Reposted from the web

Summary: Kelantan in northeastern Malaysia has old port links, Chinese community history, and halal Chinese food shaped by local Hokkien and Hakka traditions. This account keeps the visit to the Kelantan port area, the Zheng He connection, restaurant details, dishes, streets, and photos in order.

Kelantan is in the northeast of the Malay Peninsula, bordering Thailand. It has been an important stop for Chinese maritime trade since ancient times. Zheng He visited here during his fourth voyage in 1413 (the 11th year of the Yongle reign). The Kelantan River valley has fertile land and is rich in hardwood, rubber, and tropical fruits. In the 18th century, people from Fujian traveled south to settle in Kampung Cina (Tangrenpo) along the lower reaches of the Kelantan River. During the Qianlong reign, the maritime merchant Xie Qinggao wrote in the 'Kelantan' entry of his book 'Records of the Oceans' (Hailu): 'Many Fujianese live in the port area... selling goods and growing pepper.' These Fujianese have lived in Kelantan for many generations. They speak Malay, love Malay food, follow Malay customs, and some run halal Chinese restaurants in the city.

After landing at Kota Bharu Airport, we took a taxi directly to the city's largest halal Chinese restaurant, Four Seasons Hall (Siji Ting), for dinner. Four Seasons Hall opened in 1998. The owner's surname is Wang, and his ancestral home is Jinjiang, Fujian. He is a third-generation Kelantan Chinese. Four Seasons Hall is the first Chinese restaurant in Kelantan to receive halal certification from the State Religious Affairs Department, and all the staff are fellow Muslims (dost). Four Seasons Hall is popular because it serves authentic Nanyang Chinese food, as well as Malay and Thai dishes.

They have a huge variety of dishes. Because they list ingredients and cooking methods separately, you can combine them to make 224 different fish dishes alone. The owner speaks great Mandarin. Following his recommendation, we ordered Four Seasons steamed sea bass, black pepper beef, sunflower sprouts in superior soup, oyster omelet, and salted egg baked shrimp. It was a real treat for our Nanyang Chinese food cravings. I think if you are dining with two or more people at a Nanyang Chinese restaurant, steamed fish is a must. Styles like Teochew steamed, Nyonya steamed, and Minglu steamed are all worth trying. The Four Seasons steamed fish we ordered this time used the owner's secret sauce, and it tasted very fresh and delicious. This was my first time eating sunflower sprouts. They have a light, nutty fragrance and a very refreshing texture. After getting used to the heavy sauces and thick gravies of northern Chinese food, the light Nanyang dishes were a nice change of pace. Oyster omelet is fried eggs with oysters. The egg is fried until crispy, and the oysters add a lot of flavor. However, fellow Muslims (dost) from inland areas might not be used to it if they aren't fans of seafood. The salted egg baked shrimp was also delicious. It seems rare to cook it this way in the north, but Malays love baked shrimp.





















Mee Warisan is a very popular halal Chinese noodle shop in Kota Bharu, and it is often packed at noon. 'Mee Warisan' means 'traditional noodles' in Malay. They specialize in Chinese-style soy sauce noodles and wonton noodles, as well as Thai-style tom yum noodles and Thai pandan leaf chicken rolls. Because it is close to Thailand, both the local Chinese and Malays know how to cook Thai food. This is a very interesting cultural exchange.

















There are many small snack shops run by Chinese in the old town of Kota Bharu. They are usually called 'Kopitiam' or 'Kafe' in Malay, which translates to 'teahouse' or 'drink room' in Chinese. These old-school Nanyang teahouses usually serve Malay coffee and tea, along with simple meals like noodles or coconut rice (nasi lemak). Because these teahouses are small, many haven't paid to apply for official halal certification, but they do hire Malay chefs and servers. So, if you see Malay fellow Muslims (dost) in a Chinese restaurant in Malaysia, you can go in and ask; they are usually halal.



















Besides Fujianese food, you can also find halal Hakka food in Kota Bharu. We ate Hakka stuffed tofu (niang doufu) and stir-fried flat rice noodles (char kway teow) at Chef Pong Yong Tau Fu. The Chinese owner hires Malay staff, and the place is very popular with Malay friends (dosti). When guests arrive, they grab a plate and pick the stuffed items they want. Then they weigh them, and you can have them fried or boiled. The owner stir-fries the flat rice noodles (kway teow) right there. He speaks great Mandarin, so we had no trouble communicating.

In the Hakka dialect, 'niang' means to fill with stuffing. Legend says that after the Hakka people moved south from the Central Plains, they wanted dumplings but had no wheat. They used tofu instead of flour and invented stuffed tofu (niang doufu). Besides tofu, the Hakka are good at using local ingredients. You can stuff anything, like chili peppers, eggplants, bitter melons, and taro. Tofu, eggplant, and bitter melon are known as the 'three fried treasures' (jian niang san bao).

Unlike most Hokkien people who live near the lower reaches and mouth of the Kelantan River, most Kelantan Hakka settled inland. For example, the Hakka in the Bulai (near Dabong) area mostly came there for gold mining. During the Qianlong era, the maritime merchant Xie Qinggao wrote in his book 'Records of the Ocean' (Hailu) under the entry for Kelantan: 'The Cantonese (Hakka) people mostly live on the mountain tops, where they pan for gold sand.' After the 19th century, the gold mines gradually ran dry, and the inland Hakka switched to growing rice. After the Malayan Communist Party started anti-British guerrilla warfare in 1948, the British military forced some Kelantan Hakka to move to Terengganu for centralized management to cut off Chinese support for the communists. They also implemented food rationing, which was called the 'Hunger Operation'. These Hakka people did not return to Kelantan until after the state of emergency ended in 1960.



















Besides Hokkien and Hakka people, Hainanese people are also an important part of the Chinese community in Kelantan. We ate at the 50-year-old Hainanese restaurant, Sin Hua Air-Conditioned Restaurant, in Kota Bharu. We had Hainanese chicken chop, Hainanese noodles, and toasted bread. These are all authentic Nanyang Hainanese dishes. There is also a shop next door called Sin Shing Coffee Shop, which is said to have the best Hainanese chicken rice in Kota Bharu.

