Indian food has been a staple of the Malaysian food repertoire for a very long time. As the Malay archipelago is famed for its spices, Indian food fits right into the culture. Like the Malays, Indians use many of the same spices; cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon et cetera but it’s the combination of spices that they use that make their food so distinct and flavourful. It’s so popular that we adopted many of their dishes as something that is distinctively Malaysian, for example, nasi briyani and kurma.

Indian Muslims introduced mamak stalls (or simply, mamak) to Malaysians as a localized version of Indian fare to the public. The locals love it and it’s a go-to place for many people to hang out, enjoy cheap food, and the company of their friends over a cup of drink. What’s also very popular are Southern Indian style banana leaf rice restaurants. As the name implies, rice, vegetables, curries and meat are served on a banana leaf and patrons are traditionally supposed to eat with their hands. People who are not comfortable with that concept may use forks and spoons but what’s the fun, right?

I met my friend at Nirwana Maju in Bangsar, grabbed a seat, and ordered our meat and seafood to go with the fragrant jasmine rice. After 10 minutes, the waiter laid fresh banana leaves on the table and put some rice in the middle. Our meal automatically came with a side of deep fried bitter gourd, spiced long beans, and cucumber marinated in milk. Then they served us some fried fish, chicken, and spicy squid rings. We also had some papadam, which are Indian crisps made from lentils or chickpeas. Boy were they delicious! They also have other curries, quite a number of fried items, and vegetables which we could order from. It’s best not to go overboard when ordering because banana leaf rice can be expensive. Our meal costs us at least RM15-20 per person, if I remembered correctly.

After our meal, we head to Tutti Frutti down the street for a cup of frozen yogurt. It’s sold by weight, about RM5 per 100g. It tastes just like the fro-yo joints in North America and it’s way overpriced. My blueberry frozen yogurt with sweetened deep sea coconut was pretty good though. The only problem is, my cup was too big and I filled it up real good. It must have been at least 400g in there. =) Ah well, can’t put a price on dessert sometimes.