5 Popular Breakfast in both Indonesia and Malaysia

Image by wasim khan

SELAMAT KEMBALI! Welcome back to our third blog!

You definitely know that breakfast is an important meal to start an new day!!! With many similarities in culture and tradition, breakfast in both Indonesia and Malaysia are almost the same, yet also different at the same time (same-same but different).

So, here, we will compare 5 popular food for breakfast in Indonesia and Malaysia. 

Let’s check it out!

1. Wantan Mee or Mie Pangsit

Malaysia

Images by applefood via MalaysiaMostWanted.com

• They have dry and soup version 
• Consist of thin egg noodle, sliced BBQ meat (pork/chicken), wantan (fried/boiled), chinese kale and chopped spring onion 
• Noodles are served with dark soya sauce or wantan soup and pickled green chilies

Indonesia

Images by Indrawan Sikdiprawiro & openrice

• Noodle is usually served in soup with red chili sauce (watery consistency) or pickled green chilies 
• Usually consist of egg noodle, sliced or chopped meat (pork/chicken), wantan (fried/boiled), mustard greens and chopped spring onion 
• Sometimes topped with braised egg (in Sumatra), meatballs (in Java) and bean sprouts 
• Every noodle shop/stall serves different kinds of egg noodle (mostly handmade) and sometimes they provide mie kasar (thick egg noodle) and mie halus (thin egg noodle)

2. Char Kway Teow or Kwetiau Goreng

Image by Wok and Skillet

Malaysia

• It looks darker as it’s cooked with dark soy sauce 
• Usually topped with cockles, prawns, egg (chicken/duck), bean sprouts, chopped chives and red chilies 
• Fried pork lard is sometimes put on top of the dish 
• Sliced chinese sausage and sliced fish cakes are often put as additional toppings 
• Halal char kway teow is cooked without pork fat with same toppings

Indonesia

Images by Valerie Chuang & ninifebriani

• It is differentiated into kwetiau goreng polos (plain stir-fried kwetiau which is famous from Medan) and kwetiau goreng telur (normal stir-fried kwetiau with egg only or egg and toppings, price is usually higher if you put toppings)
• Color can be varied from plain white to brown (some cooks put less or without sweet soy sauce)
• Kwetiau goreng polos is cooked with bean sprouts and mustard greens, while kwetiau goreng telur is usually with egg (chicken/duck) and can be included with prawns, pork, sliced fish balls, sliced chinese sausage, crab, pork liver, bean sprouts, and mustard greens (seafood provided might be different for every stall) 
• It’s served with red or green chili sauce (watery consistency) 
• Halal kwetiau goreng usually is cooked with chicken or beef

3. Nasi Lemak

Malaysia

Images by enidajohnson.wordpress.com via Hype & AFIQQQQ

This is national dish of Malaysia that is often eaten as breakfast and lunch as it is cheap, delicious and can find it everywhere.

• It is usually topped with hard-boiled egg, anchovies, peanuts, sliced cucumber and sambal belacan 
• Often served with sambal cockles, squids, fish, chicken, beef, rendang or other fried food
• Some nasi lemak is served with curry and even pork
• Often served in a triangle shape wrapping with banana leaf

Indonesia

In Indonesia, Nasi lemak has different names depending on the area such as Nasi Gurih: Aceh; Nasi Lemak: Medan, Riau & Riau Island; Nasi Perang/Kucing: Medan; Nasi Uduk: Jakarta 

• Nasi Gurih/nasi lemak Aceh :

Image by Detikfood

served with fried anchovies and peanuts, green chilies with soybean paste, potato, belacan, fried crackers, fried shallots and often topped with sambal boiled egg, dendeng (beef jerky), perkedel (fried mashed potato) or jeroan (offals) 

• Nasi lemak Medan :

Image by Muhammad Irzal Adikurnia

served with fried peanuts and tempe, potato, sliced green beans, sliced omelette, sliced cucumber, emping (melinjo cracker), belacan and other additional side dishes are similar to nasi gurih

• Nasi lemak in Riau and Riau Island :

Image by Mari Resep

it's more similar to Malaysian nasi lemak with additional toppings, such as fried tempe, acar (pickled vegetables) and popularly topped with fishes, seafood and fried chicken chop 

• Nasi perang or nasi kucing :

Image by Kuliner Medan

basically mini-sized of regular nasi lemak packed with banana leaf 

• Nasi uduk :

Image by barry_lie via travelingyuk.com

nasi lemak Betawi-style which stewed jengkol, stewed tofu and beef are usually chosen as main side dishes

4. Nasi Himpit or Lontong

Lontong (Indonesian) or Nasi Himpit (Malay) are the same which means compressed rice cake. This dish usually comprises of compressed rice cake with coconut milk based soup (sayur lodeh) and some side dishes.

Images by Butterkicap Team & cektembb

Malaysia

• Soup is yellow or orange and contains vegetables like turnip, carrots, green beans and cabbage
• Fried tempe, tofu, hard-boiled egg, cuttlefish sambal and serunding kelapa (fried shredded coconut) are the common side dishes for the dish
• Sayur lodeh can be replaced with kuah kacang (peanut sauce) for breakfast

Image by Foody.id

Indonesia

• Soup ranges from yellow to reddish color and contains labu (chayote), sayur nangka (young green jackfruit), green beans, carrots, red and green chilies and ebi (dried shrimp)
• Accompany with fried tempe, sambal hard-boiled egg, sambal anchovies, belacan, fried shallots and topped with crackers/serundeng (fried shredded coconut)/ kering kentang (potato chips alike) (No spicy, no taste, Indonesian food rule)

5. Roti Canai or Roti Cane

Image by drnaz.wordpress.com via Spoon University

Malaysia

• favorite breakfast dish in Mamak stalls (Indian Muslim stalls)
• has square-like, round or irregular shape
• often served with 2 or 3 condiments
• dal (lentil) gravy, different kinds of curry and sambal are the popular condiments used in roti canai
• sometimes are eaten with sugar or condensed milk (sweet version)

Indonesia

Images by Toko Mesin Maksindo & Toko Mesin Masindo

• often called as roti konde and roti maryam in Java
• Indonesian Indian sellers normally cook this dish at stalls, food-trucks or restaurant
• has square or round shape
• usually served with kari kambing (mutton curry), sugar or condensed milk
• sometimes kari kambing is replaced with chicken curry
• modern-styled roti cane is served with chocolate and cheese

You can see now, even though Indonesian and Malaysian breakfast are very similar, the names, way of cooking and ingredients used are different. Anyway, the taste may vary for every one due to preferences and tastebuds, so we let you imagine or try them by yourselves (you can ask us if you are so curious about it :D).

Check out other interesting comparisons between Indonesia and Malaysia from our previous posts about public transportation and instant noodle

And, stay update for our next post! JUMPA LAGI!