Like many old-school Hainanese coffee shops in Malaysia, the owner is a Hainanese Chinese, but they hire Malay chefs and staff. This allows Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers to all enjoy the food.

Hainanese people began immigrating to Malaysia in the 19th century. Many early immigrants worked as chefs and waiters in British hotels and restaurants, and some worked as servants for British officers. Influenced by their British employers, the Hainanese learned to cook Western food and mixed it with Hainanese elements to create the unique Hainanese coffee shop (Hailam Kopitiam) culture.



















Chinese food in Kota Bharu is mostly found on Jalan Kebun Sultan. There is a landmark archway called 'Zheng He Arch' (Zheng He Fang) here, which commemorates Zheng He's fourth voyage to the Western Ocean when he arrived at the port of Kelantan. The arch has two couplets: 'Zheng served the mission and left history, He governed the country for the people' and 'The doctrine of the mean shines for generations, Chinese civilization lasts for thousands of years.' This shows that Kelantan Chinese do not forget their roots and keep their good Chinese character.





Near the Zheng He Arch is the Jinjiang Association, and downstairs is a large East Coast shopping mall. The Jinjiang people in Kelantan value Chinese education very much and played a major role in restoring Chinese schools after World War II.





Many pharmacies on the streets of Kota Bharu are also run by Chinese people, making it very convenient to buy medicine here.





There is a Shanghai Bookstore on the streets of Kota Bharu where you can buy Chinese books, newspapers, and magazines.



Most Chinese shops in Kota Bharu use three languages: Chinese, Malay, and Jawi (the Arabic script used to write Malay). This is a requirement in Kelantan state. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This is the first part of a visit to halal Chinese food around Little India in Kuala Lumpur. The English version preserves the original food names, shop details, routes, observations, and photographs in the same order.

Hainan chicken rice (hainanjifan)

After landing at Kuala Lumpur airport, we took the airport express train to the final stop, KL Sentral. We went upstairs to the Nu Sentral shopping mall, where we almost always eat whenever we visit Kuala Lumpur. The mall has many types of restaurants. There are three halal Nyonya restaurants alone, plus many other halal Chinese options.

This time, we ate at The Chicken Rice Shop, a famous halal Hainan chicken rice chain in Malaysia. The founder, Wong Kah Heng, was once an executive director at KFC Malaysia and had worked in the fast-food industry for 25 years before starting this business. In 2000, 54-year-old Wong Kah Heng and her daughter, Gaik Lean, opened the first The Chicken Rice Shop in Taipan, Selangor, officially launching their halal Hainan chicken rice brand.

Wong Kah Heng's parents were from Penang and her grandmother was from Hainan, so she loved Hainan chicken rice since she was a child. During the 20th century, Hainan chicken rice was mostly sold at food stalls, and almost none of it was halal. When they started the business, the mother and daughter had a clear goal: to bring Hainan chicken rice into clean, comfortable shopping malls suitable for family meals, and to make it halal for everyone to enjoy. Today, The Chicken Rice Shop has 135 locations and is the largest halal Hainan chicken rice chain in Malaysia. Led by their success, more halal Chinese food has appeared in Malaysia, allowing friends (dosti) from all over the world to taste delicious Chinese food here.

We ordered a 3-person set meal, which included Nyonya top hats (pai tee), mango salad, roasted chicken, Hainan chicken curry, okra, wolf herring fish balls (xidao yuwan), and rice. We also ordered a side of roasted tofu, which was perfect for our family. Nyonya top hats (pai tee) are a classic snack for weddings and New Year celebrations among Malaysian Peranakan Chinese. They originated in Singapore, where they are also called little gold cups (xiao jin bei), and are filled with shredded carrots and daikon radish. Wolf herring fish balls (xidao yuwan) are Teochew-style fish balls made from wolf herring, and they are very popular in Malaysia.



















National Mosque of Malaysia

After lunch, we went to the National Mosque of Malaysia to perform namaz. The National Mosque was built in 1965 and renovated in 1987. It was the largest mosque in Malaysia until the Blue Mosque in Shah Alam was completed in 1988. There is a stall at the mosque entrance selling Musang King durian ice cream. It is very refreshing to have one after prayer.



















Malay wooden house homestay

This time, we stayed in a Malay wooden house just two subway stops away from the Petronas Twin Towers. The wooden house is located in Kampung Datuk Keramat, a famous traditional Malay village in Kuala Lumpur. Like Kampung Baru, it is one of the best places in the city to experience traditional Malay culture.

Kampung Datuk Keramat was originally a tin mining site. After 1920, it became a Malay village made up of descendants of Javanese, Minangkabau, Baweanese, and Bugis people. The area is named after two respected graves once located here: one belonging to the Bugis man Haji Ali, and the other to the Sumatran man Sheikh Taih. Datuk Keramat is a product of the fusion between indigenous Malay beliefs and Sufism. Datuk refers to a respected person in Malay society, while Keramat refers to the miraculous signs of the pious predecessors of the faith. In Malay society, Datuk Keramat figures held special social status during their lifetimes, whether as leaders, warriors, doctors, or devout believers. Their graves are respected, and people light incense, place flowers, and perform dua at the gravesites.

After the 1970s, as the wave of Islamic orthodoxy advanced in Malaysia, Datuk Keramat practices gradually declined among the Malays. Kampung Datuk Keramat officially stopped Datuk Keramat activities in the 1990s, but the village name remains.

The wooden house we stayed in is very close to the Damai LRT station. It is called Classic Malay House KL. The owner is a kind auntie, and the courtyard is full of wooden houses. Once you step inside, you are instantly away from the city noise. The only thing is that because Kuala Lumpur is in the tropics, staying in a wooden house means there will definitely be mosquitoes, so everyone must take anti-mosquito precautions.



















Malay village (kampung)

Whatever Works Coffee in the courtyard of the Classic Malay House KL is a gathering place for artistic youth in Kampung Datuk Keramat. Many young people come here at night to drink coffee and watch art film screenings.

Not far from the wooden house is a small mosque (surau), Surau Al-Ikhlasiah Datuk Keramat, which makes it convenient to perform daily prayers.

















