mansion of a 19th-century businessman): the most elaborately furnished house I’ve been in in Southeast Asia.
Batu Ferringhi. The beach on the north coast: long, sandy, lined with resort hotels. Not the reason to come to Penang (the food is the reason) but a perfectly good beach if you want one, and the night market along the main road in the evenings is worth the walk.
Kuala Lumpur: the underrated capital
KL has a reputation as a transit city and an airport hub and it’s neither fully earned nor fully wrong. It’s a sprawling, slightly chaotic, genuinely interesting city with some of the best food in Southeast Asia (after Penang) and a diverse cultural mix that produces unexpected things.
The Petronas Twin Towers. 452 metres, connected by a sky bridge on the 41st and 42nd floors. The famous photo from the park below at dawn with the towers reflecting in the fountain. The bridge is accessible by timed ticket (book ahead). The towers from inside the bridge are the experience; the view from the observation deck on the 86th floor is genuinely extraordinary.
Batu Caves. 30 minutes by train from KL: a series of Hindu cave temples inside a limestone hill, reached by 272 steps leading to a 42-metre gold statue of Murugan. The caves themselves, lit from inside, with Hindu shrines in the largest cave chambers.
Monkeys are everywhere and have no respect for boundaries. The annual Thaipusam festival (January/February) brings hundreds of thousands of devotees here.
The Central Market (Pasar Seni) and Chinatown. Adjacent in the city centre: the Central Market for crafts and souvenirs in a beautiful Art Deco building, Petaling Street for the night market and the more chaotic version of the same. The Jalan Alor food street nearby: hawker stalls and restaurants filling the street from early evening, the claypot chicken rice the famous thing, the satay stalls the correct starter.
The KLCC park at night. The park under the towers at night, the towers lit above, the fountains, the people of the city out for an evening walk. One of the more pleasant urban parks in the region.
The Cameron Highlands: the cool respite
Three hours north of KL by bus, the Cameron Highlands are at 1,500 metres: the temperature drops 8-10 degrees from the lowland heat and the landscape is completely different. Strawberry farms, tea plantations, jungle walks with pitcher plants.
The tea plantations. The Boh Tea Estate is the most visited and worth it for the factory tour (black tea production from leaf to bag) and the café overlooking the plantations. Sungei Palas Boh is the more dramatic setting: the tea garden on a steep hillside accessible via a long plantation road. Have the tea. Eat scones with strawberry jam because you’re at 1,500 metres in Malaysia and this is correct.
The jungle walks. The trails above Tanah Rata wind through primary montane forest: pitcher plants (carnivorous, spectacular), orchids, the possibility of hornbills if you’re quiet. The Mossy Forest above the summit of Gunung Brinchang: genuinely strange, small twisted trees covered in moss and cloud, visibility dropping to a few metres in the mist.
The strawberry farms. Highlands strawberries, picked fresh, eaten immediately with condensed milk (the local tradition). Simple and exactly right.
Practical things
The food navigation. Malaysian food is diverse in a way that requires some navigation. Halal restaurants (the majority) won’t serve pork. Chinese restaurants serve pork and non-halal items. Indian Muslim restaurants (mamak stalls) serve roti canai and teh tarik (pulled tea) 24 hours. Knowing which type of restaurant you’re in tells you what’s on the menu.
The heat. KL is equatorial. It’s hot and humid every day. The midday heat is significant. The Cameron Highlands is the escape.
The MRT and LRT. KL’s rail network has improved significantly and now covers most of the tourist areas. The Touch ‘n Go card works across all lines. Uber and Grab for the gaps.
Coverage in KL and Penang is excellent. The Cameron Highlands has good coverage in the towns; remote jungle trails can be limited. I’ve compared eSIM options in my guide to Malaysia.
Malaysia is the country I’d move the travel conversation toward more often.
The food. The cost. The complete lack of justification for how good it all is.
Go to Penang. Eat the assam laksa. Thank me later.
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