Gluten free hollidays in Malaysia

[AdrienJ]

Hi,

 

I'm just coming back from Malaysia. I found it rather easy to eat gluten free, but I'll try to give a detailed account of which dishes can be eaten safely. 

Malaysian cuisine can be roughly divided in three parts : the main Malay cuisine (fried rice, noodles, curries, ...), the Malay-Chinese Cuisine (lot of meat and tofu, and unfortunately lot of soya sauce) and indian cuisine (mostly from the south : Dosa, idili, byriani,...). In general gluten is pretty obvious (bread) but for the sauces : soya sauce, oyster sauce or other industrial sauces containing a bit of wheat.

 

Here is a list of dishes with a short description. The ones likely to contain gluten are underlined. The ones containing gluten for sure are in bold characters.

But in every case you should check by yourself, choose with care and especially ask the cook whether what you order is made with soya sauce (Kichap) which is the biggest hazard.

 

Malay food

You will find these dishes pretty much everywhere, with slightly different names and styles. Most of Malay food is gluten free. If had an advice, i would say that you should just decide which "meat" you want (chicken, beef, squid, prawn, veg) and discuss with the cook how you want it prepared. Otherwise you can always fall back on a fried rice as long as you check that there is no soya sauce.

• Ayam goreng - a generic term for deep fried chicken. Most of the time it's fine, sometimes (especially in Chinese run places) it's made with batter.

• Ayam buah keluak : excellent rice+chicken dish with fermented soya in indonesian nuts.

• Cendol : a desert made of gluten free green noodles, ice, coconut milk, red peans and palm sugar syrup

• Curry : generally speaking all the curries I’ve seen are gluten free.

• Fried squids : I’ve encountered several times a dish (which name I can’t recall) made of squids fried with turmeric. Delicious and gluten free.

• Laksa, Nyonya laksa, assam laksa-  thick flat rice noodle rolls in a full-bodied, rich and slightly sweet white gravy of minced fish, coconut milk and shredded aromatic herbs. It's often served with a fish cake which should be gluten free (ask without if you want to be 100% sure). Check that they serve it with rice noodles and not yellow noodles.

• Lemang - a traditional food made of glutinous rice, coconut milk and salt

• Mee - Anything starting with "mee" means that it's made with yellow (wheat) noodles. You may ask if they can replace it with rice noodles or vermicelli

• Nasi goreng - a generic term for fried rice - It’s almost always fine. Just tell to the cook to make it without soya sauce.

• Nasi Kandar : rice and curries

• Nasi Lemak : rice dish

• Otak-otak : fish cake with rice flour.

• Rendang : beef curry

• Roti (canai)- bread/bread dish

• Satay- marinated beef and chicken pieces + peanut gravy for dipping.

• Tom Yam : beef, chicken, squid or something else prepared in a very spicy soup.

 

Chineese food

Unfortunately, soya sauce is almost everywhere :-(

What you should do is to go to Chinese restaurant where the food is laid on a buffet. Then ask what is made without it.

• Bak Kut Teh (Chinese : 肉骨茶) : Pork ribs soup. Contains Soya Sauce

• Bakkwa (Chinese : 肉干) - literally "dried meat".

• Char kway teow (Chinese: 炒粿條，炒河粉). Stir fried rice noodlOpen Original Shared Link. Soya sauce

• Chicken rice (Chinese: 雞飯) - usually you can find steamed or roasted chicken which is fined. Sometimes the chicken is dipped in soya sauce

• Curry Mee (Chinese: 咖喱面). thin yellow noodles in a spicy curry

• Dim Sum : Kind of dumplings. Contains wheat.

• Hokkien Mee (Chinese: 福建炒麵). A dish of thick yellow noodles braised and fried

• Lor mee (Chinese: 滷麵). A bowl of thick yellow noodles

• Popiah (Chinese : 薄饼) - spring rolls + soy sauce

• Rice balls : you can often find rice balls (usually served with chicken)

• Wonton Mee (Chinese : 雲吞麵) - thin egg noodles with wonton dumplings (

• Yong tau foo (Chinese : 酿豆腐) - tofu products and vegetables + check for soya sauce

• Zongzi (Chinese: 粽子) - a traditional dish : glutinous rice - soy sauce

 

Indian food

I’ll do a dedicated post later.

 

Vocabulary

• Ayam = chicken

• Bee Hoon = rice noodles

• Goreng = fried

• Ikan = fish

• Kichap = soya sauce

• Mee = yellow (wheat) noodles

• Nasi = Rice

• Roti = bread

 

I hope this list will help you to enjoy your trip to Malaysia

Adrien

[cyclinglady]

On 7/21/2016 at 1:03 PM, AdrienJ said:

Hi,

 

I'm just coming back from Malaysia. I found it rather easy to eat gluten free, but I'll try to give a detailed account of which dishes can be eaten safely. 

Malaysian cuisine can be roughly divided in three parts : the main Malay cuisine (fried rice, noodles, curries, ...), the Malay-Chinese Cuisine (lot of meat and tofu, and unfortunately lot of soya sauce) and indian cuisine (mostly from the south : Dosa, idili, byriani,...). In general gluten is pretty obvious (bread) but for the sauces : soya sauce, oyster sauce or other industrial sauces containing a bit of wheat.

 

Here is a list of dishes with a short description. The ones likely to contain gluten are underlined. The ones containing gluten for sure are in bold characters.

But in every case you should check by yourself, choose with care and especially ask the cook whether what you order is made with soya sauce (Kichap) which is the biggest hazard.

 

Malay food

You will find these dishes pretty much everywhere, with slightly different names and styles. Most of Malay food is gluten free. If had an advice, i would say that you should just decide which "meat" you want (chicken, beef, squid, prawn, veg) and discuss with the cook how you want it prepared. Otherwise you can always fall back on a fried rice as long as you check that there is no soya sauce.