Malay breakfast

Right at the LRT station entrance next to the wooden house is the Keramat Mall, which has many traditional Malay snacks and is a great place for breakfast. We ate stuffed flatbread (murtabak), coconut milk rice (nasi lemak), meatball soup (bakso), and soft-boiled eggs. I must say, the environment in this urban village is quite good and very convenient.

























Kuala Lumpur Little India

Brickfields is located right next to the south side of KL Sentral station. It is an Indian residential area in Kuala Lumpur known as Little India.

In 1878, a railway was built from the city center to the port, and in 1891, a Selangor state factory was established south of the railway at the current site of the central station, which brought in a large number of laborers from South India and Sri Lanka. In 1905, a 'hundred-man dormitory' was built in Brickfields to provide housing for the laborers. From then on, Brickfields gradually developed into the most important Indian community in Kuala Lumpur.

Brickfields is also called a 'sacred place.' It brings together Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Eastern Orthodox communities from South India and Sri Lanka, and it also has a Hanafi mosque (surau), which is rare in Kuala Lumpur.

The Madrasathul Gouthiyyah Surau in Brickfields is a small mosque built by South Indian Tamils. Like Hui Muslims in China, the Tamils follow the Hanafi school of thought. Therefore, the order, movements, and timing of their prayers are the same as those of Hui Muslims, which differs from the Malays who follow the Shafi'i school. The prayer time here is one hour different from the surrounding Shafi'i mosques. I encountered this same situation before at a Hanafi mosque in Singapore's Little India.

During Friday prayers (Jumu'ah), the sermon (wa'z) is delivered in Tamil. Hanafi Tamil Muslims from downtown Kuala Lumpur all come here, and it is very crowded even during the five daily prayers.

Tamil Hanafi Muslims are mainly divided into two groups, the majority of whom belong to the Rowther people, who have a history spanning over a thousand years. The Rowther people were originally cavalrymen during the Chola dynasty in South India. In the 10th and 11th centuries, they converted to Islam after being influenced by the saint Nathar Shah, who came from Anatolia to preach to the Tamil community. Rowther means rider in the Telugu language. Another group is the Labbay people, descendants of Arab merchants who married Tamil women. They are known for being skilled in business and very knowledgeable. Besides merchants, many Labbay people are imams, which gives them high social status.



















A Chinese restaurant in Little India.

Brickfields is famous for South Indian Tamil food, but it hides a halal Chinese restaurant that people of all backgrounds love: Yaa's Restaurant (Ya'e Fandian). The owner of Yaa's Restaurant is a Nanyang Chinese, and the staff are Malay. They serve authentic Nanyang halal Chinese food that Indians, Chinese, and Malays all enjoy.

We ordered tamarind prawns (asam xia), Teochew-style steamed fish (chaozhou zheng yu), Shenjiang tofu (shenjiang doufu), and stir-fried mustard greens with salted fish (xianyu jielan). Except for the seafood, you can choose small or large portions for the stir-fried dishes, and the prices are very affordable. The grandfather who takes orders can speak and write Chinese, giving the place a classic old-school Nanyang Chinese feel.









Teochew-style steamed fish is a Nanyang Chinese dish I personally love. To make it, you layer tomatoes, pickled mustard greens (suan baicai), and tofu over the fish, then drizzle it with fish sauce after steaming.



Tamarind prawns are a Nyonya dish. Asam means sour in Malay. It uses tamarind mixed with sugar to create a rich, sweet-and-sour caramel-colored sauce that goes perfectly with rice.



Shenjiang tofu, also called Sing Kong tofu, is fried tofu cooked in egg sauce with mushrooms, cabbage, carrots, and other ingredients. It is very nutritious.







Jamek Mosque in Kuala Lumpur.

Jamek Mosque sits at the meeting point of the Klang River and the Gombak River. Sultan Sulaiman of Selangor laid the foundation in 1908, and it was finished in 1909. British architect Arthur Benison Hubback designed the mosque. He also designed other Malaysian landmarks like the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, the Ubudiah Mosque in Perak, and the Sultan Abdul Samad Building.

In the 19th century, Malays, Javanese, Minangkabau, and other groups lived where the Klang and Gombak rivers meet. This area became known for places like Java Street (now Jalan Tun Perak) and Malay Street. In the 1870s, the Rawa tribe of the Minangkabau people from western Sumatra received permission from the Sultan of Selangor to build the Java Street Mosque on the east side of the Klang River. The original Java Street Mosque had a pyramid-shaped roof and wooden pillars, following traditional Sumatran style.

In 1903, the Java Street Mosque was torn down for road widening, so the mosque committee petitioned to build a new one. In 1905, Sultan Sulaiman of Selangor and the British Resident agreed to build the new mosque on the site of an old Malay cemetery at the river junction. The new mosque used the popular Mughal Revival style. The British built many public buildings in this style across British India and British Malaya in the late 19th century.



















Jamek Mosque displays old photos and a stone tablet from when Sultan Sulaiman of Selangor laid the foundation in 1908.









Cartoon panels at the entrance of Jamek Mosque vividly show the history of its construction. This includes the Java Street Mosque built by the Minangkabau in the 1870s and the current Jamek Mosque, which Sultan Sulaiman of Selangor approved to be built on the old Malay cemetery after road expansion in 1903.





















The souvenir shop at the entrance of Jamek Mosque is worth a visit. We bought beautiful headscarves there and tried some free traditional Malay snacks. We bought a jar and it was delicious.











Traditional Malay dance

While walking around the old town of Kuala Lumpur, we happened upon a festival at the DBKL City Theatre. Children in traditional Malay formal wear performed welcoming and celebration rituals, and even danced. It was a rare sight!

Built between 1896 and 1904, the DBKL City Theatre is one of the Moorish-style buildings in the heart of Kuala Lumpur's old town. It has hosted plays and musicals for 120 years.



















Traditional Malay headscarf

The Jalan Masjid India area in Kuala Lumpur's old town is a famous wholesale market for traditional clothing where you can buy all kinds of traditional Malay outfits. I bought a traditional Malay headpiece called a tengkolok at one of the shops.

