Malaysians, their love affair with food.

Food in Malaysia is incredible, not only is it good and more varietes then any food court or Heritage Festival , but you can literally get it anywhere, everywhere and 24/7!  I think this is why it is so much a part of the culture here or perhaps why there are food stalls open everywhere and all the time.

When I first came to Malaysia in 2004, I was astounded by the fact that every Malaysian, and I am not exaggerating at all, is more interested in food than anything else in their lives. They eat nonstop, there's breakfast, morning and afternoon tea time, prelunch snack, lunch, post and pre-meeting snacks, snacks in the meeting, dinner, supper, evening tea, evening snack, bedtime snack and not to mention the little tidbits they secret away in their desks! I'm not kidding, really, I haven't seen so many food obsessed people since I saw the Rosy, Oprah and Roseanne Thanksgiving Special.

There are Pantries in every office and they are the most used areas of any office, the flooring is always worn to the point of needing redoing.  In these pantries you will find everything from a few biscuits (cookies), crackers (yep the kind Polly likes), every condiment known to man, 3-in-1 coffee, which is the most vile invention since "Vegimite", which by the way is usually found in the back dark corner of every pantry here, the Aussies have made an impact here, some good like Victoria Bitter and some bad, see vegimite. 

Not only do Malaysians eat as often as possible, but they think about it all the time, every waking minute there are thoughts of food running round their heads, hell, its like a fourteen old

boy thinking about "Miss December" only slightly less disturbing when they satisfy their thoughts at their desk and I do mean the boy is less disturbing.  While they are working they are thinking about what they will have for lunch and they all feel the need to tell you in great detail about it, what they will have, how it will be prepared and how good it will be, then after lunch, on the walk back to the office, they will be thinking about what they want for dinner, then supper. All the while complaining how their lunch tasted like crap, just like the day before and the day before that, but they do go back!

On the first morning in the office, the first question was "Have you had your breakfast?" which I replied, "No I don't eat breakfast, but I did have coffee".  I was trying to be polite, normally I would have just said "Nope" and walked away but I thought the inquisitor was just being polite, so this started a 10 minute conversation about why you simply must have breakfast and ended in an offer of something pulled from an unseen drawer in the inquisitors desk. Oh and that happens with almost everyone in the office on every morning? 

While the Malaysian obsession with food should make them all look like people on the American "Fast food Diet", they aren't, for the most part. I don't have any data to back this up, but my guess is that they all have the metabolism of a nervous gopher on meth and seeing them driving on the road does prove this point nicely.

Sadly, since I have been here the number of people who I would suggest need to skip a few meals has grown dramatically, even though fast food (American Style) is still not that popular and compared to the local food, much more expensive. Maybe it's just that I am now noticing it and there were always a lot of "Chubby" people about or it is something new, but in either case, there are a lot of chubby people.

One thing here that is funny is that everyone wants you to try what they like, which is great, it's how I discovered the few dishes I truly enjoy here, but they absolutely refuse to try anything I like. I was eating chocolate chip cookies, nothing strange there right, but I offered one to a colleague and she said she didn't like chocolate cookies. OK, no worries more for me, but the same colleague later in the day was eating "Malaysian" chocolate chip cookies (they are the same, just a copy of the chips-ahoy brand). Weird.

Speaking about "Western" foods, you can get pretty much everything here, if you can get it in Australia or the UK then there's a good chance its available here.

There are a few exceptions (Mostly American or Canadian products).
One of the things I didn't usually eat in Canada but now that I can't get it, I want it! Cheese Whiz. I have looked everywhere and I can't find it and it has become an obsession!
Another thing I don't think I ate more than one in a few years are Twinkies you can't get them here either (No Hostess Products as far as I know, HoHo's, Suzy Q's or those Fruit Pies...damn now I want some)
I find I'll get a craving for something and then I'll try and find it, MacNCheese, licorice, sweet tarts, things like that, but strangely enough not things I would usually have in Canada and that I have found here.
Poutine: yep try explaining that to someone who's never seen it before.
Sauerkraut: while there are many sour cabbages available (Kim chi, Chinese Sour Cabbage<?>) none are quite the same as Sauerkraut.
Sausage: ok, I don't eat pork, but damn can't anyone make a decent beef sausage?

When I first came to Malaysia I was very careful with what I ate and where I ate, but now I eat almost everywhere as long as it looks clean, OK "Clean" is very relative, in Canada you wouldn't even consider eating somewhere close to the garbage bins, but here its considered normal.