• Ayam goreng - a generic term for deep fried chicken. Most of the time it's fine, sometimes (especially in Chinese run places) it's made with batter.

• Ayam buah keluak : excellent rice+chicken dish with fermented soya in indonesian nuts.

• Cendol : a desert made of gluten free green noodles, ice, coconut milk, red peans and palm sugar syrup

• Curry : generally speaking all the curries I’ve seen are gluten free.

• Fried squids : I’ve encountered several times a dish (which name I can’t recall) made of squids fried with turmeric. Delicious and gluten free.

• Laksa, Nyonya laksa, assam laksa-  thick flat rice noodle rolls in a full-bodied, rich and slightly sweet white gravy of minced fish, coconut milk and shredded aromatic herbs. It's often served with a fish cake which should be gluten free (ask without if you want to be 100% sure). Check that they serve it with rice noodles and not yellow noodles.

• Lemang - a traditional food made of glutinous rice, coconut milk and salt

• Mee - Anything starting with "mee" means that it's made with yellow (wheat) noodles. You may ask if they can replace it with rice noodles or vermicelli

• Nasi goreng - a generic term for fried rice - It’s almost always fine. Just tell to the cook to make it without soya sauce.

• Nasi Kandar : rice and curries

• Nasi Lemak : rice dish

• Otak-otak : fish cake with rice flour.

• Rendang : beef curry

• Roti (canai)- bread/bread dish

• Satay- marinated beef and chicken pieces + peanut gravy for dipping.

• Tom Yam : beef, chicken, squid or something else prepared in a very spicy soup.

 

Chineese food

Unfortunately, soya sauce is almost everywhere :-(

What you should do is to go to Chinese restaurant where the food is laid on a buffet. Then ask what is made without it.

• Bak Kut Teh (Chinese : 肉骨茶) : Pork ribs soup. Contains Soya Sauce

• Bakkwa (Chinese : 肉干) - literally "dried meat".

• Char kway teow (Chinese: 炒粿條，炒河粉). Stir fried rice noodlOpen Original Shared Link. Soya sauce

• Chicken rice (Chinese: 雞飯) - usually you can find steamed or roasted chicken which is fined. Sometimes the chicken is dipped in soya sauce

• Curry Mee (Chinese: 咖喱面). thin yellow noodles in a spicy curry

• Dim Sum : Kind of dumplings. Contains wheat.

• Hokkien Mee (Chinese: 福建炒麵). A dish of thick yellow noodles braised and fried

• Lor mee (Chinese: 滷麵). A bowl of thick yellow noodles

• Popiah (Chinese : 薄饼) - spring rolls + soy sauce

• Rice balls : you can often find rice balls (usually served with chicken)

• Wonton Mee (Chinese : 雲吞麵) - thin egg noodles with wonton dumplings (

• Yong tau foo (Chinese : 酿豆腐) - tofu products and vegetables + check for soya sauce

• Zongzi (Chinese: 粽子) - a traditional dish : glutinous rice - soy sauce

 

Indian food

I’ll do a dedicated post later.

 

Vocabulary

• Ayam = chicken

• Bee Hoon = rice noodles

• Goreng = fried

• Ikan = fish

• Kichap = soya sauce

• Mee = yellow (wheat) noodles

• Nasi = Rice

• Roti = bread

 

I hope this list will help you to enjoy your trip to Malaysia

Adrien

Adrien,

Do you have celiac disease?  I think it would have a greater impact (at least for me) if I knew you were diagnosed with it.   On all food/restaurant reviews, I tend to side with those who have celiac disease than those that are just gluten free.  

Otherwise, thanks!  

[AdrienJ]

Hi,

No, I do not have celiac  disease. I have an ankylosing spondylitis which is an auto-immune disease provoking an inflammation of the joints.

Under the advice and supervision of my doctor and the professor at the hospital I follow a gluten free & casein free diet, which is extremely successful in preventing inflammatory events. And I've been doing so, strictly, for more than 6 years.

So I'm not Celiac, but I can tell you that I react strongly every time I take gluten even in small amounts. Even soya sauce, which according to this website has an almost zero dose of gluten, is a lot too much for me. Nevertheless I allow myself to eat food which has been processed in a factory which processes gluten.

To conclude, I would say that when you are travelling, especially in a country where celiac disease is scarcely known, you should be twice as careful as when you're going out at home. In the end you can never guarantee that the cook has cleaned his pan after using soya sauce and so on... You can only bet

[cyclinglady]

Thanks for sharing with me.  I really appreciate it.  Honestly, after a glutening last summer (still do not know what glutened me), I did not eat out for a year!  The risk was too great as my healing time took 3 months (for symptoms to subside) and six months to regain lost weight.  Our recent vacation to Europe was worth the risk  as we traveled with our entire extended family, but we were extra cautious and ate only at celiac-approved places.  Otherwise, we "dined" at markets or ate the food we brought from home.  Thankfully, we did not get glutened (at least we don't think so!)

 

[Jmg]

Thanks for posting this Adrien, it's a great list and I and others will appreciate the effort and the thought behind it. I loved my time in Malaysia and I'm glad I sampled all the food I could whilst I was still on an unrestricted diet. The good thing is that, like you say, some of the nice Malay foods are still ok. As a backpacker I survived on a lot of nasi goreng and laksa, nice to think if I return there I could still do the same

Terima kasih!

[Caspi-Ann]

AdrienJ, thank you so much! I dream of traveling more one day. I have spondylitis too. I'm so glad that a gluten free and casein free diet is helping you feel your best!