A tengkolok headpiece is folded from traditional Malay brocade fabric known as songket and is usually worn for celebrations and weddings. Leaders across Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia have their own styles of tengkolok. In Malaysia, the sultans, rajas, and the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of every state except Johor wear a tengkolok for formal ceremonies. Only the Sultan of Johor wears a crown due to British influence.





















Traditional Malay food

Before leaving, we went back to the Nu Sentral mall next to Kuala Lumpur Sentral station. The fruit salad here is also served with sour plum powder and chili powder. There is a huge variety of tropical fruits, and bananas cost one ringgit each.













Inside Nu Sentral mall, there is a restaurant called Ah Cheng Laksa that specializes in food from Kedah in northern Malaysia. They started selling sour tamarind noodle soup (asam laksa) in a village in Kedah in 1960. Later, a descendant named Ah Cheng turned it into a chain in Kuala Lumpur. Now, the staff includes both Chinese and Malay employees, and they serve both Malay laksa and Chinese flat noodles (banmian). view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This is the second part of a visit to halal Chinese food around Little India in Kuala Lumpur. It keeps the original restaurant names, dishes, prices, street details, and photographs while making the English smooth and easy to follow.





We ordered asam laksa, curry laksa, pan mee, dry pan mee, curry fish balls, fish crackers (keropok lekor), and longan drink.

Asam laksa and curry laksa are the two most common types of laksa in Malaysia. Curry laksa uses a curry coconut milk broth. Asam laksa uses a rich broth made from mackerel (kembung) or Spanish mackerel (tenggiri), seasoned with asam fruit slices, tamarind paste (asam keping), and various spices. It is the spiciest and most sour of all laksa varieties. To make the fish broth, you first boil the whole fish, then shred the meat and add it back into the soup to simmer until the flavors are fully absorbed. Asam laksa is usually served with Cantonese rice noodles (lai fun). These are round, chewy, and smooth noodles made by steaming a mixture of rice flour and water.





Fish crackers (keropok lekor) are fried snacks made from fish and fine rice flour. They originated in the Terengganu region of Malaysia. They are chewy and a classic street food in West Malaysia.



Pan mee comes from the Hakka snack called daomaoqie. It started when Hakka people in Malaysia used large knives to cut dough into strips. Later, Hakka restaurants in Kuala Lumpur worried that local Cantonese-speaking Chinese would not understand the term daomaoqie. They started calling it pan mee, and the name became popular across Malaysia. Pan mee is usually served as either soup pan mee or dry pan mee. Soup pan mee uses a fish-based broth. Dry pan mee is mixed with minced meat, fried onions, and dried anchovies, and can be served with dried chili or sambal sauce.











Malaysia Series:

Visiting the Filipino Market and eating Hainanese food in Kota Kinabalu

Indian temples and nasi kandar in Kuching, Malaysia

Malay history and culture and indigenous food in Kuching

Selected collection of the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

92 handwritten scriptures at the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

[Exhibition Visit] Sabah Islamic Civilization Museum, Malaysia

[Exhibition Visit] Sarawak Islamic History Museum

Indian and Malay mosques in Ipoh, Malaysia

Negeri Sembilan, home of the Minangkabau people in Malaysia

Attending Jumu'ah prayer at a Chinese mosque in Malaysia

Eating Nyonya food in Johor Bahru and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Tasting halal Chinese food in Malaysia

Halal Chinese food in Penang, Malaysia

Indian Tamil Muslims in Penang, Malaysia

Johor Bahru, the royal city of the Temenggong dynasty of the Johor Sultanate

The Perak Sultanate royal city and the lively Malay night market

Malay wooden houses and historical sites in Malacca

Eight traditional mosques in Malacca

A guide to eating and staying in the ancient city of Malacca

Selangor Sultanate royal cities: Jugra and Klang view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: Kuching offers halal Chinese food alongside old houses and heritage-style stays shaped by the city’s mixed cultural background. This article keeps the original restaurant details, homestay notes, photos, and local observations from the Chinese travel account.

We flew from Kota Bharu to Kuching at night. The staff checked us very strictly at the gate. They looked at everyone's passports and flight and hotel bookings, and only let us board after a long phone call. After arriving at Kuching Airport, we had to go through customs again and get an entry stamp. According to the Malaysian Constitution, Sarawak, where Kuching is located, has the most autonomy of any state in Malaysia. The state government has the power to restrict entry and residency for people from West Malaysia and Sabah.

The next morning, we went to Mohammad Lim Cafe, a famous halal Chinese snack shop in Kuching's old town, for breakfast. They specialize in handmade noodles, including dry-tossed noodles, tom yum, kampua noodles, tofu soup, and laksa. We ordered dry-tossed noodles, kampua noodles, and tofu soup.

Dry-tossed noodles (kolomee) are a specialty egg noodle brought by Cantonese Chinese. They are popular in cities with many Cantonese people like Kuching. You can have them plain in clear soup, with dark soy sauce, or with red char siu oil, topped with slices of chicken or beef char siu. Kampua noodles (ganpanmian) are a specialty brought by Fuzhou Chinese. They are made similarly to dry-tossed noodles and are popular in cities with many Fuzhou people like Sibu. Dry-tossed noodles are wetter than kampua noodles and look more like instant noodles, while kampua noodles are usually made with handmade noodles.















I highly recommend the Top Spot Food Court in the city center to any friends (dosti) visiting Kuching. It is a halal Chinese seafood center with a Southeast Asian vibe. The food court is open from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. It looks like a plain parking garage from the outside, but once you take the elevator to the top floor, you enter a very lively seafood market. Most stalls in the food court are run by Chinese owners and have halal certification. All kinds of fish, shrimp, and vegetables are displayed openly, so you can pick exactly what you want.

We chose a stall called Ling Long Seafood. The lady who took our order was Hainanese. Hainanese people running halal Chinese restaurants is a big feature in Malaysia. She spoke great Mandarin and was very enthusiastic about helping us order what we wanted. We ordered Sarawak-style stir-fried midin ferns (midin) with shrimp paste and stir-fried sweet leaf (mani cai) with egg. Their stir-fried dishes come in small, medium, and large sizes, so even one person can eat well.

