Work through the list in order. Hide the notes when you know what to do.
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Eat nasi lemak
Rice cooked in coconut milk with pandan leaf, with spicy sambal, anchovies, peanuts, cucumber and egg. The national breakfast, wrapped in banana leaf.
The sambal is sweet-hot rather than merely fiery, and it makes the dish. The morning leaf-wrapped parcels cost very little and are gone by nine.
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Eat roti canai
Thin laminated dough spun in the air, folded and griddled, served with dhal and curry for dipping. Mamak breakfast, and food at any hour.
Ask for roti telur with egg or roti planta with margarine and sugar. The dough is spun in front of you and is worth watching.
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Try char kway teow
Wide rice noodles fried over ferocious heat with prawns, cockles, egg and bean sprouts. The smoky note from a screaming-hot wok is the mark of quality.
That smoky note is called wok hei, the breath of the wok, and without it the dish falls flat. Stalls cook one or two portions at a time, so the queue moves slowly.
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Try laksa
Two different dishes under one name: curry laksa on coconut milk, thick and spiced, and asam laksa on fish broth with tamarind, sour and coconut-free.
Asam laksa is a Penang thing and very sour; try it, but start with curry laksa. Cockles go into curry laksa by default and can be left out on request.
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Get nasi kandar
Rice flooded with a mix of several curries at once, with toppings chosen from a display. An Indian-Muslim format: you point, and everything gets poured over.
Ask for it banjir, flooded with all the gravies at once; that is the intended way. The price depends on the toppings and is unpredictable in advance.
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Try satay
Small chicken or beef skewers in a turmeric marinade grilled over coals, with peanut sauce, compressed rice cubes and raw onion and cucumber.
They are ordered by the ten rather than singly. The ketupat rice cubes are dipped in the same sauce; they are part of the dish rather than a side.
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Eat Hainanese chicken rice
Poached chicken with rice cooked in chicken stock and fat, with ginger and chilli sauces and a bowl of broth. A mild dish unless you touch the sauce.
The rice and the ginger sauce carry the dish rather than the chicken. A roasted version exists, crisper but less classic.
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Try bak kut teh
Pork ribs simmered in a broth of garlic and Chinese herbs, served with rice, fried dough sticks and tea. The name means meat bone tea.
The Malaysian version is dark and herbal; the Singapore one is pale and peppery. It is a breakfast dish, and stalls close by lunchtime.
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Have banana leaf rice
Rice on a banana leaf with several vegetable curries, papadam and gravy, with free refills. A South Indian format, and ubiquitous in Kuala Lumpur.
Eaten with the right hand, mixing rice and gravy on the leaf itself. You fold the leaf towards you if you enjoyed it and away if not; that is the local sign.
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Try asam pedas and rendang
Asam pedas is fish in a sour-hot tamarind broth; rendang is beef reduced in coconut milk and spices until nearly dry. Two pillars of Malay cooking.
Real rendang is dark and nearly dry rather than saucy; a wet one is an undercooked curry. Asam pedas is eaten with plenty of rice.
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Have cendol Desserts and pastries
Shaved ice with green pandan rice jelly, coconut milk and gula melaka palm sugar. Eaten with a spoon rather than drunk.
Gula melaka gives a smoky caramel note that ordinary sugar cannot. The version with red beans at the bottom is standard rather than an extra.
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Try ais kacang Desserts and pastries
A mountain of shaved ice with syrups, sweetcorn, red beans, jelly and condensed milk. It looks chaotic and beats ice cream in the heat.
Sweetcorn and beans in a dessert are normal here rather than a mistake. Eat it fast, before the ice collapses into syrup.
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Eat kaya toast Desserts and pastries
Thin toasted bread with kaya coconut and egg jam and cold butter, with soft-boiled eggs and soy sauce alongside. The kopitiam breakfast.
You dip the toast into the eggs rather than eating them separately, and the eggs get soy sauce and white pepper. The butter goes on as a cold slab and should melt.
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Try durian in season Desserts and pastries
A fruit with a powerful smell and creamy flesh whose taste sits somewhere between custard and onion. The season is June to August, when stalls appear across the city.
Carrying durian into hotels, the metro and taxis is banned, and the signs are on the doors. Musang King is the priciest and creamiest variety, and the best place to start.
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Drink teh tarik Non-alcoholic drinks
Strong tea with condensed milk poured back and forth between two mugs from a height to build a head. The name means pulled tea.
Ask for kurang manis if you do not want it very sweet. Its menu neighbours are kopi coffee and the lime drink limau ais.
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Drink kopi Non-alcoholic drinks
Coffee roasted with sugar and margarine, served with condensed milk, with its own ordering code: kopi o is black, kopi c uses evaporated milk, kopi kosong has no sugar.
Add peng at the end for the iced version. The ordering code is worth learning; it is identical in kopitiams across the country.
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Try sirap bandung Non-alcoholic drinks
A pink drink of condensed milk with rose syrup, sweet and floral. A mamak classic, drunk over ice in the heat.
The name comes from a word meaning mixed rather than from the city of Bandung. The version with soda is lighter.
