Lesser known but just as significant as dim sum in Hong Kong, Malaysian breakfast is such a way of life in the Southeast Asian country that it was added to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December. In multi-ethnic Malaysia, home to large Malay, Chinese, and Indian populations, a breakfast of traditional foods like nasi lemak, roti canai, and teh tarik are produced and consumed by all ethnic groups, and enjoyed in both urban and rural regions at street food stalls, coffee shops called kopitiam, restaurants, and markets by all social classes.
Nasi lemak is a mound of rice cooked in coconut milk, surrounded by sambal (a spicy chile paste), roasted peanuts, crispy anchovies, a hard-boiled egg, cucumber slices, and a meat dish, generally fried chicken, beef or chicken curry, or beef rendang (highly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and ginger with coconut cream, slow-cooked). Crunchy, spicy, creamy, sweet, and cooling all at once, it’s Malaysia’s national dish. Roti canai is a flaky, soft South Indian flatbread, served with a curry or dal for dipping. Teh tarik is hot tea made with sweet condensed milk, poured from a height so it’s frothy.
“It is very important for our culture and lifestyle in Malaysia. We must have breakfast – breakfast meeting, breakfast social, breakfast wedding,” explains Ismail Ahmad, the chef-owner of Restoran Rebung in Kuala Lumpur, in a video from Malaysia’s Department of National Heritage.
How popular is it? “We’ve organized the world’s biggest nasi lemak event six times. Every time we get 30,000 to 40,000 people. We finish about 60,000 plates of nasi lemak in four hours,” says Adly Rizal, CEO of FriedChillies Media, a food festival organizer in Malaysia. “It’s a complete meal all in one. You’ve got your carbs, your fiber, your protein, your vegetables, and everything else, and it’s quick to eat.”
Chef Azalina Eusope was born in Penang with South Indian Muslim heritage and demonstrates the dishes in cooking classes. “It’s a sport basically, for all Malaysians. In one bite you get to explore the flavors of Southeast Asia and nearby countries,” says the owner of Azalina’s in San Francisco and 2024 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: California. “Each Malaysian state has its own version.”
Here are four places to try Malaysian breakfast in the U.S.
SanDai (Walnut Creek, California)
Courtesy of SanDai
At SanDai, the nasi lemak features blue-tinted coconut rice (dried butterfly pea flower is added for color), Belachan sambal terasi (which also contains fermented shrimp paste, tomatoes, garlic, and shallots), ultra-crispy fried chicken marinated in koji, coconut floss (shredded coconut with turmeric and a different sambal), and peanuts.
“California is so diverse, so I don’t just stick to tradition,” says chef Nora Haron, who was born in Singapore to parents of South Indian and Indonesian descent. “Nasi lemak is my favorite breakfast dish. When I land in Singapore my mother will have it ready for me. Mix it together or not, do what you want – but sambal is a necessity, its deep umami flavor ties everything together.”
For the 2023 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) conference in nearby San Francisco, she was tapped to make 250 nasi lemaks for guests. Her roti canai — made with condensed milk to add sweetness, flour, and ghee (her grandfather’s recipe) — comes with a side of chickpea coconut curry. Instead of teh tarik, a hot milk tea called teh halia is served. It’s intensely gingery due to fresh ginger juice.
Kampar (Philadelphia)
Courtesy of Paolo Jay Agbay
The presentation is a show stopper: Open a brown paper envelope and find nasi lemak on a banana leaf, with all the sides topping the mound of rice.
“A nasi lemak lady in my town packed a basket on her bike and cycled around town singing a song telling people to wake up and get some. That was our wake-up call. For me, opening the packet is the most precious memory,” says Ange Branca, chef-owner of Kampar, which is named after the town where she was born. “It’s a portable rice dish. If you think about before restaurants existed, food was so street-wise. Back in the day when no serving ware existed, the most natural packing material was banana leaf.”
Her first restaurant, Sate Kampar (2016-2020), was a 2017 James Beard Award nominee for Best New Restaurant, the first Malaysian restaurant so honored. “The skewered meats were what got people through the door, but the nasi lemak was what made them come back again and again,” Philadelphia Magazine wrote of her first eatery, in a rave review of Kampar, which opened in 2024.
Branca’s nasi lemak offers a choice of five sides: beef rendang, spice-roasted fried chicken, sardines in spicy tomato sauce, greens fried with sambal, or pickled vegetables. Her sambal is basic: shallots, onions, and chile paste from both dried and fresh chiles.
Kampar is dinner-only, and Malaysian-style cocktails include whiskey tarik, which includes Japanese vermouth infused with banana leaf charred in a wood-fired oven, black Malaysian tea, coconut cream, and lemon and orange juices. “Nasi lemak is eaten any time of day in Malaysia, like when people go out at night for drinks,” she says. “It’s such a comfort food.”
Food Terminal (Atlanta)
Atlanta may not come to mind when you think of Malaysian food, but Food Terminal is so popular, it has four locations. Its first is on Buford Highway in the suburb of Chamblee, Georgia. In this industrial-looking space with exposed ducts and metal chairs, nasi lemak is served with a choice of fried chicken, beef rendang, chicken curry, and spare ribs or tofu curry. (So is roti canai, minus the tofu.) The Michelin Guide praises chef-owner Amy Wong’s big menu and generous portions (and calls the garlic noodles a favorite dish in Atlanta).
Damansara (San Francisco)
Nasi lemak is served with blue coconut rice, turmeric chicken leg curry, pickled vegetables, and sambal belachan at Damansara restaurant, opened in 2022, after years as a pop-up in an apartment and later rented spaces. Chef-owner Tracy Goh hails from the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Damansara.