Midin is a fern native to Borneo. It is not bitter at all when stir-fried and has a very fresh fragrance. Sweet leaf (mani cai) is a wild vegetable that Sarawak Hakka people love to cook. You can find it in homes and small restaurants. The leaves must be rubbed in water and drained to remove any bitterness, and the small stems must be picked out before cooking, so it is much more work than other vegetables.

For seafood, we ordered lokan clams (lokan), sea shrimp, and seven-star grouper. The waiter told us which ones were fresh and which were frozen. Everything we ordered was indeed very fresh and delicious. Since it is a food court by the sea in the city center, I am not sure if other stalls overcharge, but I felt this stall was good value for money. In the end, our five dishes, rice, and the 6% sales tax cost a total of 313 RMB. Small stir-fried dishes were 24 RMB each, the seven-star grouper was 148 RMB (they had cheaper fish too), a plate of sea shrimp was 48 RMB, and a plate of clams was 40 RMB.





































We stayed at the Marian Boutique Hotel in Kuching. It is the old Wang family mansion built in 1885 on a hill on Carpenter Street by Wang Youhai, a first-generation Fujianese tycoon in Sarawak. Wang Youhai (1830-1889) was born in Singapore and his ancestral home was Zhangzhou, Fujian. In 1846, 16-year-old Wang Youhai came to Kuching to make a living. He started the Youhai Mao Company with friends, dealing in local produce, groceries, and textiles. He gradually became a leader of the Fujian community in the Singapore-Malaysia region and was appointed as a Kapitan Cina for Sarawak. After the 1870s, Wang Youhai's wealth surpassed that of the Teochew merchant groups. He was known as the big boss of the Sarawak Chinese, and the Wang family was considered the top Chinese family in Sarawak. Youhai Street in the old town of Kuching was built by Wang Youhai in 1889.

The old Wang family residence was built with Borneo ironwood (belian) and Chinese green roof tiles. It had a grand Chinese-style archway at the entrance. In 1933, the Wang family sold the old house to the Anglican Church. The church expanded it into the three-story St. Mary's Boarding House. It became a church guesthouse after 1968. In the 1990s, the front yard and Chinese archway were demolished for road construction. After renovations in 2013, it opened as the Marian Boutique Hotel in 2017.



















Breakfast was a simple meal of milk tea and bread with jam.





































The Chinese History Museum in Kuching Waterfront Park was originally the Chinese Court built by the Kingdom of Sarawak in 1912. It handled civil lawsuits, probate, and marriage and divorce cases involving Chinese people, which is why a scale is decorated on the main gate. In 1921, it became the Chinese Affairs Office, then the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1930, and finally opened as the Chinese History Museum in 1993.

The museum has rich exhibits, including detailed introductions to all Chinese dialect groups in Sarawak like the Hakka, Teochew, Cantonese, Fuzhou, and Hainanese people, along with recordings of their daily dialects. Inside the museum, a large wall features a panoramic map of Kuching's old town, showing the Chinese names of all streets and the types of shops, which is perfect for exploring the area.



















West of the Chinese History Museum is the old street area with shophouses centered around China Street. It includes streets like Youhai Street, Carpenter Street, Lower Bazaar, Ewe Hai Street, Upper China Street, and Main Bazaar, making it the area with the richest Chinese culture in Kuching.

The first Chinese person to arrive in Kuching was Liu Zhi from Guangdong. He arrived in 1820 and once served as the butler for the White Rajah, James Brooke. In 1866, the Kingdom of Sarawak issued a land deed for his shop, Julong Zhiji, in Kuching. This street was later called China Street (Jalan China).

Main Bazaar (Jalan Main Bazaar) is literally translated as Big Market Road. It is known as the first street of Sarawak and was the busiest commercial center in 19th-century Sarawak. The name Main Bazaar comes from the Hakka word haichun, which means seaside.

Carpenter Street (Jalan Carpenter) is literally translated as Carpenter Road, but the Chinese name refers to a type of palm leaf used for roofing. Carpenter Street was famous for its carpenter workshops in the 19th century.

The double row of shophouses on Youhai Street was built in 1889 by the Fujianese merchant Wang Youhai, which is how it got its name. Wang Youhai (1830-1889) was born in Singapore with ancestral roots in Zhangzhou, Fujian. He came to Kuching to make a living when he was young, started a business, and was appointed as a Kapitan Cina for Sarawak. He was known as the big boss of the Sarawak Chinese, and the Wang family was considered the top Chinese family in Sarawak. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This first Malaysia food article records halal Chinese restaurants, dishes, travel stops, and community food culture. It keeps the original meal details, restaurant context, and travel route in simple English.

In 2019, I tasted halal Chinese food in Penang, Malaysia, as described in "Halal Chinese Cuisine in Penang, Malaysia." In January 2024, I visited five more Malaysian cities: Johor Bahru, Seremban, Klang, Ipoh, and Kuala Kangsar, where I enjoyed many more halal Chinese meals. There are halal Cantonese seafood restaurants run by Chinese Muslims, as well as Hainanese coffee shops (kopitiam) owned by Hainanese people but staffed by Malay employees, all of which have a distinct Nanyang style.

Further reading: Singapore also has many halal Chinese restaurants. See "Tasting Halal Chinese Food in Singapore" and "Eating Nyonya Cuisine in Singapore" for details.

Johor Bahru

I took a train from Woodlands, Singapore, in the morning to clear customs, and arrived at the Johor Bahru station in Malaysia in just 5 minutes. I walked from the Johor Bahru station to the Hua Mui coffee shop in the old town to experience an authentic Hainanese coffee shop (Hailam Kopitiam).

Opened in 1946, Hua Mui has a 78-year history and is the oldest Hainanese coffee shop in Johor Bahru. Like many old-school Hainanese coffee shops in Malaysia, the owner is Hainanese Chinese, but they hire Malay chefs and staff so that Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers can all enjoy the food.

