Culinary tour

Join Alvin for a private tour – 15 Days Gourmet Malaysia and Singapore culinary tour, tentative travel dates to be advise.

About Malaysia & Singapore

With its rich multicultural heritage and traditions, Malaysia and Singapore serve up a true melting pot of flavours and food. You can see a reflection of its cosmopolitan diversity in the array of local cuisines on the menu – Chinese, Indian, Malay and Peranakan.

A visit to Malaysia and Singapore offer you an opportunity to savour dishes from various regions of China. Chinese cuisine represents one of the main players in the gastronomic arena. The Chinese believe in combining ingredients to enhance the harmony between the ying and yang qualities of the food. Food is also used for its symbolic properties, such as noodles for longetivity, oysters for good fortune, fish for prosperity and eggs for fertility. Red, gold and yellow are significant and auspicious colours that are commonly incorporated in dishes, such as the red-boiled egg in festivals and auspicious occassions.

You can enjoy the sumptuous dim sum, roasted meats and herbal soups brought by the Cantonese immigrants from Guangdong, spicy dishes from Sichuan and the popular chicken rice with its roots from the Hainan province. The Hakkas contributed the famous Yong Tofu – stuffed beancurd and vegetables with fish paste or with a combination of minced pork and salted fish. Sample hearty meals and noodles from the Hokkien community while the Teocheow parade their offerings of lightly steamed seafood, sweet taro dessert and famous congee served with an array of savoury dishes.

Unique to Malaysia and Singapore, Indian cuisine brings you “banana leave” rice or “Nasi Kandar” served up by the South Indian community. Features vegetarian thosai with lentil curry & coconut chutney, idli (steamed fermented rice cakes), seafood dishes and fiery curries enriched with coconut milk. Most Indian dishes are infused with spices such as cloves, fenugreek, cardamons, cumin, coriander and chillies. Don’t forget to try the scrumptious Fish head curry found in all South Indian restaurants – an almost national dish!

You can also get a taste of popular local Indian-Muslim (known as Mamak) influenced dishes such as roti prata/roti canai (flaky flat bread), murtabaks (prata stuffed with minced meat, eggs, onions), nasi briyani of Arab influence – a saffron rice dish with spicy chicken or mutton curries and pickled vegetables, mee goreng – a stir-fry Hokkien noodle dish  with egg, cabbage and flavoured with tomato-chilli sauce. All these dishes go well with teh tarik (“pulled tea”), a creamy and frothy milk tea or you can have the tea infused with ginger for an added punch!

The local Malay cuisine with Indonesian influences, will give you a chance to sample the best of both worlds, an array of spices and fresh herbs including galangal, turmeric, lemon grass, chillies and pungent dried shrimp paste. You’ll find the cuisine spicy without being overly hot (just stay away from their sambal belacan, a hot chilli relish) and with the abundance use of coconut milk in their dishes. Peanut sauce is a staple accompaniment with satay – skewers of meat grilled over charcoal served with ketupat (compressed rice), cucumber and onions, also served with gado gado , an Indonesian salad of lettuce, snake bean, boiled egg, fried beancurd and beansprouts. A must try is the Nasi Lemak for its flavourful coconut steamed rice or Nasi Padang where you can select from a smorgasboard of dishes on display.

Savour the distinctive dishes of the unique Peranakan (aka Nonya or Straits Chinese) cuisine. The cuisine comes from the Peranakans, the descendants of the original Chinese immigrants (malnly from the Fujian province) who had settled in Penang, Malacca, Singapore, Indonesia in the15th century and inter-married with the local Malays.The children are referred to as Nonya (women) and Baba (men).

Peranakans believe that the distinct flavour of the dishes owe itself to the “rempah”, a spice paste made from a combination of chillies, lemongrass, belacan, eschallot, candlenuts, turmeric pounded into a paste with a pestle & mortar. The Peranakan recipes involve a time-consuming, tedious and lengthy preparation and are handed down from one generation to the next.

Peranakan cuisine combines the clever usage of Chinese ingredients, such as black mushrooms, mung bean noodles, brown bean sauce, oyster sauce, fermented red-beancurd, with elements of Chinese cooking. Aromatic spices and herbs of the Malay Peninsula, such as betel leaves, turmeric leaves, bunga kantan (torch ginger bud), chillies, tamarind paste, candlenuts, galangal, lemon grass are used to create a rich cross-cultural cuisine of spicy & aromatic curries, braised dishes and stews. The cuisine is also famed for her array of dainty and delectable kueh-kueh (cakes made from rice flour, glutinuous flour, sugar, coconut milk and pandan).

Interestingly, this unique cusine displays a subtle regional differences in its style of cooking. For instance, the dishes that originate from Penang use tamarind and Vietnamese mint (Nonya called them daun kesom) more liberally, displaying a Thai influence, while those from Malacca and Singapore use more coconut milk exhibiting a stronger Indonesian influence. Two distinctively Nonya dishes are the ayam buah keluak, an Indonesian-influenced chicken dish cooked with black nuts in a rich spicy sauce that are only found in the homes of Malacca and Singapore Nonya, the other is the laksa, a noodle dish made with rice vermicelli and a spicy coconut milk-based soup that is popular in Singapore while the Thai influenced sour tamarind-based assam laksa in Penang.

Evidence of Western-influenced can be found in dishes, such as Inche Kabin (deep fried chicken marinated in spices and worcestershire sauce) and popular pastries, such as pineapple tart and Kueh Bulu (a sponge-based cake).

And that’s far from all. Malaysia and Singapore also offer you a wide range of international cuisines. Whether you are in the mood for a fine French dinner, a hearty Italian meal, spicy Northern Indian tandooori or a casual steak house, you”ll find it all here.

The tour is still at its planning stage but all enquiries are welcome. Subject to changes.

• Return international economy airfares.
• Most meals and 4 star accomodation.
• Buffet breakfast daily.
• All transfers, tips and local English speaking guide

Highlights of the tour:

• Explore Singapore, savour delicious local cuisine and mouth-watering street foods in Little India, Geylang (Malay community), Chinatown and Katong – famed for her antiquated architectural shophouses and creamy laksa. Get to sample the must-have chilli crab, black pepper crab, grilled otak-otak (spicy fish mousse wrapped in banana leaves), satays and many more.
• Visit a Peranakan home to view intricate beading, embroidered traditional costumes and enjoy a Nonya lunch.
• Visit the Marina Bay Sand Casino.
• Free day shopping at Orchard Road, Singapore and Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
• Savour the rich colonial history of Malacca, visit a palm sugar factory, Baba & Nonya museum and sample Peranakan cuisine.
• Explore Kuala Lumpur, tour Petronas twin tower, visit batik & pewter factory, shop at mid-valley (one of the largest shopping centres), sample local street foods such as nasi lemak, beef rendang, laksa and chicken rice
• Visit UNESCO World Heritage listed George Town, Penang – shows the influence of both the British and early waves of Chinese immigration, with colonial institutions and waterfront skyscrapers, museums and traditional coffee shops. Renowned for its street food, assam laksa, prawn noodle, char kway teow. lobak (spiced meat roll), fried radish cake, oyster omelete.
• Visit Chinese and Buddhist temples (Reclining Buddha), fruit farm and Ferringhi beach.
• Lunch stop-over at Ipoh, formerly the centre of this area’s once lucrative tin-mining industry, grand colonial mansions and famed for her groundnut and pomelo (similar to a large grapefruit) farms.
• Market tour and cooking class.