Hainanese people began immigrating to Malaysia in the 19th century. Many early immigrants worked as chefs and waiters in British hotels and restaurants, while some worked as servants in the homes of British officers. Influenced by their British employers, the Hainanese learned to cook Western food and blended it with Hainanese culinary elements to create the unique Hainanese coffee shop (Hailam Kopitiam) culture.

The word kopitiam is made up of the Malay word "kopi" (coffee) and the Hokkien word "tiam" (shop), specializing in charcoal-grilled toast, white coffee, and soft-boiled eggs. Early Hainanese coffee shops were very popular with the British. Today, they serve as important social hubs where older people gather to discuss news and daily life.

At Hua Mui, we ordered lamb claypot rice, Hainanese noodles, Cham C (a mix of coffee, tea, and milk), and a breakfast platter. Cham C is a drink made of coffee, tea, and milk. The shop's environment remains very traditional, set in a typical two-story shophouse with bamboo blinds hanging on the doors and windows, easily reminding people of days gone by.





















To understand the history of the Chinese community in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, you must visit the Johor Bahru Chinese Heritage Museum on Jalan Tan Hiok Nee. In 1844, Temenggong Ibrahim began issuing land grants in Johor. Teochew community leader Tan Hiok Nee answered the call and led a group from Singapore to develop Johor Bahru, marking the beginning of the city's Chinese community. Early Chinese settlers in Johor Bahru were divided into five dialect groups: Hainanese, Cantonese-Zhaoqing, Hakka, Hokkien, and Teochew. Each group had its own clan association, and people from the same hometowns stayed very closely connected.

Today, Johor Bahru has several halal Chinese restaurants, such as Cafe Eleven Kitchen and Hijrah Dim Sum. I didn't have time to visit them on this trip, but I hope to try them in the future.



















Seremban

Take a taxi 50 kilometers southeast from Kuala Lumpur Airport to reach Seremban, the capital of Negeri Sembilan state. We started with morning tea at a halal Chinese restaurant called Muhammad Kew Chinese Muslim Kitchen. We ordered chicken char siu buns (cha shao bao), wontons (yuntun), Cantonese-style egg gravy rice (guangfu huadan mifan), and shrimp dumplings (shaomai), all of which were delicious. Unfortunately, the Chinese owner was busy in the kitchen, so I didn't get to meet him. I only met his Malay wife, who was very warm and friendly. This was my second time eating char siu buns. The first time was at a Hui Muslim restaurant in Guangzhou where I had lamb char siu. Both places prepared them in a similar sweet style, but the chicken version was more tender. The Cantonese-style rice is made with a thickened egg sauce. It is light and goes well with rice, which suits my taste perfectly. The wontons were filled with radish, which tasted very fresh. The shrimp dumplings were filled with a shrimp and meat paste, giving them a unique flavor.



















Seremban is a traditional Chinese town. After tin mines were discovered nearby in the 1870s, many Chinese workers flooded into the area, and the town grew rapidly due to the tin trade. The old town of Seremban still has several streets with traditional arcade buildings (qilou). They haven't been turned into tourist traps yet, so they are well worth a visit.



















For lunch, we ate at a halal Chinese restaurant called Mohd Chan in Seremban. It is likely the most famous and largest halal Cantonese restaurant chain in Malaysia, with 19 locations including restaurants, dim sum shops, and takeout spots. The founder of Mohd Chan, Dato HJ Mohd Chan, was born in Gombak, Selangor. Influenced by his Malay friends, he converted to Islam in 2007 and began running a halal Cantonese restaurant that same year. Since then, he has been working to combine Cantonese cuisine with local flavors.

We ordered Teochew-style steamed fish, Cantonese-style egg gravy flat noodles (huadan he), sticky rice with chicken (nuomi ji), and lychee water. The Teochew-style steamed fish (chaozhou zhengyu) has a slightly sour taste. It comes with so many toppings that I had to eat through a lot of oyster mushroom and chicken slices before I even reached the fish. The Cantonese-style egg noodles (guangfu huadanhe) include chicken slices and shrimp. The sticky rice chicken (nuomiji) is topped with shiitake mushrooms, though it is not wrapped up like the ones I ate in Guangzhou. Their menu is quite varied and the food tastes good, but they use a central kitchen rather than cooking everything fresh on-site. It feels a bit like the approach used by Ziguangyuan in Beijing.



















Klang

Take the light rail west from Kuala Lumpur Sentral for over 30 kilometers to reach Klang city in Selangor state. Klang city sits on both banks of the Klang River. After the large-scale development of tin mines in Selangor in the 19th century, many Chinese laborers traveled south to make a living, and Klang became an important base for these workers before they headed to the mines. Most Chinese people in Klang are of Hokkien descent, and Hokkien is the most popular Chinese dialect here.

We had breakfast at a Chinese Muslim coffee shop (hecha canshi) on the north side of the Klang River. It is run by both Chinese Muslims and Malay people, serving both halal Chinese food and Malay dishes. We ordered a classic Malaysian breakfast of coffee, butter toast, and soft-boiled eggs, and we also had Hokkien noodles (fujianmian). Hokkien noodles are a street snack invented by Hokkien-Malaysian Chinese in the 1920s. In 1927, Wang Jinlian from Quanzhou, Fujian, came to Kuala Lumpur to make a living. He started by selling noodle soup, but later adapted it to local tastes by adding flounder powder, dark soy sauce, shrimp paste, and chili sauce. He braised the noodles until the sauce became thick and dark, which became very popular and helped Hokkien noodles spread across Malaysia.



















For lunch, we went to Bukit Tinggi in the south of Klang to eat at Restoran Rahmat Tan, the most famous Chinese Muslim restaurant chain in the area. They have already opened seven locations around Klang. Bukit Tinggi was developed in 1997 and is the most successful large-scale modern town near Klang, with many Chinese residents living there. In the photo, the first table is almost finished and is occupied by Indians, the second table is occupied by Malays, and the people who just sat down at the back are Chinese. You can see how much every ethnic group here enjoys halal Chinese food.

Their menu is also very rich, focusing on various seafood dishes, and you can choose from small, medium, or large portions. We ordered soy sauce steamed barramundi (shijia yu), fragrant soft-shell crab (ganxiang ruanke xie), mixed vegetable soup, and Chinese-style fried rice, all of which suited our tastes perfectly! The saltiness is just right, and the sweet and sour flavors are perfect. This was my first time eating deep-fried soft-shell crab. It is fried with the shell on, making it crispy and chewy. I feel that eating seafood in Malaysia is a great value, and there are so many ways to prepare it. They have 19 different ways to cook fish alone: three-flavor, sweet and sour, sambal, steamed with salted vegetables and tofu, fried with salted vegetables and tofu, steamed with lemon, pan-fried with black bean sauce, steamed with soy sauce, pan-fried with soy sauce, steamed with ginger paste, Thai-style steamed, Thai-style fried, Nyonya-style steamed, steamed with soy sauce and preserved radish, pan-fried with soy sauce and preserved radish, and dry-fried with fragrant spices. They also make creamy fish fillets, salted egg fish fillets, kung pao fish fillets, black pepper fish fillets, and more. It is impossible to choose.

We truly felt that halal Chinese restaurants in Malaysia are a food paradise!



















Ipoh

Take the train north from Kuala Lumpur Sentral, and after 200 kilometers, you will arrive in Ipoh, the capital of Perak state and a famous historical and cultural city. As a city where more than half the residents are Chinese, Ipoh has several halal Chinese restaurants, including Canning Dim Sum, Asam House, Restoran 1818 Masakan Cina Muslim, and Restoran Pakcik Wong. I did not have time to try them all on this trip.

After leaving the train station, we took a taxi directly to Liu's Halal Seafood Restaurant. The owner of Liu's, Haji Liu Xiaoxiang, converted to Islam at 21 and later became the chairman of the Selangor branch of the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association. Haji Liu worked in international trade in his early years and later ran a home appliance assembly factory for 20 years. At 60, he handed the factory business to his eldest daughter and opened his first Muslim restaurant in Shah Alam, Selangor. Later, he used the Liu's brand to open 15 branches in just five years, making Liu's an important halal Chinese restaurant chain in Malaysia. Although Haji Liu received an English education from a young age and later studied law in the UK, he has always loved Chinese culture, especially Chinese food culture. Opening Liu's Halal Seafood Restaurant was a dream come true for Haji Liu and his contribution to promoting Chinese Muslim culture.

This is actually my second time eating at Liu's. When I first ate at the Penang branch in 2019, I ordered Nyonya-style flower crab, Teochew-style steamed grouper, claypot tofu, and vermicelli soup, all of which were delicious. At the Ipoh branch, I ordered braised tofu with crab meat (xie rou pa doufu), stink bean squid (chou dou you yu), bamboo fungus seafood fin soup (zhu sheng hai wei chi), and beef fried rice. I really enjoyed them all. I can say this is the best halal Chinese restaurant I have eaten at in Malaysia, and the service is the most welcoming. At Liu Ji, you can add crab meat, dried scallops, corn, bamboo fungus, and osmanthus to your shark fin soup. A small portion is only 30 ringgit, which feels like a great deal. Their tofu is also a standout with a very rich flavor.



















We stayed at the Sarang Paloh Heritage Stay & Event Hall in Ipoh, which is located inside the Yik Foong Goldsmith shop built in the 1930s in Ipoh Old Town. The hotel was converted from two shophouses. The facade of the left building is in Art Deco style, the right is Neoclassical, and the interior features traditional Malaysian Chinese decor.



















The second floor of the Yik Foong Goldsmith shophouse has very high ceilings and looks out onto the main road of Ipoh Old Town. Brewing two cups of the complimentary Ipoh white coffee makes it feel like I have returned to the Nanyang of the 20th century.



















In the morning, we ate rat noodles (laoshufen) and fried wonton noodles at the Hui Muslim fried noodle shop, Gerai Ipoh Ipoh Aje, at the old Ipoh bus station. The Hui Muslim owner, Huang Kunping, specializes in various stir-fried flat rice noodles (hefen), fried Hokkien noodles, fried rat noodles, and silky egg flat rice noodles (huadanhe), while his Malay wife, Aini, makes various Malay snacks. Mr. Huang stir-fries with great energy at the shop entrance. The noodles have a strong wok-char flavor (wok hei) and are very popular with Chinese, Malay, and Indian customers.

Rat noodles are a traditional Hakka noodle dish originating from Meizhou, Guangdong. They are made by steaming rice batter into a block and pressing it through a sieve with holes. They get their name because the two ends are pointed, looking like a mouse.













Ipoh is known as the City of Tin. In 1880, the Kinta Valley, where Ipoh is located, attracted many Chinese immigrants to mine its rich tin deposits, and Ipoh quickly developed into a mining town. In 1892, a major fire in Ipoh destroyed more than half of the original wooden shophouses. Afterward, a local Datuk led the reconstruction into the typical shophouse streets of the Straits region, which is now Ipoh Old Town. In 1907, Chinese community leader Yao Desheng funded the construction of a new 1-kilometer-long street across the river from the Old Town, consisting of 216 shophouses, which is now Ipoh New Town. Today, Ipoh has a large area of old streets with covered walkways (qilou) made up of the historic New Town and Old Town districts. Many of these buildings are decades or even centuries old and are well worth a visit.

If you want to learn about the lives of Chinese people in old Ipoh, I recommend visiting the 22 Hale Street Heritage Gallery in the Old Town. It recreates many scenes of daily life for Chinese people in Ipoh during the 20th century. The most interesting part for me was the recreation of a guest room from the 1950s Ipoh Asia Hotel. It really looks just like something out of a movie.



















The streetscape of Ipoh's old town has not been developed for tourism; it is just an old street where people live their daily lives.



















Kuala Kangsar

Take the train north from Ipoh, and you will reach Kuala Kangsar district in a 30-minute ride. Kuala Kangsar has been the royal city of the Sultan of Perak since the 18th century. The town center still keeps an old street with covered walkways (qilou), where you can find an old-school Hainanese coffee shop called Yut Loy Coffee Shop. Like many Hainanese coffee shops in Malaysia's old towns, the Hainanese owner here hires Malay staff, allowing the three major ethnic groups—Chinese, Malay, and Indian—to all dine in the shop.

Since Yut Loy Coffee Shop only serves main meals after one in the afternoon, we spent our morning there having coffee with toast, topped with honey and butter. I used to read novels about Nanyang where old men would sit in these Hainanese coffee shops all morning with a cup of coffee, a piece of toast, and a newspaper. This time, we got to experience it ourselves. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This short second part continues the Malaysia halal Chinese food record with the remaining images and notes from the trip. It preserves the original sequence and visual food references rather than expanding beyond the source. view all

Reposted from the web

Summary: This Singapore article follows the author through halal Chinese food stops after arriving in the city. It preserves the original restaurant names, dishes, prices, and food observations in clear English.

After landing at Singapore Changi Airport, I took the subway directly to Kembangan station to eat prawn noodles at the famous Chinese Muslim restaurant Deanna's Kitchen, which is the most famous halal prawn noodle spot in Singapore.

The restaurant owner, Denise Chew (also known as Deanna), converted to Islam in 2009 when she married her husband, Asri Ramili, and prawn noodles were her favorite food before she converted. Because traditional Chinese prawn noodles are made with pork bone broth, pork meat, and lard, it took her six years to develop a halal version. Deanna makes the broth by simmering chicken bones, prawn shells, dried shrimp, and anchovies for three hours, and the resulting noodles are so popular that she started selling them online.

Deanna and her husband Asri both worked in banking, but as the prawn noodle business grew, Asri quit his job in 2017 to open a noodle stall. The stall soon had long lines and sold out early every day. That is how the physical Deanna's Kitchen shops opened, and now there is one in Jurong East and one in Kembangan.

They serve regular prawn noodles and a hearty seafood platter. We ordered the top-tier version, which includes one Boston lobster, five tiger prawns, five large prawns, one crayfish, and 20 clams. You can choose different sides and noodles like yellow noodles, laksa noodles, rice vermicelli, or flat rice noodles (kway teow). We chose laksa noodles.



















We visited Jason Niang Dou Fu in Kampong Glam to taste traditional Hakka stuffed vegetables. In the Hakka dialect, 'niang' means to fill with stuffing. Legend has it that after the Hakka people migrated south from the Central Plains, they wanted to eat dumplings but had no wheat, so they used tofu instead of flour and invented stuffed tofu (niang dou fu). Besides stuffed tofu, the Hakka are good at using local ingredients. Many foods can be stuffed, such as chili peppers, eggplants, bitter melons, and taro. Tofu, eggplant, and bitter melon are known as the 'three stuffed treasures' (jian niang san bao).

Jason Niang Dou Fu is a bit like a spicy hot pot (malatang) shop in China, where you can pick your own stuffed vegetables and greens from the counter. You can also choose staples like flat rice noodles (kway teow), rice vermicelli, or egg noodles (mian zai). The Teochew taro rice (Yam Rice) and Teochew dry egg noodles (Mee Pok) are both worth a try.



















The Dim Sum Place is a very famous halal Hong Kong-style tea restaurant in Singapore, specializing in a wide variety of dim sum and Cantonese dishes. They opened on North Bridge Road in Kampong Glam in 2016 and now have two more branches, making them very popular with Muslims.

We ordered steamed chicken feet in sauce, shrimp and chicken steamed dumplings (shaomai), roasted chicken char siu rice noodle rolls (cheong fun), fish fillet porridge, and pu'er tea. Since we were there for afternoon tea and not a full meal, there was still a lot we wanted to try but didn't order. We liked the fish fillet porridge the best, and the chicken feet and shaomai were okay, but the rice noodle rolls were just average; they felt too soft and lacked texture.



















If you visit the National Museum of Singapore and Fort Canning Park, it is well worth stopping by the nearby MacKenzie Rex Restaurant to try their authentic halal Hainanese chicken rice. MacKenzie Rex Restaurant opened in 1966. It is the first and most famous halal Hainanese chicken rice restaurant in Singapore. The owner is a Hainanese Chinese person who speaks great Mandarin and is very happy to introduce the dishes to guests. Besides Hainanese chicken rice, they are also good at making various home-style Chinese dishes, known in Singapore as zi char (home-style stir-fry).

We ordered the classic chicken rice and five-spice meat rolls (ngor hiang), along with stir-fried mixed vegetables and fish soup. Everything was delicious, and it was arguably the best meal of our Singapore trip. The best part of their chicken rice is not the chicken itself, but the rice steamed with chicken fat. You can eat it plain and never want to stop. The halal version of the five-spice meat roll is made by adding five-spice powder to chicken filling, wrapping it in bean curd skin, and deep-frying it. It is very fragrant when freshly fried.



















If you take a half-day trip to Pulau Ubin in Singapore, it is perfect to have a meal at the halal tea restaurant Tang Tea House next to the Changi Point Ferry Terminal. They serve authentic halal Chinese stir-fry (tze-char) and dim sum with a huge variety of choices.

We ordered stir-fried amaranth with anchovies, chicken chop rice, beef porridge, and lemongrass water. We also ordered a classic Malaysian and Singaporean Chinese dish called Buddha's bowl (fo bo piao xiang), which is a taro ring served with cashew chicken and various vegetables. We actually picked it randomly from the menu, but it was surprisingly delicious and we finished it all very quickly.

Tang Tea House opened in 2005. It started because many of the owner's Muslim friends told him they wanted to eat Chinese food but rarely found halal Chinese restaurants. He saw the opportunity and opened Tang Tea House, which has now grown to five locations and is doing very well.



















If you travel from Singapore to Johor Bahru, you can grab a quick bite at the TuanTuan. PuanPuan stall at the Woodlands MRT station while transferring. The name means 'ladies and gentlemen' in Malay. There are three stalls inside. The first sells Malay coconut milk rice (nasi lemak), the second sells stir-fried rice vermicelli and stir-fried flat rice noodles (char kway teow) where you can add fish cakes, dried tofu, or five-spice meat rolls, and the third stall sells chicken rice. However, it was quite late when we returned from Johor Bahru and many items were sold out, so we just ordered the chicken rice and stir-fried rice vermicelli. view all